Developer curbs costs to boost sales

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To sell each twin unit, the project’s principals cut the price by 25 percent and shaved 18 percent off each unit’s square footage.
The changes have paid off nicely. To date, seven units have been sold with six occupied. Construction is ongoing, said Bruce Loch, who runs the development company, formerly called ACDC, with a partner, James Burkos. Loch said he hopes to sell 24 units by the end of the year and to have sold the last portion of the 54 units by next year.

“We’re real happy with the way things are going,” said Loch.
Initially, each of the semi-attached houses located behind the former Bennett Toyota dealership on the corner of Hanover Avenue and W. Broad Street in Bethlehem were to be offered at $199,900 each; they’re now listed at $149,900. The previous square footage was 1,700; the twins are now 1,400 square feet.

“People can’t afford what they did three years ago, in general,” said project builder Randall Hoffman of R and S Hoffman Builders LLC out of Schnecksville. When houses sit unoccupied, the interest on the loans taken out to build them mounts, Hoffman said.
“The interest will eat you alive,” he said.

Each twin features three bedrooms, two baths, a garage and a Juliet-style balcony.
Site work, including curb, water, sewer, electrical cable and storm sewer, was completed by Scheuermann Excavating Inc. in Whitehall Township.
The name of the project comes from a former use of the land. According to Loch, the construction site is the former home of Central Park, an amusement park that opened in the early 1900s and closed in the early 1950s. As proof of the land’s former use, Hoffman said he found many old-fashioned Coca-Cola bottles when the land was cleared for the current project. “That’s an interesting part about the project,” said Loch.
Loch said that he and Burkos have been developers in Allentown and Bethlehem since 1977.
Other projects include Penn Square, Franklin Woods and Washington Crossing, all in Allentown. Loch said the company has been responsible for 1,000 residential units in Allentown alone.

“We’re much more active in Allentown than in Bethlehem,” he said.