The latest issue of the Lehigh Valley Commercial Real Estate Report highlights the expansion of the region’s industrial marketplace, including a new manufacturer and other job creation.

The cover article, “Lehigh Valley’s Semiconductor Industry is Driving Innovation,” explains how companies such as Broadcom, Cisco, Coherent, iDEAL, Infinera, and Intel are developing, producing, and assembling semiconductors that are relied on by Google, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Meta, AWS, Netflix, Nokia, and the Department of Defense, among others. 

Those firms are carrying on the region’s legacy of technological advancement, as it was at Western Electric in Allentown where transistors, the forerunner to semiconductors, were first mass produced in 1951.

“We were the first Silicon Valley and still have many of the country’s leading technology firms – and some great new ones – thriving here,” said Don Cunningham, President and CEO of Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC).

The region recently applied to be a federal Tech Hub, a designation that could boost and expand the region’s semiconductor and related industries and strengthen the U.S. supply chain in an industry critical to national security.

Published each quarter by LVEDC, the Lehigh Valley Commercial Real Estate Report provides a detailed overview of industrial and office market activity, notable real estate transactions, and population and labor force trends. The newest edition covers data from the second quarter of 2023.

The digital version of the new issue can be downloaded here, and hard copies are available upon request.

With a vacancy rate of 3.5%, the Lehigh Valley’s industrial real estate market grew to nearly 150 million square feet with another 3.2 million under construction, according to the report.

Key additions include:

• Schless Bottles, a premium plastic jars and bottles manufacturer, announced it will relocate to Allentown from New Jersey, investing $7.5 million to acquire and renovate a production facility and creating 98 jobs.
• PPL Corp. announced it would relocate its corporate headquarters to Two City Center in Allentown.
• A. Duie Pyle opened a 326,630-square-foot distribution center in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, that will bring 50 new jobs.
• Shift4 Payments, a payments processing firm and a global leader in financial technology, started its move into a new corporate headquarters in Upper Saucon Township to accommodate growth.

The Commercial Real Estate Report offers more insight into what is driving Lehigh Valley’s population growth, to nearly 700,000. Recent data from the Census Bureau shows the region is an attractive location for young adults, a sought-after demographic for employers.

You can read the Commercial Real Estate Report for the first quarter of 2023 here.