Malcolm J. Gross Contributes to Morning Call’s Outlook 2014: “Great Expectations” for Allentown
The Morning Call releases an annual “Outlook” insert that highlights economic trends in the Lehigh Valley. This year’s 2014 Outlook is dedicated to the “Great Expectations” associated with the building and development projects in the City of Allentown. Dubbed an “urban renaissance”, the newspaper asked Lehigh Valley thought leaders to contribute opinion pieces on the subject.
Given the Gross family’s historical legacy in Allentown politics, Malcolm J. Gross was asked to contribute his thoughts on the city’s economic boom.
“It’s not a ‘build it and they will come’ project. It’s a ‘they are coming and we are building’ project,” he writes.
Attorney Gross continues on to highlight the current downtown projects along Hamilton Street as well as the Waterfront development. He also highlights the rich history of the city including his grandfather, Mayor Malcolm W. Gross’s legacy.
“I have occupied a fourth-floor office at Crown Tower right off center square since 1986. From it, I look out on the PPL building, which General Trexler started building at Ninth and Hamilton streets in 1927. The effect that giant building had at the time must have been the same feeling that something big is about to happen, similar to my observations now. My grandfather, Mayor Mal Gross, must have hoped for explosive growth following the PPL building and he was right. The shopping district, anchored by Hess’s and the giant Americus Hotel followed. They are gone now, but today we have reason to hope again.”
Read more about Allentown’s rich history and the involvement of the Gross family in its development in Attorney Gross’s new book, “Two Mayors and A Lawyer”, available for sale from the Lehigh County Historical Society.
