Playa Bowls, a quick-service restaurant chain offering eco-friendly food options, will open a new location in the Lehigh Valley in Lower Nazareth Commons Shopping Center.

As companies look to the Lehigh Valley to move or expand headquarters and manufacturing operations, a key part of their decision-making is the question of workforce. If the workforce exists, that’s where they will go, and it’s a top reason many major companies recently announced plans to build in the region.

That’s according to a local economic expert who shared details of his economic forecast for the Lehigh Valley Business Real Estate & Development Symposium on Thursday at DeSales University.

The National Association of Realtors said a recent survey found that nearly one in four home sellers have changed how their home is viewed on the market because of the outbreak of COVID-19.

Colliers International, which has a Lehigh Valley office in Upper Macungie Township, is acquiring a controlling interest the engineering services company, Maser Consulting P.A., in Red Bank, New Jersey.

Penn State Lehigh Valley has started construction of a $14.4 million expansion project that will include a STEM wing, organic chemistry lab, new dining facility and veteran and adult learner lounge.

After discovering a need for more office suites and co-working space in West End Allentown, a local real estate exec decided to fill the need.

With potential approval of its $42 million landfill expansion looming, waste disposal company Grand Central Sanitary Landfill of Plainfield Township plans to host several meetings to inform the public about the project.

Construction of market-rate apartments is surging across the nation in both urban and suburban areas, while construction of units for low to moderate-income renters has declined dramatically.

Officials say River Pointe Logistics Park, a proposal for an industrial park on 725 acres in Upper Mount Bethel Township, has potential to attract manufacturers to the Slate Belt, a largely rural region of Northampton County.