The Allentown NIZ* was created about 15 years ago to supposedly revitalize Allentown. It was designed by former state senator Pat Browne and is in two sections. The larger section runs from 5th to 10th, Linden to Walnut. The smaller section is along the Lehigh River, essentially between the Hamilton and Tilghman Street Bridges.
While the NIZ is privately owned buildings, they are financed with diverted state taxes. Allentown is the only zone in Pennsylvania. As unusual as this legal magic act is, scrutiny and criticism is almost exclusively been limited to this blog. J.B. Reilly owns almost all the land in the Hamilton Street portion???Mark Jaindl owns almost all the land in the Lehigh River portion???
What the two zones have in common is that they are adjoined by poor litter filled loud neighborhoods. While Reilly and Jaindl have profited enormously from the NIZ, what benefit John Q Citizen has derived is questionable. John Q has had to make up for those diverted taxes, with no benefit for him.
shown above Jaindl's future portfolio along with river
*Neighborhood Improvement Zone
But wait. over on the site of the famous Alan Jennings page everyone is sayin’ how Mayor Pawlowski created the NIZ and how much better Mayor Ed, Alan and the NIZ made our fair city.
ReplyDeleteWhat gives?
Pat Brown is a genius.
ReplyDeleteWhere do we start with the failures of the NIZ?
ReplyDelete1). As you note, properties within the zone have been mostly gobbled up by two property owners. This has resulted in only those two seeing the real benefits of the NIZ, and them building rental (commercial and residential) empires. This is the fatal flaw in Browne’s legislation, and I have to believe it was intentional as it primarily and greatly benefited a long time friend of his who seemed to know about the legislation well before everyone else. To this day, it is my understanding that Browne continues to shied efforts at transparency, from his new role inside the Shapiro administration. I have to wonder why.
2). The absence of other property owners has limited the potential growth of the NIZ, and its benefit to PA taxpayers. Had ownership within the NIZ been limited to only one or two properties within the zone per owner, the NIZ could have been used as a tool to get out-of-state companies to invest in the city, build their own offices, and move their businesses here. Think about all the companies in NYC and northern Jersey who have fled those states in the past 15 years because of high taxes. Certainly some could have been lured into building their offices in a nearby lower-taxed Pennsylvania city like Allentown.
3). Instead, due to the monopolies of Reilly and Jaindl, taxpayer “benefits” were limited to how far the contact lists of two property owners went in their search for rental tenants. This resulted in the NIZ getting only transients interested in renting, with many of those renters being poached from nearby municipalities. So instead of the NIZ drawing new revenue for Pennsylvania from out-of-state, much of the revenue was just moved from one PA source to another, resulting in a net loss to PA residents and a net gain for the two PA property owners.
4). From the beginning, city officials showed an incredible lack of vision for all that the NIZ could be, and instead seemed to focus on what the NIZ could do for them. Ed Pawlowski used the new constitution of the NIZ to sell the new buildings as HIS success to an uninformed voting base. That carried him to reelection several times. He also used it to garner union support and shake down city vendors, which carried him into federal prison.
5). Through it all there was an amazing lack of standards and vision on the part of the city. The architecture of the Reilly properties in particular has been extraordinarily common and lacks any unique features. It appears that most of those properties will be dated by the time the NIZ law sunsets, if not before that. Maybe the Jaindl section shows more style and gives the taxpayers something more lasting, but if so it won’t be because of anything the city required.
6). It’s important to remember that City Center even fought the initial tax assessment of some of their new buildings, arguing that they weren’t as valuable as the new tax assessments placed on them, which used the cost of the buildings as the taxable value. I interpret that as saying that the brand new buildings weren’t even worth the amounts the taxpayers were being charged for them.
I’ll stop there since I’ve already gone far too long. At some point, someone should write a book about the failures of the NIZ. It would have many chapters. Sadly, I don’t think our “local” newspaper will bother to even write a negative article about it.
The august NYTIMES loves the NIZ.
ReplyDeleteanon@8:55: They saw all the new buildings but didn't understand the real story behind it, as outlined in anon8:44's comment. BTW 8:44, there is a. book about it, but it's spread out over numerous posts and years on this blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat article Friday February 05, 2016 Lehigh Valley Ramblings:
ReplyDeleteALLENTOWN: A Pa VERSION OF DETROIT
Includes commentary of Dr Stephen Thode, Associate professor of Finance at Lehigh University plus related comments. Check it out.
Article by Tom Shortell/The Express Times April 19, 2012 12:54 am:
ReplyDelete"Northampton County officials share dim views of Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone, unwilling to take stance."
Lehigh Valley Ramblings article, August 03, 2018: Allentown Facade Grant Abuse Details prepared by James Whitney and Shelby Edwards: "You will see Upside Allentown members like Peter Lewnes, Miriam Huertas and Rebecca Torres acting like pigs at the trough. You will see grants awarded to millionaires and absentee landlords. You will see investors leverage grant money to turn a tidy profit. You will see friends of these Upside Allentown members getting grants while others are shot down".
ReplyDeleteLehigh University-Lehigh Preserve
ReplyDeleteTheses and Dissertations
2019
Christopher Woods, Lehigh University
Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone:
Five Years of Failed Community and Economic Development
Morning Call February 6, 2022 by Ford Turner:
ReplyDeleteThe Morning Call's 2-year fight to uncover Allentown NIZ tax money ends after Senator Pat Browne crafts a change in the law
How business elites sold the "Urban Renewal" lie to the Rust Belt.
ReplyDeleteSalon, Inc December 2, 2019. Anthony Dimaggio, Lehigh University. In other words, "And were living here in Allentown."
anon@9:30,10:01,10:56, 11:20&11:48: There are others who have written about the NIZ, but not many, not often. As for the Morning Call, their promotion of every Reilly NIZ restaurant that has come and gone far outweighed any investigation by them. I'm sure Reilly considers them a reliable advertising agency, rather than a scrutinizer..
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a tragedy that so many who once lived in this former "All American City" are willing to sit back and accept it's demise while shrugging their shoulders and saying, "That's Life".
DeleteDo they not realize that , except for the American Indian, we are descendants of immigrants from over 190 nations who came to these shores and kissed the ground upon arrival just hoping for a better place to raise their children?
Do they not realize that the majority of these new arrivals with minimal education had to learn a new language and find employment in order to feed their families?
Are they aware that unemployment and welfare compensation were non existant in those times and NEVER were the driver of this mass immigration ?
Do they not know that the majority of new arrivals to America Believed in and both Loved and Feared the Lord?
These thoughts are offered as a refresher and source of inspiration in knowing that we Had Been There and Done That many years ago.
anon@12:27: I'm not printing anymore intended links. BTW, although Bernie did print several posts over the years about the NIZ, he has since become less judgmental about it.
ReplyDelete