The Lehigh Valley Development Corporation has a bus tour on its schedule for Thursday, May 9.

Personnel will tour the former Lehigh Valley Dairy, located in Whitehall's southern sector. The site has been the focus of various attempts at redevelopment over the last several decades.

Since taking office nearly five and a half years ago, Whitehall Mayor Edward D. Hozza Jr. has been advocating for the re-use of the dairy campus. Several times, developers were interested in the parcel but so far nothing has materialized.

The dairy structure has an art deco entrance which historians said should be preserved.

"Not at this time," Hozza said when asked if there is anyone actively interested in acquiring the property, once hailed as the gem of the township. The dairy property is a key part of the township's historic study of the southern end of MacArthur Road, dubbed as MacArthur Parkway.

Hozza said he will greet and meet with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation delegation when they tour the dairy property. The group will depart from Bethlehem.

In February 2007, Ironwood Property Group, West Conshohocken, had an informal agreement set up to purchase the dairy tract, according to a realtor involved in the transaction.

Ironwood had once competed with Regency Centers for the development of the 34-acre site that was to become a shopping center. Ironwood eventually backed out, however.

Another developer, Regency, proposed the tract at MacArthur and Mickley roads be converted to include a drugstore, four restaurants and three large retail buildings on the west side of the property. Those plans also fell through.

Joseph Negaro Jr.'s family co-owns portions of the tract. The property once housed an office park zoning designation. But the property was rezoned in 2006 to make the site more attractive to developers.