This article originally appeared in the July 8, 2021 issue of “LV Connections,” a quarterly newsletter LVEDC distributes to municipal officials in the Lehigh Valley.

The Lehigh Valley is inching closer to a post-pandemic world and our economy is continuing to grow.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, LVEDC was monitoring 52 projects that are considering a move to or an expansion in the region. Twenty-nine, or more than half, of these companies were manufacturing prospects, while 17 were in the distribution sector.

Most of these prospects were seeking 200,000 square feet or less, reflecting a continued demand for small- and medium-footprint industrial buildings in the Lehigh Valley.

You can read more about the regional market and see a break down of office, industrial, and commercial space in the new Lehigh Valley Commercial Real Estate Report. Here are some recent major project updates from across the region:

Biopharmaceutical Company Yourway Expanding its Lehigh Valley Headquarters

A rendering of how Yourway’s building in Upper Macungie Township will look after its expansion is complete. (image courtesy Yourway)

A biopharmaceutical company based in Upper Macungie Township is expanding its headquarters to 300,000 feet, doubling its packaging, storage, and distribution facilities in the Lehigh Valley.

Yourway is an integrated premium courier and clinical packager in the clinical trials supply chain market, providing packaging, ancillary materials sourcing, clinical trials kitting, logistics, storage and distribution, and premium courier services to the global biopharmaceutical industry.

The expanded complex will add an additional 3,500 pallet locations of refrigerated 2-8 °C space. A total of 1,000 new pallet locations at that temperature have been added so far as part of phase one of the expansion, which is already complete. You can read more about Yourway here.

Cigars International Nearly Doubling its Space with Bethlehem Expansion

Cigars International has broken ground on the expansion project at Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII in Bethlehem. (photo courtesy J.G. Petrucci Company Inc.)

Cigars International, an online and catalog-based retailer of quality cigars, is expanding its headquarters in Bethlehem by an additional 100,000 square-feet, nearly doubling its existing space in the Lehigh Valley.

The company has broken ground on the expansion project at 1911 Spillman Drive in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII, where its existing 113,500 square-foot facility is located.The Cigars International building is located within a significant brownfield redevelopment project on land formerly occupied by Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The 13.22-acre site provides excellent connectivity to major highways and is included in the LERTA tax program.

You can read more about Cigars International here.

‘New Class of Office’ under construction at Allentown’s Waterfront

Jaindl Enterprises broke ground in February 2021 on a six-story office building at the Waterfront, a mixed use development on the former Lehigh Structural Steel site. (Photo Courtesy of Jaindl Enterprises)

Jaindl Enterprises has broken ground on a $39.5 million office building, the first project in the larger Waterfront development that promises to transform an old industrial patch along Allentown’s stretch of the Lehigh River.

Casting it as “a new class of office,” Chief Operating Officer Zachary Jaindl said the six-story building will focus on “wellness” as businesses reimagine office space in the post-pandemic world.

Some of those wellness features are COVID-19 specific: an upgraded HVAC system, ultraviolet filtration in the ducts to sanitize the airflow, touchless elevator buttons, a manned wellness desk and common areas that are regularly sanitized. You can read more about The Waterfront here.