Home Care In Cherryville, PA

Loose ends must be tied down in order for the initial phase of the repurposing of the former Mary Immaculate Center in Cherryville to move forward.

The Lehigh Township Planning Commission on Monday balked at developer David Jaindl’s request for conditional approval of the initial leg of the Lehigh Valley Resort and Spa, citing comments in an engineering review letter from the township.

“It’s not a clean plan even for preliminary purposes,” Chairman David Shulman told him.

Jaindl’s team hoped for a waiver from submitting the land development plan along with a conditional approval, but the board backed Shulman in not granting it.

“We have a difference of opinion,” Jaindl said afterward.

Jaindl and his representatives will go before the supervisors June 25 seeking conditional approvals for the planned event barn and pad, said Joseph Zator, Jaindl’s legal counsel.

They hope to have plan details worked out in time for their next meeting before the planners July 8.

Bruce Anderson, Jaindl’s engineering consultant, displayed plans depicting fire lanes and hydrant locations, along with an outline of 667 parking spaces, including 206 for the hotel — one per rental unit — along with 250 for the restaurant/wedding venue and 155 for employees.

Shulman said he wanted to see calculations on traffic impact and recreation fees that the project would generate.

He also wanted some assurance that a planned swale to be installed 10 feet beyond the shoulder of Cherryville Road — to be widened from two to three lanes — would be sufficient to keep water off the road, particularly in wintertime when it could freeze.

“The roadside improvements greatly exceed what’s there now,” township engineer Phil Malitsch said.

The board also wanted to know details related to water and sewer service for the planned hotel, spa, restaurant and event amenities that make up the first development phase.

Cindy Miller, who is also a township supervisor, said it was too early to recommend conditional plan approval.

“How can we do that if we don’t know about water and sewer yet?” she asked.

Chip Hazard, a board member of the township’s Municipal Authority, said the authority hasn’t conducted a thorough review of the resort’s impact and how maintenance and inspections along the extended line will be done.

Possibly combining Jaindl’s pumping station with the one the authority operates in Pennsville is another detail to be discussed, he said, along with the amount of water they would have to buy from Bethlehem.

“What we see is a growing maintenance issue for us,” he said. “There are a lot of things we need to look through carefully.”

Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.

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Loose ends must be tied down in order for the initial phase of the repurposing of the former Mary Immaculate Center in Cherryville to move forward.

The Lehigh Township Planning Commission on Monday balked at developer David Jaindl’s request for conditional approval of the initial leg of the Lehigh Valley Resort and Spa, citing comments in an engineering review letter from the township.

“It’s not a clean plan even for preliminary purposes,” Chairman David Shulman told him.

Jaindl’s team hoped for a waiver from submitting the land development plan along with a conditional approval, but the board backed Shulman in not granting it.

“We have a difference of opinion,” Jaindl said afterward.

Jaindl and his representatives will go before the supervisors June 25 seeking conditional approvals for the planned event barn and pad, said Joseph Zator, Jaindl’s legal counsel.

They hope to have plan details worked out in time for their next meeting before the planners July 8.

Bruce Anderson, Jaindl’s engineering consultant, displayed plans depicting fire lanes and hydrant locations, along with an outline of 667 parking spaces, including 206 for the hotel — one per rental unit — along with 250 for the restaurant/wedding venue and 155 for employees.

Shulman said he wanted to see calculations on traffic impact and recreation fees that the project would generate.

He also wanted some assurance that a planned swale to be installed 10 feet beyond the shoulder of Cherryville Road — to be widened from two to three lanes — would be sufficient to keep water off the road, particularly in wintertime when it could freeze.

“The roadside improvements greatly exceed what’s there now,” township engineer Phil Malitsch said.

The board also wanted to know details related to water and sewer service for the planned hotel, spa, restaurant and event amenities that make up the first development phase.

Cindy Miller, who is also a township supervisor, said it was too early to recommend conditional plan approval.

“How can we do that if we don’t know about water and sewer yet?” she asked.

Chip Hazard, a board member of the township’s Municipal Authority, said the authority hasn’t conducted a thorough review of the resort’s impact and how maintenance and inspections along the extended line will be done.

Possibly combining Jaindl’s pumping station with the one the authority operates in Pennsville is another detail to be discussed, he said, along with the amount of water they would have to buy from Bethlehem.

“What we see is a growing maintenance issue for us,” he said. “There are a lot of things we need to look through carefully.”

Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.

Decaying and choked by overgrowth, the 252-year-old Cherryville Inn has haunted Lehigh Township for years.

The structure, which dates to 1767, is considered an eyesore by nearby residents — a shadow of its heyday as a hotel and later an art studio and gift shop.

Sitting flush against the road, it’s also an impediment to township plans to widen the intersection of Route 248 and Blue Mountain Drive to alleviate traffic backups.

In a first step to get things moving, supervisors passed a resolution in December to begin eminent domain proceedings.

The move would allow the township to take ownership of a portion of the site, raze the structure and add a turning lane.

The turning lane would done in conjunction with widening improvements that are part of a long-in-the-works plan to build a new Turkey Hill at the southeast corner of the intersection. A Turkey Hill now stands at the southwest corner of the intersection.

The supervisors turned to eminent domain after owners Eric and Anne Bodish rejected an offer of $46,000 for the property based on a certified appraisal, plus $191 per month for access to do easement, township Solicitor David Backenstoe said.

The township only wants 13,000 square feet of the 3.2-acre parcel, which sits on the northwest corner, Backenstoe said. The Bodishes would still own the rest.

Eric Bodish, an emergency medical specialist, said he bought the property in 2002 with plans to turn it into an urgent care clinic. He said a personal matter prevented him from doing so.

He also said marshland and water runoff make the parcel difficult to develop.

The building with three dormers has a storied history.

Records indicate that it was built in 1767 but no documents of ownership or use are available prior to 1865 when Robert and Catherine Wentz are said to have left the property.

It then changed hands no less than six times.

In 1932, it was purchased by Harry Seidel as an inn/restaurant.

Seidel operated it under the name The Cherryville Hotel and and later as The Cherryville Inn until his death in 1958, said Ruth Kent of the Lehigh Township Historical Society.

His wife, Helen Seidel, owned the hotel until her death in 1973, after which their daughter Betty Seidel took over.

Betty Seidel had an art studio at the inn during the 1940s, painting Pennsylvania German-themed murals. She eventually became known for her hand-crafted items, including elaborately-decorated eggs.

“I was doing eggs when nobody else was doing them,” she was quoted as saying in a Morning Call story published in April 1998.

She began operating a gift shop at the inn in 1952, which she continued to run after her mother’s death.

The Bodishes purchased the land and building at auction for $275,000 after the 2001 death of Betty Seidel, according to Northampton County deed transfer records.

Cindy Miller, a township supervisor and planning commissioner, said residents have expressed their annoyance about the property to her ever since she became a supervisor in 2011.

Miller said the township has grant funding in-hand to help pay to widen the intersection at the Cherryville Inn corner.

She said the developers of the new Turkey Hill will widen the other three corners of the intersection.

Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer.

Decaying and choked by overgrowth, the 252-year-old Cherryville Inn has haunted Lehigh Township for years.

The structure, which dates to 1767, is considered an eyesore by nearby residents — a shadow of its heyday as a hotel and later an art studio and gift shop.

Sitting flush against the road, it’s also an impediment to township plans to widen the intersection of Route 248 and Blue Mountain Drive to alleviate traffic backups.

In a first step to get things moving, supervisors passed a resolution in December to begin eminent domain proceedings.

The move would allow the township to take ownership of a portion of the site, raze the structure and add a turning lane.

The turning lane would done in conjunction with widening improvements that are part of a long-in-the-works plan to build a new Turkey Hill at the southeast corner of the intersection. A Turkey Hill now stands at the southwest corner of the intersection.

The supervisors turned to eminent domain after owners Eric and Anne Bodish rejected an offer of $46,000 for the property based on a certified appraisal, plus $191 per month for access to do easement, township Solicitor David Backenstoe said.

The township only wants 13,000 square feet of the 3.2-acre parcel, which sits on the northwest corner, Backenstoe said. The Bodishes would still own the rest.

Eric Bodish, an emergency medical specialist, said he bought the property in 2002 with plans to turn it into an urgent care clinic. He said a personal matter prevented him from doing so.

He also said marshland and water runoff make the parcel difficult to develop.

The building with three dormers has a storied history.

Records indicate that it was built in 1767 but no documents of ownership or use are available prior to 1865 when Robert and Catherine Wentz are said to have left the property.

It then changed hands no less than six times.

In 1932, it was purchased by Harry Seidel as an inn/restaurant.

