ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A developer is set to try again with plans to build a downtown Allentown skyscraper that would dwarf even the region’s largest building a few blocks away.
Umran Global Investment wants to put up a 37-story tower at 90 S. 9th St. after buying the property in 2023 from developer Bruce Loch.
Loch’s Ascot Circle Realty tried for almost a decade to build a 33-story tower there.
Allentown planning officials last January rejected UGI’s request for more time to start the project after members ruled its plans to add four floors made it “substantially different” than Loch’s project, which they first approved in 2015.
The building, set to be called The Peregrine Tower, would be the tallest in the Lehigh Valley, putting the 24-story PPL Tower in its shadow.
Its projected height of 420 feet would make it the tallest building in the state outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
UGI is set to make its case for the 37-story tower at Allentown City Planning Commission's June 10 meeting. The proposal is no longer tied to Loch’s plans.
Many shapes
The project to build on the still-empty lot at 90 S. 9th St. has taken many forms over the past decade.
Loch first planned to fill much of then-named-Landmark Tower with offices, with retail planned for the building’s bottom two floors and apartments on its top five floors.
Allentown Planning Commission pushed back Loch’s deadline to start the project four times before he revised his plans for the building in 2023.
“This project is literally giving the finger to Allentown."John Gallagher, Lehigh Valley Planning Commission member, in June 2024
Commission members gave him six more months after he presented plans to fill more than 90% of the tower with housing units.
The developer last year presented plans to fill the tower with 206 residential units, almost 10,000 square feet of office space and some retail areas on its first and fourth floors.
The top floor could feature a restaurant.
UGI’s plans faced criticism at a June 2024 meeting of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, where member John Gallagher called the tower's height “way out of scale for the area.”
“This project is literally giving the finger to Allentown,” Gallagher said.
