Allentown expects Da Vinci Science Center to supply renewed momentum, downtown influx

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The new Da Vinci Science Center is spearheading the latest wave of development in downtown Allentown, one that soon could bring more than a half-million new visitors to a few blocks of the city every year.

The 67,000-square-foot building in the 800 block of Hamilton Street is set to open Wednesday morning and welcome its first official guests, though many groups have gotten sneak peeks.

Da Vinci executives hope — and are highly confident — this week’s first guests will start a steady stream of visitors; they project more than 400,000 people will walk through the doors each year.

And City Center executives expect more than 300,000 people to annually frequent their new Moxy hotel and Archer Music Hall, which are under construction but scheduled to open this year two blocks west of the science center.

“It's taken a while to get it going again, but I think these three projects definitely will help get us to where we want to be."

Santo Napoli, Allentown City Councilman and downtown business owner

The number of projected new visitors to those three projects — about 700,000 — is roughly the combined population of Lehigh and Northampton counties.

That influx will restore some of the “momentum” downtown was enjoying just before the pandemic hit, according to Allentown City Councilman Santo Napoli, who has run downtown businesses for 25 years. He also chairs the Downtown Allentown Business Alliance.

“It's taken a while to get it going again, but I think these three projects definitely will help get us to where we want to be,” Napoli said.

Napoli called the Da Vinci Science Center “another huge puzzle piece” for building downtown’s long-term success. He said it will be a “regional asset” that will attract “a lot of folks” from Scranton, Harrisburg, Reading “and beyond.”

An executive from the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation said it’s the latest in “a growing list of attractions that have been developed in downtown Allentown in recent years."

It’s expected to have a “multiplier effect” on the local and regional economy by bringing more people — and “a younger audience” — to downtown Allentown, according to George Lewis, a senior adviser at LVEDC.

And the “critical mass” of new commercial and housing developments gives visitors “a lot of good reasons to want to explore the downtown and see what our biggest city has to offer,” he said.

Keeping visitors in the city longer “can only help” the city’s small businesses, Napoli said, noting he often does good business at his assembly88 clothing store when events are being hosted in town.

“I can speak for a lot of the small business community down here: We're really excited,” he said.

Downtown revival

Napoli first launched a business in downtown Allentown in 1999, and for many years, “it was tough down here.”

But Allentown planted roots for a downtown revival with the establishment of the Neighborhood Improvement Zone in 2011 and the PPL Center’s construction in 2014, he said.

A host of other redevelopment projects have been completed in the NIZ since, including new office buildings, restaurants and numerous apartment buildings.

“We've seen steady progress over the last decade in bringing office workers to downtown, bringing new attractions to downtown, bringing new businesses to downtown,” Lewis said.

A housing-conversion project next door at Dream Grand Plaza — next door to the new Da Vinci Science Center— and similar plans at the iconic PPL Tower could bring even more momentum downtown.

The NIZ is a special downtown taxing district meant to incentivize developers to invest in the city’s “urban core” by allowing them to use state and local taxes to pay down bank loans or bonds that helped get their projects off the ground.

UntitledThe new Da Vinci Science Center was projected to cost about $75 million.

The nonprofit received about $20 million from bonds issued by the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, which oversees the incentive-laden district.

PPL is the building’s “title sponsor,” while Olympus and Lehigh Valley Health Network sponsor exhibits. It’s unclear how much the companies contributed.

The project to build the new facility also benefited from $12 million in state funding from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, a $3 million federal grant secured by U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-Lehigh Valley, and $1 million from the city’s pandemic-relief money.

Construction crews broke ground on the property in April 2022. The new science center is projected to generate more than $33 million in economic activity each year while supporting almost 500 full-time jobs.

‘Ready to go’

Hundreds of thousands more visitors could soon descend on downtown Allentown, but it’s ready for them, according to officials.

Downtown Allentown is no stranger to large crowds, with PPL Center regularly hosting thousands of people with little issue, Napoli said.

The area has two hotels — The Americus and The Renaissance — with The Moxy soon to open.

And there’s “easy parking,” according to Napoli, who also sits on the Allentown Parking Authority board.

He estimated there are about 6,500 parking spaces in garages “within a block of everything."

“When we look at all these folks coming to Allentown, we're ready to go,” he said.