Sanofi eyes move to Upper Saucon

Why should the office be in Allentown? No easy access, nightly shootings. Clean up the city first.

Allentown, are you kidding. That is a joke, right?

1. In another era, Allentown would have had a chance.

2. Does Pawlowski not know that global MNE have finance analysis departments? 10 years tax abatement and then go onto tax roll in Allentown vs. Upper Saucon. It is a no brainer. Given what Pawlousy is doing with finance, the rainy day fund is gone, the sewer and water funds have been depleted, the bond reorganization surpus is all but gone by end of 2009, the city has new taxes under Pawlousy, and it is facing budget shortfalls, pension funds are underfunded and you have ever rising benefit costs, of course they are not going to locate to Allentown.

It is not even a crime or a talent issues, as they would expect people to commute and will have a top notch security system anyway. It is a financial issue of not being saddled with supporting a city with an ever declining business tax base.

Pawlousy is a fool. He should have never been economic development director and he should have never been mayor. It is good to see Donny C. finally cutting off the life-line to Mayor Pawloser.

Donny C. has earned back some of the respect lost since his turning over funds to Properties of Merit. We are less than a year from getting rid of Allentown's second clown it's Mayor. We finally got rid of Sib Bennett.

Democratic Party has a potential future, if we can find some local instead of these 2nd rate interlopers.

Well, the VP said what he found attractive:

"Company Vice President Frank Epifano told the commissioners that the Stabler Center is attractive because of its location near Interstate 78, its proximity to Lehigh Valley International Airport and the ''excellent'' schools, colleges and universities in the area."

It's the ASD and location that instantly kill the deal for A-town. Sanofi employs professionals who simply will not send their kids to Allentown schools.

Pawlowski is putting the cart before the horse. He's not going to get more professionals in the city until he cleans things up for good.

A number of years ago, an individual argued the carosel from Bushkill Park should be moved to Center Square Easton because of "historic value". The resulting argument between officials allowed a company from out of the area to purchase the carosel and remove it to some warehouse. Had the officials remained silent, Bushkill Park's original owners would have been more than happy to keep the carosel intact at the park. IF the mayor of Allentown wants business to move into his town, he should jettison his "entitlement attitude" (similar to the one officials in Easton had) and make Allentown attractive to business. WHY would any company want to move into a dilapidated, street trashed, area when they have new facilities readily available? The casino's sent a rather strong message to Allentown, what part wasn't understood?

In other words, the mayor should push the broom instead of his words otherwise, the business may decide to relocate out of the Lehigh Valley because of perceived trouble from one, short sighted individual. This is jobs coming in here.

Why give tax breaks to the third largest (and foreign) drug company? The question isn't where the tax benefit goes, but why give this entity the break at all?

TAX CRITIC wrote:

Why give tax breaks to the third largest (and foreign) drug company? The question isn't where the tax benefit goes, but why give this entity the break at all?

So they move here and not to NJ. GEEZ, My two year old nephew can figure that one out.

That's right - bring 'em in. Upper Saucon will fill their pockets once again on the sly while causing hardships to the community. Tax breaks given again to the rich. Jobs are already filled by their own people so no jobs will be available. Then roads will deteriorate under the stress of additional vehicles, traffic jams will increase and just make the area a bigger mess than it already is.

Tax breaks for the wealthy while filling Upper Saucon officials pockets. Kidding? Not on your life.

Taxes for incoming companies should INCREASE thereby taking the burden off middle income and seniors which are prevalent in the area.
Give ME a tax break. What a joke. Thanks Stabler bigwigs. Thanks a LOT. YOU don't live here. We do.

i can understand allentown's mayor wanting this successful business to move to allentown but how can anyone force a company to re-locate somewhere it does not wish to be?
stabler business park is glamorous, shop & movie-oriented, easy to park, easy commuter access, considered safe...who can blame them.

i am wondering why mcall can't spell their name correctly in the headline. awesome.

More evidence that Pawlowski is a big cry baby. I'm all for bringing business to the downtowns of the Lehigh Valley but whining will get you no where.

It's time for him to clean up the crime and the schools. After that work on the traffic flow and parking...then think about getting big time players like Sanofi to come to town.

Is there proofreader positions open at mcall???

spell much wrote:

i am wondering why mcall can't spell their name correctly in the headline. awesome.

check out the final costs of the yet-to-be constructed highway clover-leaf intersection at route 309/valley park road and subtract that figure from taxpayer benefits.

Pawolski--get over it. Allentown is a dump. Nobody wants to visit there, go shopping there, or especially work down there.

I'm sure you tried to show them the PPL building and how great it would be for them to have an office downtown right?? Haha--yeah right!!'m sure they would much rather have their people commute to dumpy downtown Allentown than a nice new building in Saucon.

In Allentown or not, this is really stupid for Pennsylvania.

We are going to give this company 10 years of tax free status because the moved 40 miles, within the state of PA?

This is ridiculous under any circumstance. It would be less so if they were moving into one of our cities and their was some redevelopment benefit but no way should an office building in Suacon Valley be given KOZ status to lure a company from Monroe county.

At least spell their name right!

This would be a nice pickup for the valley, hope it happens.

I'm willing to bet they are considering one of the KOZ zones in Allentown but they figure hey, if the county and other government bodies will grant us the KOZ on old farmland why not. That is why the mayor is upset.

I say let them relocate to an existing KOZ site or let them stay in Monroe County.

Matt_PSU wrote:

At least spell their name right!
This would be a nice pickup for the valley, hope it happens.

It would be a net loss for PA though. Remember they are only coming from the Poconos.

Fake economic development.

IF ONLY wrote:

i can understand allentown's mayor wanting this successful business to move to allentown but how can anyone force a company to re-locate somewhere it does not wish to be?
stabler business park is glamorous, shop & movie-oriented, easy to park, easy commuter access, considered safe...who can blame them.

The company can locate anywhere they want, just not with tax incentives that Allentown taxpayers help fund.

This corporate welfare for the rich has got to stop somewhere. With a location as attractive as the Upper Saucon one, why do they need incentives at all?

This should have been denied. I thought that Cunningham ran on a platform of revitalizing the cities and preserving farm land, not giving greenfield developments tax breaks!