Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Regional Group to Assist Municipal Boroughs

The Morning Call has an article (read it here) about downtown development and the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation's (LVEDC) desire to bring together investors and business people on a monthly basis to different municipal boroughs and show properties available in them for development.
'We want to be more inclusive of not only the urban centers but also our boroughs,'' said Bob Wendt, the group's regional coordinator, adding that the new emphasis reflects changing demographics. ''A growing number of younger people are choosing to live in the boroughs -- where they can walk to the store and their kids can walk to school.
This is good news for communities like Nazareth, where the Nazareth Downtown Association (NDA) is forming and can serve as a point of contact and liaison between the LVEDC and local property owners. Further, if NDA becomes a PA Downtown program grant money will become available to businesses and property owners for facade improvements and other purposes designed to improve the downtown district.

1 comment:

anonymous said...

As a business owner in Nazareth, I can tell you first-had that LVEDC is a political machine that employs a pay-for-play approach to property development. Just as Nazareth has rightfully shunned joining the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, they should also reject any involvement with LVEDC.