A major Pharma company called Lilly- I never heard of them decided to build a 3.5 billion dollar facility in Upper Macungie vs Allentown. Lets look into this.
1. Why
I can only imagine the obvious, Lilly watches the news and sees how dysfunctional Allentown is. Sees lawsuits after lawsuits. Shootings, stabbings, corruption.
They saw an inept Mayor who has brought no investors into the city in 4 years except his good pal J.B. Reilly.
Someone who is spending tax dollars for his own leisure. Bloggers have stated Tuerk was in D.C all week. Im sure no one will no why but we paid for it.
Couple this with the fact the Lilly reps couldnt really drive around because of the shitty snow management made things easier on their decision.
But my sources tell me the deal breaker was the fact the arch in the 1100blk of Hamilton St. wasnt big enough and questiooned why the mayor wanted a welcome sign 20 blocks into the city. Dont you welcome people into your home, not wait until they are in your bathroom taking a shit.
What this means
I am not sure what a 3.5 billion dollar building would bring in tax revenue but I am sure it would be more than enough to offset the mayors leisure spending account.
Now Butz wouldnt magically get the construction contract without any hurdles.
800 jobs lost within the city limits.
Omg!!! I forgot the unlimited photo opps for the Mayor!!! What will he ever do?? Its a good thing I am in a good mood so I dont give suggestions.
My point is another failed attempt to capitalize on something for Allentown. The Lilly project, will help Parkland build a new football stadium. Pay off that beautiful recreational center they built. All while we are stuck with a weird out of place Arch to show for.
.png)
23 comments:
The 1st riot we have in down, people are going to be hanging on that arch until they pull it down.
As a Jewish American living in Bethlehem I find that arch quite reminiscent of the Auschwitz gate. I find it appalling that Allentown leaders really don’t think things through before implementing.
ABE allentown is reminiscent of all things shitty and has been cisternious for quite a few years now. Remember always don't drink the water as in the salespitch the ppm was only 19 special isn't it, they were testing distilled water in a dirty testube.
Mayor Matt is a narcissist and a liar.
Under the rainbow is the new hoestro and like China watch what you've purchased as it could be a surprise. Hope the will become there allowable drug store drive by too because democrat ills infect the entire city.
This is an intriguing post, no other media source even contemplated the possibility that Eli Lilly might build its manufacturing project in Allentown. While Tuerk has a staff of 7 high paid professionals, did anyone from Allentown City Hall think; hey why not here? Was the Mayor too busy doing selfish videos to jump in with other local legislators and try to bring them to Allentown? Tuerk was quick to roll out the red carpet for Nowhere Coffee at 9th & Hamilton for a businesses that seems closed the majority of the time. Where was Lehigh County leadership and State Senator Miller??? While most Parkland residents are pissed off about the project, they view as more suburban sprawl and loss of valuable farmland. Bringing Eli Lilly to Allentown would have been a regional success story of sustainability, accessible urban jobs and a much needed increase to the City's tax base. You've raised a great issue here, what a missed opportunity and a poor job by the City and Lehigh County
Allentown is a dump and even if there was space available in Allentown for Eli Lilly to build this facility, I don’t think for a moment they would find Allentown attractive.
We have a lunatic do nothing Mayor who has no clue about city management. He brings nothing but embarrassment to the city with his stupid punk rock/“cool” kid act, he has incredibly inept managers under his control, and he has a continuous assembly line of accusations of discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, sexual harassment and many other EEOC complaints..
His highly paid staff of seven has dwindled down because many of them have left his office after realizing just how phony and dark spirited he really is. His executive secretary is disliked by almost everyone and doesn’t even show up for work 98% of the time. Yet, she is his most trusted and followed advisor. Evil attracts evil, i guess.
His DEI Manager has apparently caused more problems and distrust for the departments, probably because Matt or his secretary have the DEI Manager weeding out those they don't like and speak out against his horrible leadership.
His Administrative assistant has been with the city for years and has certainly been indoctrinated into Tuerk’s dark and evil style of leadership.
It becomes quite obvious why no significant investment has happened while Matt Tuerk has been occupying the Mayor’s office. The city has the wrong management and a mayor that is a joke.
The only major companies that remain are in the NIZ and that is a financial decision. Watch how Allentown changes after the tax incentives end in 2042. I just hope we make it to 2030 at this point. That is a lot of time for Tuerk and his team to do real irreversible damage to the city.
AMEN to that brother!
Honestly did you really expect anything different.
When the Upper Macungie manager opines "Its beautiful here; low taxes, exceptional schools, high quality of life and fantastic parks" you get the impression of honest and sincere pride in delivery of cost-effective essential services to residents. You do not get the impression of:
Expensive junkets all over US, reportedly with a young female assistant. Inexperienced and unqualified employees with low staff morale and discrimination claims Showing off in an over-priced tax payer funded vehicle 24/7/365. Hanging out with hipster indie bands or posting selfie videos during work hours showing how cool you are. Constant efforts to raise property tax, earned income tax, property transfer tax and other fees.
