Is the Lehigh Valley the next ‘Inland Empire’?
With its proximity to the ports of New York, robust interstate system and rapid growth in distribution centers, the Lehigh Valley could be poised to become the nation’s second “Inland Empire” for freight, joining the one just east of Los Angeles, according to an expert panel that gathered Wednesday in Bethlehem for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s annual Build LV development summit at SteelStacks.
As the region’s warehouse market footprint bulges and grows together with a neighboring market in the Harrisburg area, it is poised to create one large pipeline of warehouses and logistics centers serving the entire Northeast, said Brian Knowles, a principal in the national real estate brokerage, Lee & Associates.