ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown could soon have a new school, with a facility for students the first point of order for the developer behind a project to overhaul the sprawling former State Hospital site.
City Center on Tuesday earned unanimous support from Allentown’s planning commission for its plans to build a school for students between kindergarten to the eighth grade.
Crews will likely start work this summer to prepare the site, located along a new access road off Hanover Avenue, City Center executive Robert DiLorenzo told LehighValleyNews.com.
An athletic field is planned between the school and Hanover Avenue.
The Allentown School District is expected to take over the property early next year, he said.
Construction would take about 18 months, with the new school to open in time for the start of the 2027-28 academic year, DiLorenzo said.
But that timeline could’ve been thrown off after city engineers requested a “huge” change to the layout of the 195-acre property “at the 11th hour,” DiLorenzo said.
City Center since last summer has proposed building the development's main access road — called Northridge Avenue — to align with Piedmont Street where it meets Hanover Avenue.
The project to build a new school would be set back at least one academic year if developers had to change the property’s layout.City Center executive Robert DiLorenzo
Engineers recently signaled for the first time they'd prefer Northridge Avenue to align with Plymouth Avenue, a block west of Piedmont, DiLorenzo said.
He told the planning commission the project to build a new school would be set back at least one school year if developers had to change the property’s layout.
“This is a huge deal to the project,” he said, urging members to stick with the plan he’s been presenting for more than a year.
In December the Allentown City Planning Commission granted City Center preliminary approval to build a three-story, 200,000-square-foot school.
The developer on Tuesday provided new details about crosswalks and traffic patterns for the school, including a traffic-circle-like feature south of the school that will connect future roads in the development to the facility.
City Center plans to also build more than 600 townhomes, a “micro-hospital,” offices and other facilities on the property that housed the Allentown State Hospital for almost a century.
The psychiatric hospital opened in 1912 and remained in operation until December 2010. Its numerous buildings were torn down in 2020.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the new school at Northridge would be a two-story building. Plans call for a three-story school.
