On Tuesday morning, State Representative Steve Samuelson, Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds, and ArtsQuest President and CEO Kassie Hilgert held a press conference to announce $900,000 in funding for upgrades outside of the planned ArtsQuest community center.
The grant comes from Pennsylvania’s Multimodal Transportation Fund, which seeks to create safe and reliable transportation systems in communities statewide.
“This is one grant out of a number around the state. In the last few days, $104.6 million has been awarded all across Pennsylvania. Senator Boscola and I are very proud to bring $900,000 right back here to Bethlehem.”
In Southside Bethlehem, the money will be used to improve pedestrian safety through the installation and upgrading of sidewalks and crosswalks, ADA accessible ramps, enhanced street lighting, and streetscape amenities like increased greenery.
Improvements will stretch from the Hill to Hill Bridge to New Street, and will connect the Greenway to the new community center.
Mayor Reynolds shared credit for city projects like this one with Samuelson and Senator Lisa Boscola, who he said always deliver for residents.
“We have a lot of these announcements in Bethlehem, and we only can do them because of the sense of collaboration and cooperation between institutions like ArtsQuest and state leaders like [Representative Samuelson] and Senator Boscola.”
He emphasized the importance of ensuring that the city of Bethlehem isn’t built only for cars, but is instead built for people.
ArtsQuest hopes to begin construction on their new community center in early April of 2025 and complete the project in October 2026. The 5-story, 78,500 square-foot building will provide state-of-the-art space for expanded arts programming.
Hilgert went on to emphasize the importance of not only the center, but also of the outside improvements, explaining that, “you can design the building to be inviting, but if the streetscape around it doesn’t encourage walking, you haven’t accomplished that goal.”
