Bethlehem Is `Strongly Encouraging’ the Co-Op Boondoggle to Set an Opening Date

Sept. 26, 2025

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

The City of Bethlehem is “strongly encouraging the Co-Op to set an opening date.”

That message is from Laura Collins, director of community and economic development in the administration of Mayor J. William Reynolds. 

Collins responded to my multiple inquiries to city officials about the Bethlehem Co-Op boondoggle at 250 E. Broad St., which has benefited from $3.1 million in public money. Yet if it ever makes a profit that money would go to members.

Nice deal: public subsidy, private profit.

I’ve since heard from some other city officials, but more on that later as I have real work to do today.

A problem with the statement from Collins is that the Co-Op has said multiple times that it would open but it never did. Credibility is lacking.

Collins also, while not speaking for the Co-Op, said the federal grant that the city administered has been accounted for.

As for the delays, she said in the email statement that “the Co-Op leadership may not have understood the scope and complexity of the federal grant process.”

So the organization sought a grant, accepted it, and didn’t know how the reimbursement process went? Collins is right, I’m sure, but what does that say about the Co-Op? It hardly screams “competence.” Quite the opposite.

Collins also noted, “The Co-Op has also explained that the project’s overall timeline and costs have been impacted by market forces like rising construction costs and supply chain challenges, which is consistent with what we have heard from other developers of construction projects in the area in recent year.”

That is true but the Co-Op is years behind, and its space on East Broad Street has been available for some time, sitting empty until recently.

While it has been peddling its canard about “the dream” of buying fresh food in Bethlehem, about 15 Wawas and dozens of other buildings have gone up.

This place will probably never turn a profit but if it does, it should pay back its $2.9 million federal grant, $100,000 state grant and $105,000 from the City of Bethlehem, which directed some federal funds to the Co-Op when it could have fixed a street.

As I’ve written earlier, the Co-Op is more than three years past its opening date, has a little more than $1 million in debt and is seeking to collect on about $600,000 of pledges, and it wants to raise another $1 million.

The $3.1 million of taxpayer dollars is gone. Let’s at least stop any other dollars from being burned up by the Bethlehem Boondoggle.

I’ll get back to the statement from Collins and responses from other city officials later.