In The News

LVIP has been making headlines since 1959, and so have the companies who call our parks home. The success of our former parks, and the economic impact of LVIP VII and its future tenants, continues to be highlighted in the media.

Click on each headline/source to read the excerpted text of a news article or a news release.

• June 26, 2006 - Old Steel Mills Giving Way To Industrial Park
          (Eastern PA Business Journal)
• June 11 , 2006 - Eastern Engineered Relocating to LVIP VII
         (LVEDC News Release)
  • Bethlehem - Eastern Engineered Wood Products has received a $2.25 million loan from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority to consolidate and move its three facilities to a new site.
    
    Eastern, a wholesale distributor of engineered wood products, will move to a 30-acre facility at LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center, the former site of Bethlehem Steel in South Side Bethlehem. The company, which employs 60 people, currently has operations in Allentown and Bethlehem. The total cost of the move is $13 million. The company will use money from private investors and other sources to finance the remainder of the project.
    
    Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. administers the PIDA loan program, and helped the company apply for the low-interest loan. Eastern will add 26 jobs over the next three years.
• April 28, 2006 – U.S. Cold Storage Files Plans to Increase Square Footage
         (The Morning Call)
  • U.S. Cold Storage has filed plans with the City of Bethlehem planning commission to double its 120-square-foot building.  U.S. Cold Storage opened its first phase of operations in October 2005, following ground breaking in August 2004.  It is located on 30 acres of land at LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center.  The current 50 employees work in a refrigerated warehouse that stores and ships frozen and refrigerated foods.
• April 25, 2006 – Foulk Warehousing Plans Second Facility
         (The Morning Call)
  • Foulk Warehousing, Inc., a long-time tenant of land now owned by LVIP, will purchase land within LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center to build a permanent warehouse with fire protection systems for lumber storage. Foulk, which employs 12 people, has been leasing space since the year 2000 in another section of LVIP VII. It plans to acquire nearly 18 acres in the first phase of development of the new park along Emery Street.
• April 13, 2006 – LVIP VII Receives Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence
         (The Morning Call)

  • Kathleen McGinty, secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, today presented the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence to Lehigh Valley Industrial Parks, Inc., for its effective use of environmental laws to return former brownfield land to productive use at LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center.  “What is today the largest privately owned brownfield in the country will be come the largest example of economic growth and job creation in the country,” Ms. McGinty said.  Receiving the award was Kerry Wrobel, president of LVIP, who said, “LVIP parks one through six have been instrumental in diversifying the economic base of the Lehigh Valley.  With the Lehigh Valley weathering the loss of Bethlehem Steel and other key industries, LVIP VII represents an opportunity to rebuild 20 percent of the city’s taxable base.  So that’s an amazing an opportunity in the 21^st century.”

• March 11, 2006 – RMS, and its 800 jobs, staying in Bethlehem
         (The Morning Call)

  • Receivable Management Services (RMS), a commercial collection agency, will be moving its global headquarters from the iconic Martin Tower to another piece of Bethlehem Steel’s legacy: a portion of the old plant being turned into the $1 billion LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center business park. RMS’s $10 million-plus project - comprising an 80,000 square-foot, one-story building on 21.9 acres – also represents the biggest company that LVIP VII has landed since it began planning the development of the center’s 1,000 acres. “This is a true coup for LVIP VII,” LVIP President Kerry Wrobel said. “It is a perfect example of the type of project we envisioned when we began the development. We want diverse businesses.” Wrobel said the inclusion of RMS, which expects to bring 800 jobs to the South Side, puts the Commerce Center on pace to exceed its projection of 6,000 employees there.