Just competent/efficient delivery of services and trustful/careful spending of tax payer funds. UMT is the type of place Eli Lilly wants to bring their company and employees to. Is it any wonder Allentown residents who can afford to leave want to go there too?
Thank you. It doesnt but yet does make sense as to why everything is built around Allentown. There is Jaindl land at the waterfront. Nothing there. All of merchants square is being torn up. I know warehouses are going there, but why not a huge corporation?? Why doesnt anyone want to be a friend to Allentonians and spend 3.5 billion on a company headquarters here??
Remember, economic development and the ability to draw these types of projects to the city were supposedly his expertise. This project could easily have been placed at the former Mack site in the city.
So what was missing? Competent leadership.
I’m not sure when Lily actually made its decision as to the location (vs when they announced it), but if they drove anywhere in Allentown since the snow storm they’d encounter narrowed streets with cars parked in the roadway, making two lane streets a single lane, and see scenes reminiscent of a Mad Max movie.
Maybe they caught videos of his antics during the 2024 Trump visit to the city. Tuerk’s immaturity may have played well to his democrat base, but I’m guessing that big company exert more of a diverse group politically, or at least don’t want to deal with the type of drama that many democrat politicians want to stoke.
As usual, elections have consequences, and Allentown voters have chose poorly.
Finally, as far as the arch, it IS telling that it’s 20 blocks into the city. Look at the plowing and that’s obviously where our elected officials think the city begins. The neighborhoods surrounding those few blocks of Hamilton are clearly not a priority and of no importance other than serving as an ATM to take care of the needs of wealthy campaign donors.
“…I’m guessing that big company exert…”.
Should be “…big company execs…”
Matt Tuerk was a fraud at the LVEDC and AEDC. People laugh at him when he enters the room and laugh even harder when he leaves. I attended the Chamber meeting last month and the tragic mess of a show Matt put on as he delivered the state of the city address was comic genius. Matt got so many laughs. While a failure at his times at LVEDC, AEDC, and of course mayor of Allentown, he definitely has a future as the punchline of jokes.
Big deal for Upper Mac. We have the most progressive Zoning Ordinance in Pennsylvania!
The only way a facility this big could have located to Allentown, would be an abandonment of the Allentown Airport on Lehigh Street. I recall that Ed Pawlowski was trying to get rid of the airport for just this reason; the site does have some potential for manufacturing or industrial development with some upgrades to the Lehigh Street/I-78 intersection. The Jaindl site provides around 100 acres and I just don't know where else in Allentown you could have put a site this large for manufacturing.
There is a site in Allentown off of Lehigh and Vultee Streets that could have accommodated this project and brought those high paying jobs to the city.
I believe there have been plans for a warehouse there that would have exceeded the Lily project, and the Allentown warehouse plans have been going nowhere for over a decade.
But that the difference between competent and incompetent leadership. Allentown will attract (at best) large warehouse plans with few jobs, whereas places like Upper Macungie are attractive to many different types of development, including those with high-paying manufacturing jobs.
And thanks for mentioning Queen City Airport. It doesn’t have to be closed and removed. That’s a unique asset to the city, yet our mayor is so inept that he doesn’t seem to know how to capitalize on that.
Two words: Stormwater "Fees". The looters have hatched a brilliant scheme to extract even more money in the name of upgrading the stormwater infrastructure. They don't assess their "fees" based upon actual runoff but in what they deem as impermeable surfaces. No business in their right mind is going to develop in Allentown for rightful fear of more schemes like this being cooked up in the future. Wait 10 years and see how much stormwater infrastructure was actually repaired and how much of the fund was used for anything BUT stormwater runoff. It's a ponzi scheme of the highest order. Those looking to build take a close look at the clown show and take a pass.
I suspect that the LVEC analyzed the most feasible location to compete against the other contenders, chose UMT for very clear advantages, and backed their decision. It was a regional decision and LV outperformed NC. Good for LV!
It all makes sense now... They reconfigured Main St in west Fogelsville and I thought it was for more housing... maybe this was part of the reason old 22 was changed. I pity the poor folks of Fogelsville that must deal with the increased traffic. I hope the truck traffic will give more business to the truck stop and the truck dealership there. The Adams Road interchange has been on the books for many years and may help traffic going to 78 rather than going to 78 thru Fogelsville and Kuhnsville if it finally comes to fruition.
J.B. Reilly and Pat Browne own a bunch of land near the proposed Adams Road interchange. Similar connection as the NIZ/Allentown Waterfront project. Birds of a Feather or what?
Under the arch are they tureks girls trying to sell something they couldn't give away in your meme ABE?
They do but everyone wants to always give benefit of the doubt. This mayor is the devil
Post a Comment