Another Giant Warehouse, More Trucks, Planned for Pennsylvania Town
The New York developers of the FedEx Ground plant are hoping to break ground this year on a second warehouse in Allen Township that would be even bigger.
Even as FedEx races to complete its 800,000-square-foot package-sorting plant in time to open next year on the east side of Willowbrook Road, The Rockefeller Group is hoping to begin building a 1 million-square-foot warehouse across the street.
FedEx Corp. ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
Rockefeller officials have not discussed who the tenant would be or how many jobs it would bring, but the massive structure on what developers refer to as "Lot 5" would include 354 parking spaces for trailers and 469 spaces for cars, along with 190 loading docks.
Rockefeller first filed plans for the warehouse in November but is expected to submit revised plans in the next few months, Planning Commission Chairman Gene Clater said.
"They're on a pretty aggressive timeframe, but we'll see what happens," Clater said. "We're not concerned with a developer's schedule. We'll review it as it comes and take the time we need."
Rockefeller officials referred all questions to spokesman Brian Mahoney, who did not respond.
Much like the FedEx site, which was under township review for more than a year, the zoning on the 70-plus-acre lot was changed from agricultural to industrial use more than a decade ago.
That means the project is a legal use that likely won't be blocked by the township, so long as Rockefeller meets all the requirements — an explanation township officials made repeatedly to angry township residents who tried to stop the FedEx project.
For Robert Nappa, who can see the FedEx project from his 197-year-old farmhouse property, this is all too familiar.
"Same story, different day, I guess," Nappa said. "Of course, we're against it, but we were against the last one and that didn't get us anywhere."
The project will certainly increase truck and car traffic in the area, but that traffic was included in a Rockefeller study that projected that the FedEx plant, and two yet-to-be determined warehouses would add 14,000 vehicles a day, including 1,800 tractor-trailers.
FedEx is spending $40 million to widen three miles of road along Willowbrook Road, Race Street and Airport Road. Clater said the road widening must be complete before any of the warehouses can be open for business.
He noted that because of the warehouses, Rockefeller also is spending $3.5 million to improve the intersection at Route 329 and Weaversville Road to allow it to handle more traffic.
Rockefeller has requested the township schedule a public hearing for its latest project, but the township has not granted the request and solicitor Lincoln Treadwell suggests it may not.
"I don't think that there's any requirement that we hold the hearing," Treadwell said.
That doesn't mean there won't be public meetings. Clater said the planning commission will have meetings to review the revised plans, and if it recommends the project, Allen supervisors will have at least one meeting before the project can be approved.
The Federal Aviation Administration also will have its say. The land is owned by the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, but authority Executive Director Charles Everett Jr. on March 31 said Rockefeller has an option to buy the property if the project is approved. FAA would have to approve the sale of any airport authority property.
Rockefeller also is planning a 344,000-square-foot warehouse in Allen Township on 21 acres along Radar Drive, just northeast of the FedEx site, designated as "Lot 4."
Rockefeller also has an agreement of sale in place with the authority to purchase 155 acres in East Allen Township, just east of the FedEx project, for more warehouses. However, those projects would require a change in zoning from agricultural to light industrial business park. Several public hearings dating to October on that proposal have been postponed by Rockefeller.
