PLAINS, Pa. — Piece by piece, a more than 200,000 square foot building in Plains Township is coming down.
This is the former site of the county-owned Valley Crest Nursing Home.
This demolition follows work developers at TFP Limited did in April to remove hazardous materials from the building and makes them one step closer to a rendering on the company's website.
"A lot of different things on the property. I'm thinking residential, retail, entertainment, medical, business, and things associated with those uses," said Robert Tamburro with TRP Limited.
The developer tells Newswatch 16 he thinks a lot of things that are working in the Lehigh Valley could work here in our area.
Shoppers nearby agree.
"I am kind of a hunter and a fisherman. I like to see, like, I miss Gander Mountain and Field and Stream, something like that," said Dan Goodwin of Lovelton.
"I would love to see a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's or a Home Goods," added Shannon Falchack from Mountain Top.
"Forever 21 or a PacSun or just more shopping places because the mall doesn't have a lot of places anymore," said Lauren Falchack.
But before any of those can become possibilities, developers say traffic needs to be worked out. In their current state, the roads are not compatible with construction vehicles or heavy traffic.
"We also estimate that the cost of the off-site improvements on the PennDOT highway system is going to be between $10 million and $15 million," said Tamburro.
Developers say they just submitted a traffic study of more than 2,000 pages for the site and are close to getting enough grant money together for that multi-million dollar improvement needed. Once that's in the works, they can start marketing the space to retailers and other possible tenants.
There isn't a definite timeline yet, but developers say they're on the right track.