PHILADELPHIA-CAMDEN-WILMINGTON-ATLANTIC CITY-READING | Metro Development Thread

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Yeah. The inventory situation is insane. My parents live in Upper Chichester Township (which is obviously not the Main Line). The last I checked, there were 3 houses on the market in the entire township. It's a township with close to 20,000 people (so i.e. not small). Houses in the best subdivisions are selling quickly at or over ask for $425k-$600K, prices that have never been seen there. Next door in Garnet Valley, houses are selling regularly for $100K over ask and $1MM is a normal price for an updated SFH with modern layouts.

4 years ago, a house sold on their block for about $200k. 3 years ago 2 similar houses sold for +/- $300K. A few months back, their new neighbor paid $450k. The new neighbor is a single engineer for Microsoft who moved from Northern Virginia. So the inbound movement from people from high cost regions is not just a story of Center City and the Main Line. It's happening all over the area.

It's hard to find any For Sale signs anywhere. I haven't passed one in a while.

Why sell now when rates are up and everyone is sitting on those ultra low mortage rates they got a few years ago.

The only housing you can get near me in Exton/Lionville is if you got one of townhomes in the communities being built along Lincoln Highway or in any of the several new apartment complexes. Houses for resale? Good luck with that. I can just imagine as soon as any home hits the MLS here in Eagleview...they swoop in on it in a few hours...

[summersm343]

Cape May County is the most expensive real estate market for second homes in the U.S.

Cape May County — home to the tony Jersey Shore resort towns of Avalon and Stone Harbor — tops the list for the most expensive second-home real estate in the U.S.

The county has an average price of $989,000 for a second home so far this year, according to a report from real estate company Pacaso. That leads the nation, despite being down 9.3% from a year ago, the report found.

Pacaso analyzed transaction data for second homes alongside second-home values across the U.S.

Cape May County, the southernmost county in New Jersey, ranks No. 15 in the U.S. for the largest number of second-home transactions so far in 2023. Other popular beach towns in the county include Ocean City, Wildwood, Sea Isle City and Cape May.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...et-avalon.html

[summersm343]

With 1,700 apartments planned on City Avenue, developers prep for 'tipping off point'

With more than 1,700 residential units and an influx of commercial development planned along City Avenue, developers and business leaders are aiming for the Northwest Philadelphia corridor to transform from an auto-centric thoroughfare into a regional hub.

Marked by major development projects mixing residential, retail, office, hospitality and public space, City Avenue is primed for a facelift.

“This is a connected district. It’s going to be City Ave District. It’s not City Ave that’s just a road,” City Avenue District CEO Bryan Fenstermaker said. “People believe it’s just a road. We’re going to try and change that. That’s a big opportunity.”

During a City Avenue District panel event Wednesday, discussion centered around planned developments including:

-Keystone Development & Investment’s One Belmont project with a five-story and six-story building connected by a bridge, 270 apartments combined in the two, public space, and 36,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store. Construction could start by the end of the year.

-Federal Realty Investment Trust is developing a six-story building with 220 residential units and 15,000 square feet of retail replacing the former Lord & Taylor store at Bala Cynwyd Shopping Center, which Federal is spending $8 million to rebrand and reposition the property as Bala Cynwyd on City Ave. Federal Realty is targeting a 2024 construction start for the new apartments, a project planned to feature 1.5 acres of public space. Federal Realty completed a $23 million apartment building on the backside of the Bala Cynwyd Shopping Center in 2020. Called the Delwyn, the project consists of a single, six-story building with 87 apartments.

-Hanover Co. has plans for more than 400 apartments at 111 Presidential Blvd. The five-story building would include ground-floor commercial space and construction is planned to start next year.

-Tishman Speyer received preliminary approval for a 2 million-square-feet master plan development at the Bala Plaza site. The 20-year plan calls for 757 multifamily residential units, a 168-key hotel, 700,000 square feet of office space and 200,000 square feet of retail space. It includes 12 acres of green space, 5.5 miles of new trails and a public amphitheater.

-Cross Properties has received approval to build a four-story building with 83 residential units and ground-floor commercial space at 202 Bala Ave. across the street from BMW of the Main Line.

