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Once a major part of the U.S. steel belt, Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania has been remaking itself in part through redevelopment initiatives that are spurring growth in its three major cities, Bethlehem, Easton and Allentown.

In Easton, about 100 kilometres north of Philadelphia, close to $250 million in development is planned, approved or underway, says Kristin Cahayla-Hoffman, vice-president of business development with Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC).

Notable for its historic downtown, Easton is witness to a number of adaptive reuse developments aimed at drawing new residents, tourists and the generation of business opportunities. A case in point is the landmark 19th century retail building known as The Commodore which has recently been converted into luxury apartments, retail shops and an 8,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant overlooking the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers.

The project complements a five-year-long conversion of a vacant 19th century silk mill into 170 apartments and more than 30 mixed-use commercial businesses downtown.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 300,000-square-foot R.H. Simon Silk Mill was a 15-building complex and restoration was complicated. It included custom reproductions of 1,300 deteriorating windows, many of them different sizes, Cahayla-Hoffman says.

Just a short drive away in Bethlehem, other redevelopment projects are contributing to the region’s renaissance.

Bethlehem Steel, once the second largest producer of steel in the U.S., has been repurposed into a cultural and historical landmark, featuring an arts and entertainment district known as SteelStacks, which hosts concerts, festivals, and community events.  

Cahayla-Hoffman says the development saved the plant’s blast furnaces and created a “history walk” along the trestle that once moved ore in hopper cars to the furnaces to create molten iron.

Remnants of the original steel mill are also featured in new buildings near the repurposed site, including the plant’s bridge crane and other equipment.

“It’s a creative use that reflects the tradition of the region,” she says.

Bethlehem Steel was decommissioned in the mid-1990s. Since then about 1,400 of its 1,800-acres have been redeveloped for other industrial and commercial ventures. The area also features the National Museum of Industrial History, a Smithsonian affiliate, which is housed in a former steel facility.

The next stage of revitalization on the steel property is the conversion of the plant’s turn-and-grind shop where shaping and finishing steel elements were produced. It will be an events facility operated by ArtsQuest, a non-profit organization, says Cahayla-Hoffman.

In Allentown, about 10 kilometres from Bethlehem, a $425 million office-residential-retail complex is rising on the waterfront at the former Lehigh Valley Structural Steel property. Meanwhile, a nearby historic brewery is undergoing a residential-commercial conversion.

“There has been over $1 billion dollars in investments in downtown Allentown,” says Cahayla-Hoffman, pointing to new residential and office projects as examples of the city’s improved economic footing.

While other cities in the U.S. rustbelt continue to lose population and suffer economic downturns, she says Lehigh Valley has done its homework with multiple stakeholders in both public and private sectors involved in the tri-city transformation.

In 2023, the region was listed as the top mid-sized market for economic development in the U.S. for new projects by the publication Site Selection.

“Our cities are thriving and people want to live in them,” she says, noting the region, which is among the fastest growing in Pennsylvania and the northeastern U.S., has 708,000 residents.

The steel industry may be gone, but manufacturing still represents a significant portion of what has become “a much diversified economy,” she says.

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