The Waterfront Development Company apparently believes nothing says transformation quite like the demolition of a building or two.

As visual testimony to the City of Allentown’s NIZ-driven transformation, Waterfront Development will begin demolishing a pair of industrial warehouse buildings this Thursday to prepare for Phase I of The Waterfront project’s first building, which will be located at 615 Waterfront Drive.

The doomed warehouse buildings — structures originally constructed for use by the Lehigh Structural Steel Company – will be expunged, paving the way for the construction of site infrastructure and what will become the development’s first building. Phase I will include three new office buildings, a residential apartment building, the first of two parking garages and the first half of the site’s signature half-mile River Walk.

LVEDC has worked closely with Waterfront developers and governmental officials throughout the entire process.

On January 22^nd LVEDC learned its grant application for environmental remediation work at The Waterfront was approved in the amount of $466,250. That grant was prepared in-house by the Lehigh Valley Land Recycling Initiative, the brownfield development program run by LVEDC with the support of Lehigh and Northampton counties.

“By working with Waterfront developers Jaindl Properties and Dunn Twiggar – groups that are sinking $285 million of their own money into this project – we are dutifully constructing the foundation for more businesses, more jobs and more tax revenue for Lehigh Valley. It’s yet another major win for Lehigh Valley,” Don Cunningham, LVEDC president and CEO, said at the time of the grant announcement.

Cunningham is scheduled to speak at the ‘Waterfront Spectacle” event. Also on the dais: Allentown Mayor Pawlowski, Pa. Senator Pat Browne and Mark Jaindl, who will be presenting on behalf of The Waterfront partners.