Allentown : In the News

Pennsylvania has created an attractive business climate with $3B in investments and 100,000 jobs in last six years, reports Business Facilities magazine.

A study by Moody's Economy.com, an independent national economic research firm, says that Pennsylvania has weathered the economic downturn due to aggressive economic stimulus efforts, below average cost of living, a strong roster of leading educational institutions, and affordable housing relative to other Northeast states.

The study ranks the state 17th in its forecast for short-term employment growth (two years), which is the best ranking the sate has ever received and better then neighboring states. In addition, state exports have grown by $5.3 billion to a total of $34.4 billion since 2002, the 6th largest amount of growth in the nation, larger than New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, Illinois, and Michigan.

Original Souce: Business Facilities
Read the full story here.

Chris Sanders thinks bats are cute.

"They look like tiny dogs close up."

Sanders, an environmental scientist, works with the winged mammals every day. This month, Sanders will be in the Poconos as he prepares for an environmental survey along the proposed Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line.

The riverfront in Easton along Larry Holmes Drive will soon become a vibrant public space thanks to unanimous approval for $2.1 million in funding from the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission for the project's first phase, reports the Express-Times.

The commission, meeting in Solebury Township, unanimously agreed Monday to let the city use the $2.1 million as the sole source of funding for the project's first phase, which includes narrowing Larry Holmes Drive and adding lighted walkways in Scott and Riverside parks.

"I'm very pleased," Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said after the commission's unanimous decision. "Our waterfront will become the gathering place it should be."

The project aims to slim down Larry Holmes Drive to slow traffic, making it easier for pedestrians to reach Scott and Riverside parks and ''creating a public space that is more accessible,'' said Frank McCartney, the commission's executive director.

Read the full story here.

Myers Power Products,  an electrical supply company based in California, will replace its existing plant in the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park with a facility more than twice its size in nearby Hanover Township in Northampton County, reports the Morning Call.

The 93,472-square-foot production facility will be built on 7 acres at 34 S. Commerce Way. The structure will replace Myers' facility at 2000 Highland Ave., also in Hanover Township. The 43,000-square-foot facility opened in 2001.

The new space will also house 10,278 square feet of office space, the company said. Myers said the current facility employs about 60 workers and it is yet to be determined if the company will be hiring more employees for the new location.

"The new facility, which will be larger and more efficient, will allow Myers to continue providing outstanding service to electrical engineers and contractors worldwide," said Bruce Steigerwald, general manager for Myers, in a news release.

Read the complete story here.

Trustees approved the $12 million purchase of Lehigh Valley College building and campus in Center Valley, paving the way for Penn State's Lehigh Valley branch to move from Fogelsville to the new campus 16 miles away, reports the Morning Call.

The move will more than double the 47,000 square feet of building space available at Penn State's Fogelsville campus. Although the Fogelsville campus is larger, with 40 acres to Center Valley's 29 acres, Fogelsville had limited room for expansion.

"There are many limitations to the [Fogelsville] campus," Ann Williams, chancellor of Penn State Lehigh Valley, said in a news release. "Much of the land on which it sits is unbuildable and limited by hilly topography and surrounding wetlands."

The Fogelsville campus is also in a primarily residential neighborhood, compared with the business parks and shopping mall near Lehigh Valley College, Williams said.

Read the complete story here.

Money from Poconos slot machines will help develop an industrial park in Carbon County.

County commissioners have agreed to accept $631,958 from the Mount Airy Casino Resort to improve Route 209 and build an access road to a Norfolk Southern railroad line at Packerton Yards.

Mount Airy generated $12.3 million that the host county, Monroe, is sharing with neighboring Carbon, Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike counties.

Tree of Life, Inc., a national food distribution company based in Florida and specializing in organic and natural products, expects to open a distribution center at an 84-acre industrial complex under construction in Lower Macungie Township, reports the Morning Call.

The company plans to move into a 580,000-square-foot warehouse by late summer or early fall, said Gene Carter, the company's senior vice president of logistics. It will replace a similar distribution center in New Jersey that the company plans to close in 2010.

Tree of Life will receive $400,000 in state funding for the project, according to the state Department of Community and Economic Development.As part of an agreement reached with the state, Tree of Life is required to create 121 jobs within a three-year period after it opens. The company said it would wait until later this year to release specific information about the jobs, salaries and how people can apply.

Read the full story here.

State Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh) believes future state and local taxes collected at an arena can help pay off the loans taken now to build it for the former Philadelphia Phantoms American Hockey League team, the Morning Call reports.

Both Allentown and Bethlehem are interested in luring the American Hockey League franchise--one step below the NHL--to the Valley.

Since the arena ''requires a lot of public investment, my preference would be for it to be an urban development,'' Browne said. ''Of course, I have some Allentown interest.''

The fundraising mechanism Browne sees is known in government-speak as a TIF, or ''tax increment financing,'' a tool commonly used to spur redevelopment of an economically distressed area.

Read the full story here.

Trimmed payrolls at Mack Trucks and Air Products and Chemicals were offset by gains at other employers, especially the local hospital networks...

At year's end, the top 25 private employers had 53,619 workers in the two-county region, up slightly from the 53,107 in 2007. That means employers on the top-25 list account for about one of every five jobs in the Lehigh Valley, which all told has 282,600 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

U.S.News & World Report-in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education data on schoolmatters.com-analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than 21,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. These top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories.

The state has more than $2.5 billion earmarked for various business, energy and infrastructure projects, which will help soften the blow of the global economic meltdown on Pennsylvania, a state official said this afternoon at a meeting of municipal and business representatives.