Zoners Approve Broad Street Medical Office

The Bethlehem Zoning Hearing Board gave unanimous approval Tuesday for variances requested by Novak Broad Street Ventures LLC to construct medical offices on the former Jack Jones Buick dealership site on the condition that an offsite parking lot at 532 Fourth Ave. be used only by employees.

will lease 17,040 square feet in a new three-story building at 325 W. Broad St. for general practice by its affiliated physicians and laboratory use. The development is expected to cost about $5 million, and plans call for the building to open in spring 2013.

that housed the dealership and apartments at the corner of W. Broad Street and Third Avenue was completed earlier this week.

The building, vacant since 2005, had fallen into disrepair, including roof damage, collapsed ceilings and mold, buckled floors, and deteriorating bricks falling from the building, according to structural engineer Bryan L. Ritter.

Zoners granted variances from the maximum impervious coverage to allow the building to encroach into the eight-foot triangle at the intersection of W. Broad Street and Third Avenue. The developers, Ed Novak and Lou Pektor, also were granted relief from constructing an off-street loading space and the elimination of a two-foot planting area along Schaffer Street.

Sue Kandil, Novak’s project manager, said a total of 72 parking spaces will be available, with 38 spaces designated for client parking at the office building and 34 at the offsite lot, about 500 feet away. Nine spaces will be designated for compact vehicles. Under the zoning ordinance, 69 spaces are required.

, a family practitioner who has had offices across the street for 35 years, voiced concerns about adequate parking at the facility. He said he has a small lot for patients but because of the highly dense residential neighborhood, he has had to call police about trespassers. “Parking is cutthroat,” he said, “especially in the winter.”

The project had received .