Several of the projects create new public gathering space, multi-use trails and a cluster of population density close to commercial attractions.

There’s already more than 2,800 residential units within the district’s 2.7 miles on City Avenue, 30,000 employees who work in the area and tens of thousands more who live nearby in both Philadelphia and Lower Merion.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...er-merion.html

[EastSideHBG]

Conshohocken’s Zoning Hearing Board rejects appeal by developer seeking to develop apartment community in Conshohocken


https://morethanthecurve.com/conshoh...-conshohocken/

[PHLtoNYC]

Ardmore master plan saga...

Ardmore master plan removes increased building heights, proposal could be revisited
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...velopment.html

A recommended zoning change to allow for taller buildings, one of the most controversial parts of the proposed Ardmore master plan, is being removed after Lower Merion Township commissioners argued it distracted from the rest of the guiding document.

Opponents of the height allowance argued more density would come with more traffic on roads and the loss of Ardmore’s charm.

“This is just like another, ‘Oh well we’re not going to have a final answer on this quite yet, but we’re going to keep thinking about it,’” Snead said, “which to me is the opposite of a plan.”

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

Conshohocken’s Zoning Hearing Board rejects appeal by developer seeking to develop apartment community in Conshohocken

https://morethanthecurve.com/conshoh...-conshohocken/

So, what IS it zoned for? Apartments are within spitting distance. Of all suburban areas, I suppose hoping for more office development in Conshy is reasonable, but why hold on to a parking lot with that expectation? "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

Ardmore master plan saga...

It could be a book, a movie, or (even better) a role playing game: "NIMBY: The Ardmore Master Plan Saga"

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

So, what IS it zoned for? Apartments are within spitting distance. Of all suburban areas, I suppose hoping for more office development in Conshy is reasonable, but why hold on to a parking lot with that expectation? "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Anything but residential:

A. Office building.
B. Hotel/motel and meeting room facilities when ancillary and subordinate to the hotel/motel.
C. Public or private parking lots, excluding motor vehicle junkyards.
D. Recreational, open space, river-oriented recreation and marina.
E. Public terminal, train station, or taxi stands.
F. Parking garages.
G. Accessory uses.
H. Retail establishment.
I. Municipal building or community facility.
J. Bank or other financial institution.
K. Restaurant, excluding drive-in or drive-through type.
L. Personal service shop.
M. Movie theater.
N. Fitness center, health club, or racquet club.
O. Any use of the same general character as any of the uses above is permitted when authorized as a special exception.

[summersm343]

Winter 2023 in Philadelphia - my new photo thread. Check it out!

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...00#post9946700

[Jawnadelphia]

I’ll add an update shortly.

[ZSuede]

Tower crane is up for the office building at Avenue North in Delaware:

[Urbanthusiat]

Bunch of smaller headlines aggregated from the last month that I don't think have been posted.

Report Shows Benefits of New Coatesville Train Station Extend Beyond the Tracks

Why Incyte's expansion plans hit a barrier, plus updates on other projects near Wilmington

Largescale Development Gets Final Approval By Phoenixville Council

Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority will use federal funds to develop service plan

Development Project Set to Add Chipotle, Super Wawa to Kennett Square

Westrum Development Opens 211-Unit Apartment Community in Lansdale, Pennsylvania

Pennsbury Plaza Shopping Center Upgrades Planned

Developer Unveils New Vision For North Broad Street Site In Doylestown

Plan could bring new homes to Lower Makefield's Torbert Farm off Newtown Bypass

500 New Jobs Expected With Riverfront Warehouse In Falls Twp.

Haddonfield Planning Board Approves Ellis Street Lofts Commercial-Residential Project

Residential Building Projects Underway In Horsham

Zoning Change Could Add 53 Townhomes In Horsham

Two Warehouses Coming To Horsham Township

Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for Delaware County Community College’s New Southeastern Campus in Drexel Hill

Dobts Loom Over Proposed Senior Development On Cherry Hill Farmland

Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US Opens Florence, New Jersey Distribution and Training Center

Half-Million Square Feet of Warehouses Being Developed in Burlington County

Grocery store planned for the fast-growing Bayberry community north of Middletown

Electric bike manufacturer Metalrays leases 109K SF in Elkton

[TonyTone]

BPG unveils Market West campus with $150M Nemours reno


https://delawarebusinesstimes.com/news/bpg-market-west/

The mixed-use campus includes the DuPont, Nemours and Brandywine buildings along with the CityCenter and ParkBPG parking garages. Today, there are 553 apartments, several restaurants, two theaters, a hotel, a food hall, a coffee shop, retail shops, a cowork space, and 1 million square feet of offices in the three-building stretch.

