Lehigh Valley: HOTTER THAN EVER The Lehigh Valley is Booming! C. RICHARD ROSEBERRY, PE, PP, CME, AICP GEOGRAPHIC DISCIPLINE LEADER, CIVIL/SITE MASER CONSULTING P.A.
With a nationwide trend for living in neighborhoods where you can “walk to” shopping, eateries, and transit, everything old is new again. From baby boomers who grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia who are moving back to revitalized urban-suburban cities like Bethlehem, Allentown, Easton, to the money-conscious millennials who find added lifestyle value and benefits cities have to offer; developers are jumping on board to meet the challenge.
bution giants including Amazon, Walmart, UPS, Fed Ex, and QVC/HSN, have already taken a piece of the pie in the Valley. This has also created jobs, and since people like to live near their workplace, it has created a demand for housing, single-family as well as apartments, in and out of the cities. Since the Lehigh Valley offers close proximity to a large network of major roadways and interstates, it benefits both industry and residential communities, not to
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We also live in a world where e-commerce and consumer demand for overnight shipping has facilitated the need for storing goods and warehouses are popping up throughout the Lehigh Valley. Many properties currently used for farming were zoned for Industrial Uses decades ago, increasing their value in a competitive market. Since these vast parcels can accommodate the new mega warehouses that have grown from thousands of square feet—to millions, e-commerce, manufacturing and distri46
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mention the need for retail and service space, medical facilities, school expansion, transit, and other community amenities. To get a better comprehension of the project types being driven in response to economic development and lack of residential inventory, here are a few examples of projects Maser Consulting is engineering:
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