It’s hard to miss 615 Waterfront as it towers along the banks of the Lehigh River in Allentown.
With its official unveiling this month, the six-story office building is the first of up to 12 planned buildings along 29 acres being developed by Jaindl Enterprises’ Waterfront Development Co. on the site of the former Lehigh Structural Steel.
Zachary Jaindl, chief operating officer of Jaindl Enterprises, gave a tour of the 120,000-square-foot building that sits adjacent to the Tilghman Street bridge. Views from the upper floors include the river and the waterfront homes on Adams Island on one side, and the ongoing redevelopment of the former Neuweiler Brewery site on the other with the PPL Tower in the background.
“Everything was done one step at a time, making sure it’s done right,” said Jaindl, who co-founded Waterfront Development in 2012 with his father, Mark. “We’re making sure we’re delivering quality products, making sure we’re adjusting for market demands and offering the amenities people are looking for.”
The building itself was completed in March and is being filled. Jaindl said the fourth through sixth floors are leased (American Bank is taking up the fifth floor), while negotiations are in progress for space on the third floor. A suite for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission is being prepared on the second floor, and there is some retail interest on the ground floor.
“There were always those little, little roadblocks along the way,” Jaindl said, “and we’re making sure we’re pivoting to adjust for market demand, making sure that we were obviously modifying our designs to accommodate for COVID-19 initiatives and market conditions and product availability. So it was certainly nice to be sitting in an office building down here rather than driving back and forth between construction trailers.”
For local officials, amenities such as the walking trail along the river plus the views should make it an attractive way to bring workers back to the office after the pandemic.
“We all know what COVID has done to the workplace, and we all know that to get people out of their home office and pajamas and into the office requires something a little bit special,” said state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, who attended the building’s dedication Oct. 11 with Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk and fellow state Rep. Josh Siegel, D-Lehigh. “If you’re going to work in an office, it can’t be a cube. It has to have something really, really phenomenal. That’s what this does.”
Up next
Construction on The Waterfront’s second structure, an apartment building with 203 units, is expected to begin soon. It will be south of 615.
Jaindl said drilling micropiles for the foundation will begin in a couple of weeks, with construction commencing as long as the weather holds out. The latest the first batch of dirt could be turned is early in 2024.
When completed, the apartments will be market rate with sizes ranging from studios to two bedrooms. Amenities include a center courtyard with a pool, fire pits, outdoor grills and a fitness center.
As the construction continues for the next eight or so years, adjustments are being made to the master plan that was first issued in 2014. With the demand for living space outpacing office space now, more residential units have been added. Some buildings may be consolidated and there will be additional parking.
“The multifamily market is extremely attractive in the Lehigh Valley,” Jaindl said. “We did pivot two of our buildings in Phase 2 of our development. So there were originally two office buildings along the river. We’re relocating those two buildings on the other side of Waterfront Drive, with two apartment buildings in their place. So we’re sort of shifting things around, because we do foresee a lot more benefit to the apartments on site right now. Rather than build additional offices until that demand rises a little bit.”
Jaindl said the acreage along the river gives Waterfront Development the opportunity to rearrange the layout midstream.
“That’s really the superpower of The Waterfront is we have 29 contiguous acres of land, and we have a lot of versatility to build what the market is calling for, which allows us to, with the help of [marketing manager] Michelle Simone and her team, basically analyze the market and make sure that we are adapting for what the Lehigh Valley needs, rather than what we want to build.”
Area development
Across the street from The Waterfront, the Neuweiler site is being converted into a mixed-use building that will include approximately 283 apartments and 40,000 square feet of commercial space.
Far from being considered a potential competitor, Jaindl is excited about the project, which could be finished in spring 2025. Like the Waterfront, the Neuweiler Lofts site is in the Neighborhood Improvement Zone, the city’s one-of-a-kind tax subsidy area.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “It’s the same reason when you go to a restaurant, you want to have 10 other restaurants around it. For dinner, you might want to go grab a drink somewhere, you want activity.
“If Neuweiler sat there unoccupied and underutilized, it’s not going to help our development by any means,” he said. “So the more development that occurs both in the River Ward District, which is from American Parkway down to Hamilton Street, as well as the Center City District, the better it is for the city as a whole.”
For the rest of The Waterfront complex, which could be completed around 2030, Jaindl said the initial goal is to have 18-month construction cycles for each building with about nine months of overlap into the next one.
“Obviously, it’s a very expedited timeline, and there’s a lot of different factors that we have to do as we’ve watched the Valley, as you look around Allentown, and definitely Easton,” Jaindl said. “There’s a number of apartment buildings going up and we have to be careful that we’re not building 1,000 units and then watch saturation occur. So we’re taking things in stride and just making sure it’s getting done right.”
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.
