When New York City transplant Manuel Gutierrez opened his shop on Sixth Street in Allentown in 2011, he had eight barber chairs, one employee and a lot of free time.Today, those once-empty chairs keep eight cutters busy, and Gutierrez has the bustling business he only dreamed of when he risked everything to leave New York.There may not be a tomorrow, because Gutierrez's Brothers Barbershop is among a growing number of rental units and businesses in the path of downtown Allentown's renaissance. The block he shares with a day-care center and several apartment dwellers has been marked for demolition to clear the way for upscale apartments.He won't be the first tenant to be pushed out by $1 billion of redevelopment downtown. Last year, tenants along Eighth and Walnut streets had to flee demolition that's clearing a path for a proposed $200 million office tower and luxury apartment complex. And to make room for PPL Center, dozens of renters and businesses in the proposed arena block were forced out in 2011 under threat of eminent domain.
While some of those businesses have adjusted, others have not recovered.Gutierrez worries he'll be in their shoes soon. "That first year was tough. It took time to build this. Hell no, I don't want to move again," said Gutierrez, 33. "I'd be starting all over again. Even if I moved only a few blocks, it would kill me. My customers know this location."Gutierrez's shop sits in the middle of a block, from 32 to 44 N. Sixth St., that is scheduled to be razed so City Center Investment Corp. and Cityline Construction can begin building a 66-unit luxury apartment complex called Strata II. It's an extension of its 170-unit Strata, which already is nearly sold out. It's also a sign that people are again willing to pay as much as $1,700 a month to live in a downtown that not long ago was known more for too much crime and not enough to do. Thanks to generous tax incentives in the city's 127-acre Neighborhood Improvement Zone, several office buildings, restaurants, a hotel and more than 30 shops have opened in the past two years.
Three of the six buildings on Sixth Street are owned by City Center, but all of those have been empty for months, according to City Center spokesman Jeff Vaughan. City Center and development partner Tom Williams of Cityline Construction plan to break ground on Strata II next spring or early summer. Williams owns two of the other three buildings. The third, which houses the day-care center, is owned by Robert Inselman. City Center CEO J.B. Reilly this month assured downtown leaders that the project would benefit the city."Those buildings [being demolished] are in terrible condition," Reilly said. "This is going to bring a major upgrade to that neighborhood."Strata's success is a shining example of an Allentown reborn. But that progress does not come without pain, and Sixth Street tenant Elissa Douglas thinks she and her neighbors are expected to shoulder too much of it.Douglas moved into that block five years ago because she liked its urban feel, but mostly because it is 200 yards from the LANTA bus station that takes her to her jobs at Niagara Bottling and the Lehigh Valley Mall.
She knows that $550 monthly rent she pays now won't come close to buying her the smallest apartment in Strata II."I've been a good tenant for five years and they haven't even had the courtesy to tell me I'm out," Douglas said. "I loved this downtown before they spent $1 billion to renew it. Her neighbor, Rey Rodriguez, said he's getting rather used to this. He said he lived on Walnut Street last year, when his landlord told him he'd have to move because the building was being sold and then demolished to make way for the proposed $200 million Five City Center complex.Now, it looks as if he'll have to move again. He's among tenants being asked to leave four apartments, the barbershop and the day care."I feel like I just got here. I love it here and I'm sad that I have to move — again," said the American Red Cross worker, abruptly stopping himself from complaining. "But I see the benefits, and I'm going to try to stay downtown. I really want to be part of what's happening here. It may not be good for us, but it's good for the city."
Rodriguez's landlord said he hopes to help all of the tenants relocate. "We have 150 properties, including many downtown," said Williams, owner of Cityline Construction. "I'm sure we'll be able to work something out with all of them. We'll find them new homes."That will not be so easy with the businesses. Gutierrez says his business won't survive a move, and the Sixth Street Daycare next door won't even try. It closed Friday and will not be reopening. Parents did get 30 days' notice to find another day care. It's the second day care to close in that neighborhood. The New Generation Learning Center day care did not reopen after being forced out of the arena block in 2011.Being displaced by the arena turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to Paula Paredes' accounting and tax preparation business. One of the last holdouts to sell, Paredes was paid $747,000 to move her ATAX franchise from the 31 N. Eighth St. building she bought for $400,000 less than two years earlier.
She bought a new tax office building for $270,000 across the street, where she has twice the space. And she needs it because her business has doubled."It turned out to be a tremendous opportunity," Paredes said. But I'm afraid I may be the only one. Some of the others aren't doing so well."In the weeks after moving his Hamilton Street variety store to a strip mall in east Allentown, Kwonhee Park said his sales plunged more than 90 percent. He's spent the last four years trying to rebuild, but is resigned to the fact it will never be what it was. Still, he refuses to look back. "Negativity does me no good," said Park, whose Pinocchio wireless is in Allentown Commons. "The past is the past. I will be OK."John Lee's experience falls somewhere between Paredes' success and Park's struggles. In the months after moving his New York Fashions variety store from Hamilton to 603 N. Seventh St., sales fell 40 percent, he said. And he quickly realized he had to adjust. He still sells cellphones, hair products and jewelry, but he's learned to cater to the people in his new heavily Latino populated neighborhood.
"We only moved six blocks, but it was completely different," Lee said. "It took a long time for people to find us. And it took a while for us to know our new clientele. It's still not where it was, but we're getting there."But Paredes, Park and Lee had help that the tenants on Sixth Street won't have. Because the arena block people were threatened with eminent domain, they were eligible to not only get top dollar for their buildings, but moving costs and even business relocation fees.Because the tenants on Sixth Street don't own their buildings, they'll likely get none of that. Gutierrez said his lease runs another six years and he intends to enforce it. Williams disputes that, saying all of his tenants are on month-to-month leases.Lee recommended these new casualties of progress fight the way he, Park and Paredes did four years ago, but he cautioned Gutierrez to be careful what he wishes for.As he looks back, Lee said he's glad he was not able to stay in the arena block. The sidewalks of Hamilton Street are busier these days since thousands of new office and hotel workers have arrived.