There's not many mid size cities that can boast having two national chain stores within one center city block, Allentown could. Not too many cities could say that one of those stores was one of the biggest producers in a chain of over 7000 stores, Allentown could. There's not many cities that are ignorant enough to tear down their most successful block, a virtual tax machine, Allentown is. This horrible mistake took a combination of political arrogance and public misconception. The arrogance is well known, so let me concentrate on the misconception. The perception was a few undesirable people, buying cheap things. The reality is Family Dollar sells the same merchandise in their suburban and rural stores. Rite Aid fills the same prescriptions and sells their standard merchandise. The new upscale stores, visioned for the arena front, will never produce the sales tax produced by Family Dollar and Rite Aid. The arena will never have that amount of employees, nor produce that much earned income.* The traffic congestion and lack of parking for arena events will destroy the new restaurants. Welcome to the white elephant, welcome to the ghost town.
Shown above and below is the early morning delivery to Family Dollar, every week of the year.
*sales tax and earned income currently going to city and state will now go to debt service for arena
reprinted from December 5, 2011
ADDENDUM DECEMBER OF 2018: While The Morning Call promotes Allentown's new NIZ zone, only this blogger documented the reality of the former Hamilton Street. While the Moravian Book Store could have been restocked from a small hand basket once a month, the previous Family Dollar Store needed a full tractor trailer every Sunday. Retail is virtually destroyed on Hamilton Street. Over seven years later, and the Morning Call is still deceiving about Hamilton Street, and this blog is still delivering the truth.
ADDENDUM MAY 24, 2023: Another five years and Hamilton Street remains a dead zone, despite over a 1000 new apartments. Why these new tenants are never seen, and where they eat and shop remains an unsolved mystery. Why does the centerpiece arena only have a few shows a year? What sort of state tax eating monster is the NIZ that Reilly can keep building his empire with no signs of street life? What sort of State Representatives do we have who do not ask or answer these questions?
As a nuetral observer not in favor or against the NIZ, I was downtown last Saturday for an hour or so at 8:00 am and here's my observations:
ReplyDelete1. There were upwards of 15-20 outdoor stationary cyclists taking a class at the Arts Walk Pocket Park, mostly millennials.
2. There was a notable amount of upwardly mobile looking people walking dogs and going out for coffee etc.
3. The brand new Centre Square lofts with Dog Park, has a vibe similar to something out of Brooklyn or Northern Liberties/Fishtown.
3. My overall impression of downtown was of a fairly clean, somewhat safe and dare I say increasingly livable/prosperous place that has some potential??
Drive through any Saturday evening, unless there is an event it is nearly empty. Happy to hear a few yuppies and dogs venture out in the early morning light,
DeleteUntil the Pat Browne rule that the NIZ is shielded from Right to Know Requests is undone, the public has every right to question the integrity of this taxpayer supported scheme. Republican State Senator Jarrod Coleman, who beat Pat in the primary is proposing exactly this, yet he is meeting resistance from Allentown's other elected state politicians. They appear to be in league with the chosen few. Tells us all we need to know about them right?
ReplyDeleteThe more we know about the NIZ, the more of a headscratcher it becomes, I can't help but wonder when and if the tax revenues run out, what will become of all these "magnificent" properties...??? (that we, the taxpayers, ultimately paid for) Will they become subsidized housing? Will they be bulldozed? Will they be abandoned? What will their next "life" possibly be? As an Allentownian, will my already stupid high taxes get crazy high??? Just askin'!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy did they ever take down the canopies on Hamilton?
ReplyDeleteLate to this post-- Initially missing from the NIZ plan was any private ownership. That seemed like something that would be correctable as the project evolved over the years, but to-date private ownership, in any form, is still missing. Only one entity benefits from the success of the NIZ and there is no way that a private owner can participate. So these rental buildings were built with so many variances that they could never be converted to condo ownership. This means that there is no incentive for anyone to be a permanent part of the plan. In the US buying a home is the primary way that we build and preserve capital. The occupants of these buildings will always be transient occupants who are likely on their way to somewhere else. They aren't putting down roots, they probably aren't interested in the quality of the public schools, they probably aren't empty-nesters, they probably aren't going to be there long enough to establish a voting record locally or get to know who is even running for office. These buildings will get used hard by a series of people who have no connections to them. They will not have an owner's organization representing them. Eventually they will be sold to other investment groups as they age and need to have their systems replaced. Office space isn't really needed since may businesses have found out that they don't have to supply office space for all employees for 40 hours a week. Great that we have the PPL Center but most of Hamilton Street (and some of 7th Street) looks like an empty movie set. And do all those Lehigh Valley Health Network execs actually occupy their Hamilton Street offices? I suspect their taxes help prop up the NIZ. It's an artificial economy. The busses don't run on Hamilton Street and that's a sure sign that there isn't anywhere there that anyone needs to go.
ReplyDelete