Business News

A developer is going back to the drawing board after the Allentown Zoning Hearing Board was reluctant Monday to approve its plans for a 445-unit self-storage facility.

Black Friday is almost upon us, when retailers kick off the holiday season with offers meant to get customers in the shopping mood. A number of stores that were closed on Thanksgiving, including Walmart and Target, reopen early Friday as the holiday shopping season begins in earnest.

The state Public Utility Commission announced a proposed settlement that also requires the Allentown-based utility company to absorb about $16 million in costs associated with corrective actions. It still requires approval by PUC commissioners.

Emmaus is among many Lehigh Valley communities to host Small Business Saturday events, to encourage residents to support locally-owned businesses.

Pennsylvania saw a nearly 50% increase in Hispanic-owned businesses between 2012 and 2019, according to Census data. Non-Hispanic businesses increased by 9.3%, which means Latinos are creating businesses at a higher rate than their non-Hispanic peers.

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

A 95,750-square-foot, 144-bed behavioral hospital planned for Hanover Township in Northampton County expected to create more than 300 jobs was among two development projects reviewed by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission on Thursday night.

A new robotics center is now open at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Center Valley. The Fleming Center for Robotics in Rehabilitation opened Thursday thanks to a significant gift from the Fleming Foundation.

The mysterious and sometimes sacred symbols are meant to bring good fortune and wins to players and fans.

Passengers will soon be able to fly from Lehigh Valley International Airport to all three of Orlando's main airports.

Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to visit the Bethlehem Steel General Office Building on Tuesday to promote his $500 million shovel-ready development program. The program was funded in the recently approved $47.6 billion 2024-2025 state budget.

Gov. John Shapiro last month signed HB 1333 into law, which allows for recycled materials to be used in stuffed toys manufactured and sold statewide. In the Lehigh Valley, one toy manufacturer plans to launch a sustainable line.

The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously approved the sale of PPL Tower in Allentown to Wilkes-Barre-based D&D Realty Group. The sale comes more than four months after PPL Corp. announced that its subsidiary, PPL Electric Utilities, had reached a tentative $9 million agreement to sell the building to D&D Realty Group.

For decades, the land that is now Green Knight Industrial Park in Wind Gap, Plainfield Twp. and Bushkill Twp. contained a pile of 2,000,000 tires. On Thursday, officials cut the ribbon on the park's first completed building, a 50,000-square-foot warehouse.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission issued 19 recommendations for PPL Electric to improve upon, including fixing its poor customer service and restoring power to customers faster following an outage.

The $208 million will also produce 295 new union jobs, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s announcement said, though it’s unclear what cut of the funding the Macungie facility is getting or the number of new jobs expected locally.

Northampton County officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a new maintenance building for groundskeepers, replacing a more-than-century-old wooden barn the Parks Department currently uses.

State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh/Bucks, is looking to force his predecessor, now Secretary of Revenue Pat Browne, to release tax returns about Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone. Browne, who crafted the NIZ, has worked to keep the information confidential for five years.

With other communities around the state adopting bans on plastic bags, Lower Saucon could be on its way to something similar. if approved, it would involve a transition process to show shoppers the bigger picture and give time for businesses to properly offload plastic bags on hand.

A $6.4 million mansion called Ravenwood Manor caught fire just a day after being sold. Three years later, the owners have donated it to the local government, reportedly as a sign of gratitude for local emergency responders.

Major renovations at Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehab, agricultural conservation and bridge maintenance are the major expenditures in Lehigh County’s five-year Capital Plan.

USA Today nominated Hotel Bethlehem for its sixth consecutive run at the Best Historic Hotel in America title — something the luxury landmark has brought home the past three years in a row. Now it's time for the community to pitch in for the win.