[Urbannizer]

Another year, another extension..

https://www.ctbuh.org/news/proposed-slender-tower-in-allentown-receives-planning-extension

It’s been 75 months since the Allentown Planning Commission blessed Bruce Loch’s plan to build the 33-story Landmark Tower on a small South Ninth Street lot downtown.

Standing 420 feet (128 meters) above a 5,200-square-foot lot, the skinny skyscraper would eclipse the 322-foot (98-meter) PPL Tower.

But reality hasn’t yet caught up with Loch’s lofty ambitions. The northwest corner of the South Ninth and Walnut street intersection remains a tidy grassy square near a slew of other construction sites.

The planning commission on Tuesday reluctantly granted Ascot Circle Realty a fourth, and apparently final, extension of its plan approval. Commissioners vowed to reject a request for another extension if they haven’t seen progress by June 2023.

“There is an end to everything,” planner Oldrich Foucek said. “At a certain point, you know whether or not you’re going to do it. ... At a certain point, we get the feeling we are being strung along.”

Reached after the meeting, Loch, president of Ascot Circle, remained unperturbed and optimistic.

“We know it will happen,” he said. “You just need persistence, and I have lots of that.”

Loch is trying to lock in a tenant to occupy at least 20 of 24 office floors in the skinny, pencil-like structure. New opportunities emerge on an almost weekly basis, he said.