Seidel operated it under the name The Cherryville Hotel and and later as The Cherryville Inn until his death in 1958, said Ruth Kent of the Lehigh Township Historical Society.

His wife, Helen Seidel, owned the hotel until her death in 1973, after which their daughter Betty Seidel took over.

Betty Seidel had an art studio at the inn during the 1940s, painting Pennsylvania German-themed murals. She eventually became known for her hand-crafted items, including elaborately-decorated eggs.

“I was doing eggs when nobody else was doing them,” she was quoted as saying in a Morning Call story published in April 1998.

She began operating a gift shop at the inn in 1952, which she continued to run after her mother’s death.

The Bodishes purchased the land and building at auction for $275,000 after the 2001 death of Betty Seidel, according to Northampton County deed transfer records.

Cindy Miller, a township supervisor and planning commissioner, said residents have expressed their annoyance about the property to her ever since she became a supervisor in 2011.

Miller said the township has grant funding in-hand to help pay to widen the intersection at the Cherryville Inn corner.

She said the developers of the new Turkey Hill will widen the other three corners of the intersection.

Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer.

Listen to this article

The site of a former Catholic seminary in Lehigh Township will become home to a mixed-use development that includes a hotel, meeting and event space, restaurants, spa and wellness center.

After receiving land development approval for the first part of the project in late August, David Jaindl, owner and president of Jaindl Land Co., said he hopes to begin construction later this year.

Jaindl said he received approvals from the township after four and a half years of working on the project. The first step involved getting the zoning in place and then filing a land development plan for phase one.

The plan calls for converting the former Mary Immaculate Center, part of a 600-acre property at 300 Cherryville Road in Northampton County.

“It’s a beautiful structure, it’s in great condition,” Jaindl said. “We are trying to repurpose it. We are keeping the chapel which will be a wedding venue.”

The property, which has been vacant for many years, sits back from the main road and on one of the highest spots in Northampton County.

The plan also includes construction of several detached buildings that will become a hotel with a portion of the rooms inside an existing structure and the remainder in a new building. Overall, he plans to create 206 hotel rooms.

The project includes a 124,000-square-foot main structure in addition to a 9,000-square-foot convent that will become a spa and wellness center.

A barn with a working greenhouse and event space will support farm-to-table dining options, he added.

Jaindl plans to complete the development in early 2022 and announce a formal name for the project at the end of September.

“We do a lot of land development projects from the ground up,” Jaindl said. “We like the structure. We’ve been looking at it for a long time.”

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia had users that wanted to take the structures down and Jaindl said he did not want to see that happen. He bought the land from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2016.

“We felt it was a great repurpose,” Jaindl said. “It’s an aggressive project, but it’s a project we feel very confident in completing.”

The second phase will feature a 500-unit residential portion, that still requires land development approval. These single-family homes will include some detached and attached units and will give homeowners the ability to access the resort amenities.

Jaindl said he plans to submit a concept plan to the township for the residential units within the next two months and potentially start the approval process. If the economy continues to perform well, he plans to start construction on the housing portion next fall.

“For the resort, we are going to have crop farming, grapevines, and orchards,” Jaindl said. “We have a little bit of experience on the agricultural side. We hired an operator that will be operating the facility.”

He hired Two Roads Hospitality as the operator. Jaindl’s son, Adam, is vice president of land development and serving as project VP.

Jaindl plans to start planting grapevines and orchards this spring and do a lot of organic work with crop farming.

Though he has not hired a general contractor yet to start construction, he plans to bid that project out. He said he did hire a contractor to get a pricing estimate. He also hired a design firm.

He declined to provide an estimated construction cost for the project.

The project could potentially add up to 300 jobs to the region when it opens, he added.

Cindy Miller, vice chair of the Lehigh Township board of supervisors, said the job creation is an important component of the project.

“We are basically a rural area so that’s important to us,” Miller said. “It will bring increases in tax revenue. We are looking for a way to protect the local economy especially when there’s a downturn.”

By improving the infrastructure of the property, it could raise the standard of living for residents of the township, she added. The project also opens opportunities for the township to apply for grants that it wasn’t able to before, she said.

As an example, with the addition of a hotel on the property, the township could qualify for hotel tax funds.

She sees positive benefits with taking a vacant building and repurposing it, particularly since it had been vacant for many years. Now, the project would bring many different amenities to the township.

“There was a potential down the road that this could become blighted,” Miller said.

She described the property as being one of a kind in the valley.