More details of Phantoms' Allentown arena, hotel, offices emerge

Allentown's downtown hockey arena complex is designed to include an eight-story hotel with a restaurant and one floor of meeting rooms, a six-story office building with a penthouse level and a 125-space underground parking garage that will be accessible from Eighth Street.

The historic Dime Bank building on Seventh Street will house the hotel lobby, and include a "party deck" at the same level as the arena's lower suites. Guests sipping cocktails before events at the hotel will be able to congregate on a catwalk that will line up with the fourth floor of the office building.

All of it is expected to be completed using domestic steel, priced out using union labor, and ready for occupancy by Sept. 13, 2013.

The authority, which is overseeing construction of the 8,500-seat arena at Seventh and Hamilton streets, has not announced a construction company or who will run the hotel or occupy the office building.

City officials, Allentown Commercial and Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Scott Unger and Hammes Company Sports Development Inc., which is overseeing arena construction, did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

The arena, estimated to cost $158 million, will host the Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers' American Hockey League affiliate, as well as concerts and other cultural and sports events. City officials have said they are negotiating with a private developer on the offices and hotel.

Interest in the project is high. The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce sold all 300 seats to its forward-looking annual business breakfast featuring Mayor Ed Pawlowski on Wednesday. That's never happened before, said Miriam Huertas, the Chamber's Allentown representative.

Here are a few new details about the project, according to the ACIDA request for proposals:

The authority has a goal of using 15 percent minority and 5 percent women construction workers and contractors on the arena project.

The hotel and Hamilton Street retail and restaurant spaces should be ready for interior finishes by May 2013, offices by June 2013.

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More details of Phantoms' Allentown arena, hotel, offices emerge