The Paper's Morning Yarn

The Morning Call headlines that the new Strata Loft apartments are all spoken for before the building is even finished.  I have claimed that this is erroneous at the most innocent, and an outright informercial at the more dubious.  I think that after three years of their articles we can dismiss the innocent error option. I have discovered that many of the apartments are both vacant and rented at the same time.  Apparently, City Center LLC has included some apartments with commercial office leases.  A number of the apartments are assigned to the hockey team.

Needless to say if all the apartments were really rented to people living in them,  restaurants wouldn't be closing, and the Moravian Bookstore could have sold a few books.

We find  Rite-Aid coming back, and less pricey eateries going into the closing upscale locations.      Today, someone mentioned to me how she and her husband dine in Bethlehem and Easton, but not Allentown.  They feel Allentown has no charm or ambience.  They certainly would have no desire to walk around in Allentown after their meal.  There was organic growth in Bethlehem and Easton which grew to meet a demand.  In Allentown, a developer keeps building to take advantage of an unprecedented tax incentive.   The Morning Call can act like a public relations firm instead of a newspaper,  but they can't put patrons at restaurant tables or in the upscale stores.

above reprinted from June of 2017

UPDATE JUNE 4, 2021: Four years later,  Reilly continues building more Strata apartments and the paper dutifully continues promoting the myth of full occupancy.  Meanwhile, the streets remain empty and the restaurants fold. Although the NIZ tax benefits were originally supposed to exclude residential, nobody scrutinizes how the new construction is prorated between commercial and residential.