ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Residents could move into apartments at the former Morning Call property in a little over a year, according to the project’s developer.
Allentown City Planning Commission on Tuesday approved developer City Center’s revisions to its plan for the building, which first was approved in November 2022.
That plan called for a five-story complex with about 230 apartments.
“Studios in the rest of our portfolio downtown are the most attainable product for a single person that's renting an apartment."Robert DiLorenzo, City Center executive
New sketches presented and approved Tuesday show a four-story building that’s 45,000 square feet smaller but includes 257 units.
That’s because more units are studio apartments, according to Robert DiLorenzo, director of planning and construction for City Center.
'Attainable' housing
The building — to be called The Standard — is set to feature 130 studio units, 89 one-bedroom apartments and 38 two-bedroom apartments.
“Studios in the rest of our portfolio downtown are the most attainable product for a single person that's renting an apartment,” he said.
City Center’s push to offer more studio apartments was driven by Allentown’s housing study published in January.
DiLorenzo said it “identified the need here in the city of Allentown … [for] more attainable housing” over affordable housing.
Studio units at The Standard are “laid out in a very efficient way that’s very functional … for the resident.”Robert DiLorenzo, City Center executive
“Attainable” housing is targeted toward households that earn 80-120% of the area’s median income — about $55,000 to $82,000, according to the state Department of Human Services.
Affordable housing is built for people with lower incomes, he said.
The previous plan had 74 units that averaged about 600 square feet; the 130 studios in the new plan will be about 500 square feet.
That should help drive down rents, which are largely calculated on square footage, DiLorenzo said, noting units are “laid out in a very efficient way that’s very functional … for the resident.”
Residents on the horizon
The planning commission’s approval means crews likely can start construction on the building this fall, according to a timeline DiLorenzo presented Tuesday.
That timeline shows The Standard’s first residents could move in as early as July 2026.
The apartment complex is slated to go up where The Morning Call’s printing presses stood for decades.
The newspaper’s headquarters were demolished in 2023, bringing to an end its 37-year run in the building.
The Morning Call’s owner, Tribune Publishing, permanently pushed employees out of the building in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The building that originally housed The Morning Call for almost a century at Sixth and Linden streets now houses Community Services for Children.
City Center, downtown Allentown’s most prominent developer, bought the property in 2016 and was the newspaper’s landlord for several years.
