Sept. 15, 2025
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The Bethlehem Co-Op won’t open until some indefinite date and it is seeking another $1 million, mostly to repay loans.
It was supposed to open in 2022, then later, then later, then “this summer” and now the Co-Op may figure out an opening date sometime in November, after some refrigeration work is done. That’s from Monday night’s board meeting.
Considering the number of delays, or “adjustments,” to the date earlier, believe it when you see it. Again, November is when they may figure out the opening date, it’s not an opening date as of now.
The $1 million sought is on top of $3 million in public funding and whatever it has raised from members ($300 each) and borrowed, at high rates.
The Bethlehem Boondoggle keeps burning cash, public and private. Burning their own cash, fine; wasting public money is not fine.
I’ll have more on this later, but that was the news out of tonight’s Co-Op board meeting.
Remember, this place was supposed to open more than three years ago, and so far, it hasn’t sold a single fresh pepper at its 250 E. Broad St. site in Bethlehem, under three stories of new apartments.
The meeting on Monday at the Fowler Center in south Bethlehem was full of well-meaning chat, but the reality remains: this place is years behind schedule, it has high-rate debt and the opening date keeps getting pushed back.
The Co-Op has two loans outstanding, one of close to $700,000 and another of nearly $400,000, and its goal is to get money donated or at low rates to cut costs. Again, that information is from the Monday meeting.
The organization is also looking for board members.
“If we go down in flames, at least you can look yourself in the mirror” and know you tried, as one board candidate put it.
Credit for honesty.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 