The city of Allentown paid more than $15 million to buy and tear down an entire city block for a new hockey arena and entertainment complex, but did the city pay too much? 

A 69 News investigation found some property owners look like they made huge profits in a weak real estate market -- in some cases, up to five times what they paid for their buildings just a few years earlier.  In spite of the numbers, the city believes taxpayers got a good deal.

It's numbers season for tax preparers like Paula Paredes, but she believes the number she got from the city of Allentown to take her old building was too low.

"They don't give me the right price," she said.

Some 30 property owners were forced out to make room for the city's new multi-million dollar hockey and concert arena, slated to open late next year.  Tempers flared last summer as business owners said they were being cheated.

"No fair," said Paredes.  "They don't treat me fair."

But records obtained by 69 News show Paredes and others did well -- in some cases, very well.

Paredes bought her old location on North Eighth Street for $400,000.  Less than a year later, the city paid her $650,000 for the building, plus another $97,000 in relocation expenses just to move across the street, to what Paredes admitted is a nicer building that needed few renovations.

69 News asked Paredes if the city paid too much for her building.

"Yeah," she replied. "For the situation.  We not have too much choice." 

Parades is certainly not alone, though.  Property records indicate some of the buildings that used to stand in the area fetched up to five times what their owners paid for them just a few years earlier.

Sam Hong, owner of New York Fashions, received $852,000 in sales and moving expenses.  He bought his building five years earlier for $150,000.

"It's hard for me to imagine that a building that was worth $150,000 in downtown Allentown four years ago suddenly is generating that much more income, that today it's worth four or five times that," said Stephen Thode, a real estate expert at Lehigh University.

"The numbers don't tell the whole story," said Sara Hailstone, who oversees much of the arena project as Allentown's Community and Economic Development director.

Hailstone said, in spite of the numbers, taxpayers got a good deal.

"Time was of the essence," said City Councilwoman Jeanette Eichenwald.  "They were under the so-called proverbial gun."

Property owners were likely paid extra, according to Thode, to avoid possible lawsuits and costly delays.

"There's always the risk that other people who'll be joining you in the venture," he said, "will look at it and say, 'This is taking so much time.  I think we're going to back off.'"

City Council authorized Mayor Ed Pawlowski's administration to use eminent domain to seize the properties, but appraisers who worked directly on the project told 69 News there was a concern that landowners could challenge whether the project was truly a "public use."

Hong admitted that he would have likely taken the issue to court had the city offered him less money; he could not say how much less.

"Yes, it is a lot of money," he said, "but you know what?  Without that, it's either go with the court, fight."

The city paid for Hong's property, and others, with a loan.  The city hopes to pay it back with tax dollars generated by the arena itself, as well as businesses that located near it. 

A Neighborhood Improvement Zone will funnel tax dollars back into development around the arena.

Hong is now in a new space about a half-mile away.  He had to spend $200,000 to renovate it.

"A lot of people like to think that I have all this money in the bank.  I don't," he said.  "It's all invested right back into Allentown."