• March 5, 2006 – Lehigh Valley Growing Hub for Distribution
         (The Morning Call)
  • The addition of U.S. Cold Storage to the Lehigh Valley’s distribution industry further strengthens to region as a major distribution center. “The location here is whether you are traveling to Upper Macungie Township, metropolitan New York, Philadelphia or Boston,” said U.S. Cold Storage plant operations manager Steve Cunningham. “What’s especially nice is that we’re near the entrance to Interstate 78, which takes us quickly to the New York market.” U.S. Cold Storage opened its first phase of operations in 2005 in LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center. The local operation is a major east coast addition to the U.S. Cold Storage network of refrigerated warehouses.
• February, 2006 – LVIP to Acquire Fab Shop to Add Land at Seventh Park
         (Express Times)
  • A former Bethlehem Steel fabricating shop currently owned by Lehigh Heavy Forge will be acquired by LVIP to make additional land available at the first phase of LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center. The building, which is no longer in use, will be demolished to increase lot sizes offered in LVIP VII’s first phase. The acquisition and demolition are expected to take about one year.
• January 19, 2006 – Primo Number One Plans Produce Distribution Center
         (The Morning Call)
  • Primo Number One Produce has purchased about 30 acres of land at LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center to construct a warehouse and distribution center for fresh produce. The new warehouse would complement existing facilities in Hanover Township, Lehigh County that currently house about 130 employees. About 100 of those employees will transfer to the new 100,00-square-foot facility. Another 30 people will be hired for the new facility once it nears completion.
• January 11, 2006 – Strahman Valves to Locate in LVIP VI
         (Express Times)
  • Strahman Valves of Florham Park, N.J., has purchased the last available lot in LVIP VI in Bethlehem Township, Pa., and will move its operations to that location in June 2006. Straham employs about 70 people who make valves and wash-down equipment for the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
• November 27, 2005 – BethIntermodal Relocates within LVIP VII
         (The Morning Call)
  • Two-year-old Lehigh Valley Rail Management is in the process of moving BethIntermodal, a truck-rail transfer depot, to 108 acres of land where the old Bethlehem Steel coke ovens had been located. The relocation frees up land that is well suited for redevelopment by LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center. The new location for the intermodal is “a perfect use because you don’t have to dig,” said Kerry Wrobel, president of LVIP. Instead, the land was paved for the new terminal and will broken, thus eliminating chances of the spread of residual chemicals in the ground from the coke ovens operation.
• November 4, 2005 – Commerce Center Boulevard Opens to Traffic at LVIP VII
         (The Morning Call)
  • The 13-million Commerce Center Boulevard located the eastern edge of LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center was officially opened to traffic today. “This is the linchpin to the greatest economic development in the history of the Lehigh Valley,” said Northampton County Executive Director Glenn Reibman. The four-lane road will allow companies to tap distant and large tracts of land, The road links Route 412 just north of Interstate 78 to nearly 1,600 acres of former Bethlehem Steel land.
• October 26, 2005 -- Congressional Panel Terms Pennsylvania "National Model” for
         Brownfields Redevelopment (Express Times)
  • A Congressional field hearing was held in the City of Bethlehem to learn of the progress made at the former Bethlehem Steel site to return 1,800 of land to productive use. The largest land owner at the former steel plant is Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, Inc., which owns about 1,000 of those acres for its LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center. “Pennsylvania is a model for the nation with respect to the reuse of these industrial or brownfield sites,” said Congressman Charles Dent (R-15D). The land recycling law that was enacted in 1995 is considered to be the template and the model for the nation.”
• October 24, 2006 – U.S. Cold Storage Officially Opens at LVIP VII
         (U.S. Cold Storage News Release)
• October 1, 2006 – Intermodal at LVIP VII receives $3-million State Grant
         (Express Times)
  • Governor Ed Rendell has awarded $3 million to Lehigh Valley Rail Management, the owners of BethIntermodal, for improvements to the rail-to-truck facility located at LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center. The grant will help pay to build rail spurs off the main rail lines that run through LVIP VII. The spurs will carry rail cars from the main lines to the park’s tenants, including U.S. Cold Storage.
• August 19, 2005 – Brandenburg Plans Expansion at LVIP VII
         (The Morning Call)
  • Brandenburg Industrial Services, Inc. has received approval from the City of Bethlehem’s planning commission to combine and expand facilities it owns at LVIP VII at the Bethlehem Commerce Center. The demolition company plans a $10-million expansion, which will include three new buildings, two diesel fuel stations with underground tanks and a three-track rail siding for shipments.
• January 26, 2005 – Rendell Delivers to Bethlehem $15 Million for Industrial Park
         (The Morning Call)

  • A year ago, Gov. Ed Rendell stood in the heart of the planned Bethlehem Commerce business industrial park and presented Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, Inc. a $1.6 million check. He promised to return with more. On Wednesday in Bethlehem Town Hall, Rendell kept that promise with a $15 million check for LVIP to begin the second phase of environmental review and clean up at the Saucon tract, 265 acres along Route 412, and an area off Easton Road. Rendell said, “We (Pennsylvania) did not have proper infrastructure, and that means available sites. Prospects and developers would come looking for land, but there was little to be had. They are looking for shovel-ready ground.” Rendell said he hoped $10 million in low-interest loans and $5 million in grants from the state would jump start remediation of the former Bethlehem Steel land. The money is the first to come from the state’s Business in Our Sites program administered by the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The program stresses reclamation of industrial brownfields to lessen suburban sprawl. Rendell said the DCED was “bowled over” by the Bethlehem Commerce plans and local commitment to the project. Mayor John Callahan said to Rendell, “You’re no stranger to the city of Bethlehem or the Lehigh Valley, you’ve been here more in one year than other governors have been here in two terms.”

