- A new Tru by Hilton hotel is on its way for a South Bethlehem lot
- It would contain nearly 100 rooms
- It'll be east of Wind Creek Bethlehem casino and just west of another hotel
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem City Planning Commission on Thursday unanimously approved land development plans for a 98-room Tru by Hilton hotel along East Fourth Street on the city’s South Side.
Adam Patel of Steel9 LLC, an Allentown company, proposed the project.
It calls for a four-story hotel taking up 11,021 square feet at 1610 Spillman Drive. It’d be on a 1.7-acre lot.
Developers are expecting to bring 20 jobs to the city with the project. They're shooting to start construction in Spring 2024 and be open within a year.
Candlewood Suites sits just to the east of the property, and Wind Creek Bethlehem Casino and its recently revamped hotel and other facilities would be to its west.
The development also would include 93 off-street parking spaces, according to city documents. Fourteen of those would be set aside for compact vehicles, and four ADA spaces and two EV spaces will be featured on site.
Development prerequisites
Darlene Heller, city planning and zoning director, had a number of tasks for the developer to complete, including paying tap and recreation fees, consulting the city forester on trimming trees on site, as well as completing a post-development traffic study.
“Sometimes we have required in some areas along [Route] 412, and in other areas of the city, that we’ll wait until six months or so after the development’s been occupied, and then the traffic coordinator would ask for a follow-up traffic study to make sure that the impacts aren’t greater than what [was] actually anticipated."Bethlehem Planning and Zoning Director Darlene Heller
“Sometimes we have required in some areas along [Route] 412, and in other areas of the city, that we’ll wait until six months or so after the development’s been occupied, and then the traffic coordinator would ask for a follow-up traffic study to make sure that the impacts aren’t greater than what [was] actually anticipated,” Heller said.
She wrote that building permits can’t be issued until plans are reviewed by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The property also would require two ADA curb ramps along Lynn Avenue and Spillman Drive, Heller wrote.
Property access
Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority already features an eastbound bus stop on the property’s frontage along Spillman Drive.
“The site is already served well with sidewalk existing around the site, and the layout internally does a nice job of providing safe access for pedestrians north and south throughout the property."Matthew Malozi, Bethlehem City planner
“The site is already served well with sidewalks existing around the site, and the layout internally does a nice job of providing safe access for pedestrians north and south throughout the property,” planner Matthew Malozi said.
An entrance is already available from Lynn Street, and a reverse frontage road comes around from Shimersville Road.
The nearest Tru by Hilton is along Eastgate Boulevard in Easton, according to Google Maps.
