Old and New Businesses – Downtown Allentown has it all!

Allentown Chamber 
Meghan Castanaro, Air Products Allentown Chamber Chair

Over the last few years, one can’t help but notice the surge of businesses moving their offices to the Queen City. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Allentown seems to be rebranding itself to become an economic cornerstone on the East Coast and has access to an ex- tensive, quality workforce. 


I think it’s equally important to recognize companies that have been in Allentown for a long time contributing towards the city’s economic success as well as new companies entering our great city with the hope of their employee’s patronage of downtown merchants. There are two organizations I’d like to highlight - ADP and PPL. Both are successful Fortune 500 companies who place an emphasis on corporate social responsibility and giving back to their communities. 


Although ADP is not new to the Lehigh Valley, this payroll processing company is a new tenant to downtown Allentown, opening a new location at Five City Center on Hamilton Street. The company was founded in 1949 by Henry Taub who developed the idea to create a manual payroll processing service after visiting a company who wasn’t paying their workers on time because the per- son responsible for payroll was out sick. Now ADP has grown into more than 700,000 clients. 


PPL, once known as Pennsylvania Pow- er & Light Company (PP&L), was created in 1920 through the consolidation of eight electric companies with 62 power plants serving central and eastern Pennsylvania. Its headquarters has al- ways been in downtown Allentown and this PPL celebrates 100 years of being in business. To celebrate and educate such a milestone, PPL plans to sponsor and participate in various events throughout the year, including community service activities and providing special grants. 


It is wonderful to see new and old businesses thrive in downtown Allentown. I can’t wait to witness how the landscape will change over the next few years as the city continues to attract successful companies and organizations.

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