Allentown's City Center inks first retail tenant

It's not Abercrombie & Fitch, but it's a start.

Downtown Allentown developer City Center Investment Corp. announced Monday that it has signed business services and printing company Minuteman Press to occupy 2,000 square feet of retail space in its 11-story Two City Center office tower at Seventh and Hamilton streets.

The office services store is unlikely to rival the late Hess's as a Christmas shopping destination any time soon, but it is the first non-restaurant retail tenant City Center or any other downtown developer has announced for any of the downtown properties being developed or rehabbed along Hamilton Street.

"We always knew retailers, just by their nature, are kind of followers," said J.B. Reilly, City Center CEO. "They want to see the development in place before they commit."

The city's Neighborhood Improvement Zone tax incentive zone has added hundreds of new office workers and several new restaurants to Allentown's central business district, but so far, other forms of retail, especially national brand name stores, have been slow to follow.

That's about to change, Reilly promised.

"The interest in our retail is exploding, in that 2015 my expectation is that downtown Allentown will become a retail destination," he said.

The downtown will never return to its department store heyday, he said, but it will become a place that draws shoppers looking for "authentic shopping experiences."

"You're not going to have a department store downtown, nobody is building department stores anywhere anymore," he said.

City Center, which controls 60,000 square feet of retail space in its various properties both open and under construction, is in final discussions with a number of "unique quality retailers" Reilly said he expects to announce as tenants within the next two to three months.

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Allentown's City Center inks first retail tenant