• September 16, 2004 – Ground Broken at Industrial Park
        (The Morning Call)
  • Standing on gravel of former Bethlehem Steel land holding silver spades, local officials and investors ceremoniously broke ground Wednesday on Commerce Center Boulevard, heralding the beginning of what Mayor John Callahan called “one of the most important” projects in the city’s history. Construction of the boulevard – which will link Route 412 from just north of Interstate 78 to the 1,600-acre Commerce Center industrial park with a mile of mostly four-lane road – will begin next week when the city’s contractor starts tearing up the brownfields. The project is expected to cost about $13 million and be completed within a year. The Commerce Center is expected to bring in about $1.5 billion in investment and lead to thousands of new jobs. Callahan also acknowledged the role Northampton County Executive Glenn Reibman played in providing funding for the road. “Today, the boulevard for jobs for our citizens and prosperity for our families’ future is about to be traveled on. You are witnessing the linchpin that will give us the greatest economic development project in the history of the Lehigh Valley,” Reibman told the crowd. The beginning of the road’s construction comes a month after the Commerce Center’s first tenant, United States Cold Storage, began construction of a 120,000 square-foot refrigeration warehouse that will initially employ 50 people. And while executives of the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, which owns 1,000 acres of former Steel land, LVIP President Kerry Wrobel said he hopes to announce the addition of another tenant before 2005.
• June 2, 2004 – Feds Grant LVIP $2M for Project
        (Express Times)
  • The federal government on Tuesday awarded Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, Inc. $2 million for continuing infrastructure improvements at former Bethlehem Steel property. The money comes on the heels of LVIP completing its $4 million purchase of Steel property, which will be redeveloped into the nonprofit’s seventh industrial park. David Sampson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, presented the grant, part of a $300 million appropriation by the Economic Development Administration. “We look forward to great things coming out of this park,” Sampson said. LVIP received EDA grants when developing three of its other parks. Sampson called LVIP an established “steward” of federal money. Sampson said LVIP met several criteria for the competitive EDA funding, which he said tries to reinvigorate areas hit by “economic change.”
• March 14, 2004 – Project Could Yield Thousands of Jobs
        (The Morning Call)
  • Economic development leaders have scored several monumental victories in Lehigh Valley history. Now comes another contender for the list of most significant economic development projects of all time. This time, it’s a plan for a gigantic industrial park on the former Bethlehem Steel land in the southeast corner of Bethlehem. The area makes up a quarter of the city’s taxable property – 1,600 acres. Bethlehem Commerce Center has been dubbed the biggest economic development project in Lehigh Valley history – in fact, it may well be the largest reuse of a privately owned industrial site in the United States. The main developer is Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, Inc. LVIP officials are ready for action. They announced plans to redevelop 1,000 acres and hope to have a shovel in the ground in April for the first phase of the project. Just last week, LVIP announced the first tenant on that parcel, United States Cold Storage, which will build a $14 million refrigerated warehouse. LVIP plans to close the deal this month, buying the land from International Steel Group, or ISG, which bought Bethlehem Steel’s assets out of bankruptcy. Bethlehem Commerce Center would create 6,000 jobs when it’s completed about a decade or more from now, according to estimates. The jobs would include everything from factory work to professional office work. Even before a single acre of land is resuscitated, the plans have created excitement, hope and action, all necessary ingredients for economic prosperity.
• March 11, 2004 – $14 Million Warehouse Only a Start
        (The Morning Call)
  • United States Cold Storage plans to open a $14 million refrigerated warehouse – its first in the northeast – on former Bethlehem Steel land by year’s end, becoming the first business to move into the projected $1.5 billion Bethlehem Commerce Center. Officials said the 120,000 square-foot building is expected to grow to five times that size, eventually bringing the city tens of thousands in tax money after it lost the Steel, its largest taxpayer. United States Cold Storage will hire 40 employees and could increase that work force to almost 200 white-collar, warehouse, maintenance and office jobs by the time the facility is expanded to 600,000 square feet. The company has been searching for a site for two years on both sides of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The rail service and cooperation from city officials made Bethlehem the ideal site. United States Cold Storage’s 32.5-acre lot is part of Steel land being bought this year for redevelopment by Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, Inc.
• January 13, 2004 – Check May Be Sign of Valley’s Increased Influence
        (The Morning Call)
  • It wasn’t so much the size of the $1.6 million check that Gov. Ed Rendell was delivering, but what it signifies. After decades of feeling like Pennsylvania’s forgotten stepchildren, Lehigh Valley leaders have the ear of a governor they believe will deliver the kinds of multi-million dollar state grants that other cities have been enjoying for years. Several times, Rendell said he would be back with more money for the Bethlehem Commerce Center and Bethlehem Works development sites. The Lehigh Valley will surely need repeated visits by Rendell, because demands are great here. The former Bethlehem Steel properties alone probably will need tens of millions in grants to spur a promised $1.5 billion in development. LVIP Chairman Jeff Feather wasted little time in taking advantage of Rendell’s generous mood. “We pledge to put this money to good use,” he said. “We’ll be back for more later.”