Downtown Allentown, Pennsylvania

Format
Brief

City
Allentown

State/Province
PA

Country
USA

Metro Area
Allentown–Bethlehem

Project Type
District/Corridor/Community

Location Type
Central Business District

Land Uses
Arena
Entertainment
Hotel
Medical
Multifamily Rental Housing
Office
Restaurant
Retail

Keywords
Creative finance
Downtown revitalization
Economic development
Office/retail towers
Public art
Public-private partnership
Sports stadium
Urban regeneration

A brief is a short version of a case study.

Allentown, Pennsylvania, went from a multimillion-dollar city budget deficit to a multimillion-dollar surplus. While other Pennsylvania cities were seeing real revitalization in recent decades, Allentown (the biggest city in the Lehigh Valley) saw lethargic economic growth after broad deindustrialization. The state designated a Neighborhood Improvement Plan in Allentown which, in conjunction with private developers, set forth a plan for economic vitality. It resulted in 4,000 new jobs in the urban core and a billion dollars of new development. Allentown is now the fastest-growing city in Pennsylvania with particularly promising job growth in its urban core.

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Major Developers
Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority
City Center Investment Corporation

Principal Author(s)
Tom Murphy, Maureen McAvey, Bridget Lane

Source
Reaching for the Future: Creative Finance for Smaller Communities
http://uli.org/centers-initiatives/reaching-future-creative-finance-smaller-communities/