1st building opens at Allentown’s Waterfront development; next phase to bring hundreds of apartments

• The Waterfront Development Co. has opened the first building on its 29-acre property
• The developer has worked for more than a decade on its plans to transform the site
• The next wave of construction is set to bring three apartment complexes with more than 300 units

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — More than a decade after announcing its plan to redevelop the Lehigh Structural Steel site in Allentown, a developer threw open the doors to the first structure on the property in mid-October.

Executives from the Waterfront Development Co. were joined by local elected officials to celebrate the launch of 615 Waterfront, a six-floor commercial building that will be known by its address.

The building offers about 100,000 square feet of Class A office space across its top five floors, with four large units on the first floor for retail spaces.

Six Fifteen Waterfront is the first of five “luxury” office buildings slated for the sprawling property.

Three other six-story, Class A office buildings are planned for 645, 715 and 745 Waterfront Drive, while a five-story luxury office building is set to go up at 845 Waterfront Drive. All will have first-floor retail spaces.

But plans to build more offices are not set in stone, with the developer able to “easily convert that to multifamily [housing] to adapt to the market," Waterfront Development Co. co-founder Zachary Jaindl said.

Another office building is fully designed, though it’s “likely on hold unless demand increases,” Jaindl said.

Housing to come next

Demand “has been enormous,” however, for housing on the Waterfront property, with some “saying they'll put down their first six months’ rent if they can get their first pick of apartments with a water view,” Jaindl said.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of interest in the space,” he said.

The next wave of construction at the site is set to bring hundreds of apartments over the next two years or so.

The first housing complex will go up at 30 E. Allen St., just south of the new commercial building.

Jaindl said the complex is set to include 203 multifamily apartments, a significant expansion on the 168 apartments that were first proposed.

Construction is expected to start "almost simultaneously" on two more residential buildings at 715 and 745 Waterfront Drive, bringing 153 more units to the property, Jaindl said.

The developer hopes “the office market rebounds” during the residential-construction phase, so “we can return back to focus on the office product and continue to create jobs for Allentown,” Jaindl said.

‘We want to build it right’

The Waterfront Development Co., a spinoff of Jaindl Properties, said it plans to invest more than $300 million into the project. The development is expected to create more than 1.3 million square feet of office and living space in the city.

The Waterfront site covers 29 acres, 26 of which are in the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone. The developer is harnessing NIZ tax incentives to “offer really incredible deals” that attract new businesses to Allentown, Jaindl said.

The development company first completed a master plan for the site in 2014 and was making good progress toward construction before the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020, Jaindl said.

“If you would have asked me back in February of 2020, I would have said we already had two buildings or three buildings up by now” on the Waterfront property, he said.

After weathering a pandemic and ending the long wait to celebrate the Waterfront’s first building, Jaindl said the developer remains “very committed” to fulfilling its plans, but it will not rush to complete them.

“We're very detail-oriented, and we agonize over the demand,” Jaindl said. “We don't want to rush in and build something that's going to fall flat. We want to build it right.

“We have one shot at getting a true waterfront development."