ALLENTOWN, Pa. — It was Sept. 12, 2014, opening night for PPL Center, a gleaming state-of-the-art, $177 million arena in Allentown's Center Square that was viewed as perhaps the main piece in a hoped revitalization of the city's downtown.
The arena had secured Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group The Eagles as its first show, and had sold out the venue, bringing 10,000 people for an event that had the city buzzing.
On Thursday, Sept. 12, PPL Center turns 10, and since that opening show by The Eagles, the arena has offered more than 1,365 events and brought more than 4.58 million visitors to downtown Allentown for events.PPL Center General Manager Gunnar Fox
But when The Eagles took the stage, the first thing singer/drummer Don Henley told the audience was, "We’ll get started as soon as those lights get turned off."
"We had some heat lamps in the suites to keep peoples’ food warm that weren’t on during the lighting tests during the day, and from the floor, it was very noticeable," PPL Center General Manager Gunnar Fox recently recalled.
“Everything was a mass scramble to get the building ready for the first event. I look at The Eagles as really being trial by fire because they’re a huge, iconic act that you want everything to be perfect — and it almost was," Fox said with a laugh.
“It was our first event, a tremendously successful first event. But honestly, that's the biggest thing I remember, other than what a great night it was.”
On Thursday, Sept. 12, PPL Center turns 10, and since that opening show by The Eagles, the arena has offered more than 1,365 events and brought more than 4.58 million visitors to downtown Allentown for events.
And the arena's role in revitalization of downtown Allentown is undeniable.
It's flanked by the Renaissance Hotel and by a Lehigh Valley Health Network sports medicine and fitness center tower.
Restaurants, stores, thousands of apartments, and the Da Vinci Science Center have popped up nearby, and a trendy new hotel — and a new music venue — are going up down the street.
“I think by all accounts it’s been extremely successful," Fox said of PPL Center's first decade.
“The goal was to be the catalyst for redevelopment. And if you look at this downtown now, compared to 10 years ago when we opened, it has completely changed.
"And the PPL Center was a big, big part of that.”
A long time coming
While it's been open a decade, PPL Center was in the making much longer.
Developers Jim and Rob Brooks had bought the Philadelphia Phantoms minor league hockey team with the intention of moving it to the Lehigh Valley.
The idea was to lure people downtown after dark, something Allentown’s Hamilton Street business district had struggled to do for more than two decades.
What started as a proposed $80 million hockey arena to anchor a Lehigh riverfront revival morphed into the central attraction of a downtown development zone.
"It’s been wildly successful in every way."PPL Center General Manager Gunnar Fox
The plans got a huge boost in 2012 when then-state Sen. Pat Browne created Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone, a one-of-a-kind tax district exclusively for parts of Center City.
Developers who renovated buildings or built new ones could pay off their debts using state taxes and local earned income taxes generated inside the 127-acre zone.
Over more than a decade, the NIZ has remade downtown Allentown. Developers, largely led by the firm City Center, invested more than a $1 billion into the zone.
PPL Center was the largest single project.
“When you look at Allentown in the past, some of the trials and tribulations it went through, and then in 2014, with the passing of the NIZ legislation, to be honest, is really what spurred things," Fox said.
"The vision was always that this building, and the Phantoms, were gonna be the catalyst for revitalization. And it led to over a billion dollars of redevelopment.
"It’s been wildly successful in every way."
The facility was expected to hold events up to 140 days a year.
A bird's-eye view
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk worked for Allentown Economic Development Corporation from 2008-13, and he said he remembers meeting with the Brooks Brothers and the sports group that helped make PPL Center a reality.
AEDC owned the parking lot where the former Corporate Plaza building had collapsed into a sinkhole and had to be imploded in 1994 — the site on which PPL Center is built.
"If they hadn’t determined that you could do that back in 2008, I don’t think we would have that arena right now."Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
Tuerk said one of his most vivid memories from those early days was "a board member saying that you couldn't do anything with that lot — that we were just kind of stuck with a lot as it was it."
But a geological study determined you could build with micropiles — a deep-foundation technique.
“And if they hadn’t determined that you could do that back in 2008, I don’t think we would have that arena right now,” Tuerk said.
Once that was determined, the mayor said, the project "became such a central piece to the revitalization of downtown Allentown."
“I think watching the progress of the construction of the arena was really cool," the mayor said. "We got to watch the building of the arena.
"It was amazing to be there at the inception and the creation and to continue to be here through the evolution.
Now, Tuerk said, "I just feel like I’m the luckiest guy in the world to be the mayor of this amazing city at this moment in time.”
Getting ready to open
Fox, who grew up in South Philadelphia and interned with the Phantoms there, was working at Rio Rancher Event Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, when he heard about the pending move to Allentown.
Fox said he got to the Lehigh Valley in March 2014 “and hit the ground running.”
“At first, it was a lot to figure out — our ticketing system, how many seats, so we could get some literature out to the industry about what this place is going to be," he said.
Fox said early work "was really just getting your arms wrapped around what the place is, what do date availabilities look like with the team and the arena and getting it out there to the industry."
He said it helped that PPL Center quickly established "great partnerships," including Global Spectrum, now Oak View Group, to manage the arena.
"They have great relationships within the industry — with Live Nation, Feld Entertainment, Cirque du Soleil, The Globetrotters, WWE, some of the events that have come here on a consistent basis," he said.
