Developer seeks nod to build two warehouses in Lower Nazareth

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

A developer has submitted plans for two warehouses and potentially some retailers on Route 248 near the Route 33 interchange.

Lower Nazareth Township supervisors have seen different plans dating back to 2002 for the nearly 60-acre parcel across from Prologis Parkway.

Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust Inc.’s plans call for two warehouses less than 600,000 square feet and the sale of the two front parcels for small retail space.

The two buildings will face each other with loading docks running the length of the warehouses, according to Gregory Davis, the attorney representing First Industrial. Davis said the developer does not have any tenants identified.

The municipality signed off on previous plans for the site in May 2002, when Virginia-based Higgins Development Partners proposed a warehouse, convenience market, bank and fast food restaurant.

Plans ceased and Higgins ended up selling the land to First Industrial Realty in March 2007, Davis said.

First Industrial in 2008 then came before planners with plans to construct a 700,000-square-foot warehouse, a 120-room hotel, a 38-lane bowling alley, an 80-seat fast food restaurant and a 5,400-square-feet sit-down restaurant. That plan later was tabled.

First Industrial brought sketch plans earlier this month before the planning commission for a smaller-scaled project than the previous proposals.

Davis said Higgins’ plan for the two warehouses had been more than 800,000-square-feet.

“It’s more than 25 percent smaller than what Higgins was proposing,” Davis said.

Planners said some residents on Country Club Road, whose properties are in front of the property in question, had expressed concerns in the past that they didn’t want to go from looking at farmland in back of their homes to warehouses. Light shining into windows in the evening also was an issue, planners said.

To satisfy those concerns, Davis said the developer plans to construct a large berm between the development and residential properties. A six-foot fence will be installed on top of the berm, he said.

“The planning commission seemed satisfied that would do the trick,” Davis said. “In addition, there will be significant landscaping.”

The planners want to make sure Mandy Partners in Easton has access to the same route to Route 248 as First Industrial. Mandy Partners owns an undeveloped parcel next to the property where First Industrial wants to build.

Davis said First Industrial hopes it doesn’t have to re-apply for conditional use approval since Higgins already gained the nod. Planners said that depends on how much the footprint of the project has changed since Higgins’ application.

“We’d like to move forward with a land development plan,” Davis said. “We’re close, I think.”

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth/index.ssf/2011/09/developer_seeks_nod_to_build_t.html