Maybe it’s the glistening glass and steel now rising above Seventh and Hamilton streets that’s getting their attention, or maybe it’s the $500 million being spent on a downtown block once left for dead, but Lehigh Valley residents are beginning to come around on Allentown’s arena project.

A new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll shows a growing number of people think the arena, its Renaissance Hotel and surrounding office buildings will raise Allentown’s fortunes.

• Related

• 

  VIDEO: What the Lehigh Valley’s saying about Allentown’s arena

• 

  VIDEOS: Chris Borick on The Morning Call / Muhlenberg College poll

• Muhlenberg College/Morning Call 2014 Lehigh Valley Quality of Life Survey

• Photos

• 

  PICTURES: The hockey arena at PPL Center from 2 City Center

• 

• Video

• Allentown’s arena from above

• Topics
• 
  
  Bethlehem Township (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
  
• 
  
  Ed Pawlowski
  
• 
  
  Muhlenberg College
  
• See more topics »

More than three-quarters of those surveyed — 77 percent — said the construction would have a positive effect on their image of Allentown. That’s up from 63 percent just a year ago.

And 75 percent said the construction was very or somewhat important to the overall quality of downtown Allentown, which is up from 66 percent last year, when steel girders were just beginning to rise out of a dusty hole at the city’s center.

“I think people see the project nearing fruition and they can tangibly see the changes in the downtown, and that is starting to reflect in people’s perceptions of what it means to Allentown,” said Chris Borick, the Muhlenberg College political scientist who conducted the poll.

That hasn’t increased the number of those who say they expect to attend events at PPL Center, which remains at slightly under 50 percent. But Borick said the level of interest in the venue at Seventh and Hamilton streets — which will be the home of the minor league Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey team and will host concerts and other events — is steady and in line with other major Valley attractions such as Coca-Cola Park, the State Theatre and Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

“The early signs of interest are fairly comparable on the whole,” Borick said.

The number of people saying they regularly or occasionally visit Coca-Cola Park was 61 percent, the Sands 55 percent and the State Theatre 48 percent, all about the same as last year. The number of people who said they were somewhat or very likely to attend events at the arena fell 1 percent in 2014 to 48 percent.

That’s encouraging to Jim Brooks, Phantoms co-owner. He expects the level of interest to increase once people find out some of the specific events already being booked for the arena’s first season, which is expected to kick off this fall.

“Knowing a little bit of what might be going on, half the people are interested. Two-thirds of the other 50 percent are saying they are not sure what’s coming. That’s pretty good,” Brooks said. “I think people are going to be pretty impressed with what we bring outside of the Phantoms.”

The shift in attitudes toward Allentown is something Mayor Ed Pawlowski has been fighting for almost since he took office more than eight years ago.

“In today’s world, 77 percent of the people agreeing that anything is positive is pretty amazing,” Pawlowski said. “Obviously, people are getting excited, and now that they can see things going up downtown, that’s only going to grow. I expect the numbers to be even better next year.”

In some respects, it’s an about-face from two years ago, when 18 suburban communities sued Allentown to halt the project unless suburban earned income tax dollars were removed from the formula used to pay for the $177 million arena.

Joan Grider, 65, of Bethlehem Township, is exactly the kind of suburbanite the project appears to be winning over. Grider is a former Bethlehem Steel worker who, in better days, went to Allentown to shop and eat — but not in this century.

Grider was among the 403 adults surveyed about their perceptions regarding the quality of life in the Lehigh Valley, including several questions about development in Allentown’s arena district.

“We don’t go to [downtown] Allentown at all. In fact, we avoid it,” Grider said. “But I expect that we’ll go to the new arena, and from the restaurants they’re talking about, we’ll probably go there to eat, too. It seems like Allentown is making a comeback.”

Other responses Pawlowski might be encouraged by include the fact that 30 percent believe the development will reduce crime downtown, compared with 29 percent who said it will increase crime. That may not be an all-out endorsement, but the same question in the 2013 survey had 27 percent saying it would reduce crime compared with 38 percent who thought it would increase crime.

Perhaps even more encouragement comes from the people who say they won’t go downtown after the arena opens. Of those, just 12 percent listed crime as the reason why, compared with 18 percent who listed crime as their primary concern in the same question last year.

“Perceptions are changing — that’s clear,” Pawlowski said. “That’s the first battle.”