"They really helped us, too, to tell the story to the industry of what this place could do.”
It was Live Nation Philadelphia President Geoff Gordon who helped secure The Eagles for the first show, Fox said.
"And we kind of got together and said, ‘Yeah, that’s our big one.’”PPL Center General Manager Gunnar Fox
“We were really more focused on just trying to provide a diverse lineup. And when we started the conversations with Live Nation, we just started talk about, ‘What do you think for our [opening night]?'
"And they said, ‘Hey, let’s throw this date on hold for The Eagles.' And we kind of got together and said, ‘Yeah, that’s our big one.’”
The Phantoms' role
Fox said the Lehigh Valley Phantoms gave PPL Center the ability to do all that.
“We can’t undervalue what the Phantoms do — what the Phantoms bring to this community, the continuity in the event calendar that consistently draws downtown," he said.
“They are developing players that you’re going to see in the NHL one day — really giving the community a sense of civic pride and having high-level professional sports."
Fox said after several concerts, PPL started the first Phantoms season with The Battle on Hamilton, with the Philadelphia Flyers coming to play the Phantoms in the first-ever hockey game here.
"It’s about that civic pride of providing something for the community they may not have had in the past. Really it’s about the fans and trying to make it the best possible experience for them.”PPL Center General Manager Gunnar Fox
"Completely sold out, outstanding," Fox said. "The excitement of hockey is in the Lehigh Valley, finally.
“Jim and Rob Brooks put so much into getting to that point, just being able to see the result of it during that first year was outstanding.
“I still remember the first goal that was scored during the regular season, the first playoff game, some of the exciting playoff games we’ve had here. And just some of the exciting moments.
"And really, it’s about that civic pride of providing something for the community they may not have had in the past. Really it’s about the fans and trying to make it the best possible experience for them.”
Continuing to grow
With the Phantoms as a basis, Fox said, PPL Center has the freedom to "think of this place as doing something different. We want to provide as diverse a lineup of entertainment as we can."
"A building this size, we’re not in the business of turning away events," he said. “So it’s not a matter of ‘Oh, I want this act to come.’ It’s, ‘Who’s touring, and how can we get in the conversation at least on every possible thing that we can get.’"
And PPL Center has done that, he said.
"We did a lot of shows, we learned a lot … That’s what I really look at — this is really something for the community. We want to do something for everyone."
Fox said special memories include Penn State playing Michigan in the second round of the NCAA ice hockey playoffs in 2023.
"It was electric in this place," he said. He said Discover Lehigh Valley did a study that showed that game generated over $4.37 million spending in the area.
"Again, that’s also part of what we’re trying to do, is grow the community and provide something for the community — putting heads in beds, putting butts in seats at restaurants, at a clothing store. Really trying to help the business community.”
Also, events such as the AHL All-Star Classic, the NCAA regionals, the USA and Canadian women's national hockey teams and the ESPN high school basketball showcase all have been nationally televised.
That gets Allentown and the Lehigh Valley recognition across the world, Fox said.
"I think about it all the time: There’s a child being born at an LVHN hospital that 18 years from now is going to graduate at PPL Center."PPL Center General Manager Gunnar Fox
But it's also smaller events that touch closer to home that have helped PPL Center find success.
"We do graduations, which is a huge thing that we do," Fox said. "I think about it all the time: There’s a child being born at an LVHN hospital that 18 years from now is going to graduate at PPL Center. And that is something that ties a community together.
“Just (last month), we had 2,000 Allentown School District teachers, faculty, administrators here doing their convocation, their big pump-up before the school year.
“Then the next day, we’re doing canine training for the police department — some things that people don’t even realize are happening here are."
Not going to slow down
Today, Tuerk said, PPL Center “seems like it’s just part of the city."
"The Allentown that I know and love, it’s just natural that we have an amazing, multi-purpose arena as part of our downtown," he said. "It’s consistent with the modern Allentown.
“So it’s one of those crazy things where you take it for granted that it’s even there. And still, you’re at a Janet Jackson concert, or you’re at a Phantoms playoff game. And it’s like, ‘Oh, wait a second, this is amazing.’
“It’s an amazing asset to our city.”
"On Friday afternoon, it’s totally incredible: Vibrant life and arts inside of alleys. Parents and kids coming past the DaVinci Center. I know that we didn’t envision the development to occur the way that it went."Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
He said to watch from his office in City Hall "on Friday afternoon, it’s totally incredible: Vibrant life and arts inside of alleys. Parents and kids coming past the Da Vinci Center.
"I know that we didn’t envision the development to occur the way that it went. I don’t think we could have imagined a state-of-the-art science center or this 1,500-capacity venue [The Archer] that is going to host smaller but really creative acts.”
And it's largely because of PPL Center, Tuerk said.
Fox said he feels PPL Center has “gotten better over time."
"I think as we learned the nuances of this building, the nuances of the Lehigh Valley, we’ve been doing more and more each year, which is a good thing," he said.
"We’ve been getting better and better trying to, again, keep that fan experience in mind. Trying to keep the diverse lineup of events, providing something for everyone, doing as much as we can to bring as many people downtown as possible.
“I don’t think we’re going to slow down. I think we’re still fairly young, so I think things are just going to continue to get better."
