ALLENTOWN, Pa. – One of downtown Allentown’s newest attractions is set to get a huge gift just in time for the holidays.
The Da Vinci Science Center will soon receive $12 million from the state budget office after the Allentown City Council approved the grant last week.
City officials applied for and accepted the eight-figure grant on behalf of the Modern Museum, which officials said cost about $75 million.
The Da Vinci Science Center is “another huge puzzle piece” to the long-term success of downtown.
Santo Napoli, Vice President of the Allentown City Council
The Da Vinci Science Center secured about $20 million in bonds issued by the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement District Development Authority, which oversees an incentive-laden tax district downtown.
The project also received a $3 million federal grant secured by U.S. Rep. Susan Wild and $1 million in coronavirus pandemic relief funds for the city.
The $12 million grant, which will remain in city coffers for a short period, comes from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.
The RACP supports the design, acquisition and construction of economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historic improvement projects.
PPL is the building’s “title sponsor,” while Olympus and Lehigh Valley Health Network are the show sponsors. It is unclear how much the companies will contribute.
“A huge puzzle piece” for downtown
Then the government. Tom Wolfe championed the role state funding will play in the development of the Da Vinci Science Center when he joined a host of officials in April 2022 for a groundbreaking ceremony in downtown Allentown.
The 67,000-square-foot facility is at the forefront of the latest wave of downtown development after opening in May.
“Another huge puzzle piece” to the long-term success of downtown.
Vice President of the City Council of Santo Napoli
It is expected to welcome more than 400,000 people each year, while officials said the Moxy Hotel and Archer Music Hall — scheduled to open soon just blocks away — will attract about 300,000 people.
The number of new visitors expected for these three projects is approximately the combined population of Lehigh and Northampton counties.
City Council Vice President Santo Napoli said this year that the influx could regain some of the “momentum” that downtown Allentown had just before the pandemic hit.
He called the Da Vinci Science Center “another huge puzzle piece” to the long-term success of downtown.
Naples and his fellow council members passed a resolution Dec. 18 to accept the $12 million grant after eliminating a 14-day waiting period between introducing legislation and voting on it.