“We don’t want people thinking, ‘Oh, I’m just moving into the Brandywine Building.’ We want them to feel like they’re moving into Market West – that they’re part of something bigger,” Buccini told Delaware Business Times. “When we first acquired the Nemours building [in 1999], there was no market-rate housing in downtown Wilmington. Now, what we’ve done is created this district that we want to be like one micro-market within the central business district.”

The focal point of Market West will be a rejuvenated former Nemours Building, where BPG is investing $150 million to redevelop its 450,000 square feet of office space, 16,000 square feet of existing retail, and 85 former extended-stay furnished apartments. The project will reduce the office space to 150,000 square feet and repurpose the historic building into 355 luxury apartments, expand The Mill co-working space to 75,000 square feet, introduce a new upscale restaurant, and transform the 17,000-square-foot outdoor plaza connecting the former Nemours and Brandywine buildings.

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by ZSuede

Tower crane is up for the office building at Avenue North in Delaware:

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=253374

And great to see Downtown Wilmington’s continued growth!^

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=253374

And great to see Downtown Wilmington’s continued growth!^

Jawn are you that Public Image page on the Wilmington Reddit who posts those development updates?

They just posted a big update about some major projects & the lot at 8th & Orange.

Wilmington is on FIRE right now

[Marcos]

Originally Posted by TonyTone

They just posted a big update about some major projects & the lot at 8th & Orange.

Wilmington is on FIRE right now

I didn't see that post but learned that yesterday on my way to Makers Alley, pulled into that lot & was surprised to see that sign (this lot to permanently close May 31st); there is a ton going on down there right now.

By the way that is one cool little beer garden.

[summersm343]

Greater Philadelphia loses a unicorn as Misfits Market moves its headquarters to Maryland

The Philadelphia area is losing a unicorn as Misfits Market has relocated its headquarters to Maryland after trimming a large chunk of its workforce and closing its South Jersey facility.

The Philadelphia-born grocery delivery startup was founded by University of Pennsylvania alum Abhi Ramesh in 2018 and later moved outside the city to Delanco, New Jersey. It reached a $2 billion valuation in 2021 and acquired one of its main competitors in September. Now, just months after undergoing a companywide consolidation that saw it lay off nearly 450 New Jersey workers, the company's official headquarters have shifted to its distribution site outside of Baltimore. Most of its corporate employees work remotely.

"While Abhi still calls Philadelphia home, the company's HQ has shifted to our facility in Hanover, Maryland. As a company, we are a fully distributed team and don't have any official offices outside our five warehouse facilities," said Ken Shuman, a spokesperson for Misfits Market.

Misfits Market's move drops it off of a rather short list of startup unicorns in the Philadelphia area, a list that includes Gopuff, dbt Labs and Phenom. A unicorn is commonly defined as a privately held startup with a valuation over $1 billion.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...dquarters.html

[summersm343]

How red hot is Seven Mile Island real estate? These 4 homes for sale in Avalon and Stone Harbor tell the tale.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a real estate listing under $1 million on Seven Mile Island. Whether it’s a traditional Jersey Shore cottage in a prime location, a vacant lot waiting to host a new build or a modern beach house, property values are sky-high in Stone Harbor and Avalon this Memorial Day Weekend.

The typical home value was $2.24 million in Avalon and $2.13 million in Stone Harbor in April, according to Zillow, both more than six times the national average. That’s a 101% increase in Avalon compared to five years ago and an 83% increase in Stone Harbor.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=3#cxrecs_s

[arkitect13]

I apologize if this doesn't really fit in this thread but i just noticed something, i know all the "worry" about philly loosing population and stuff, with other cities surpassing us etc etc. But to my knowledge most of the cities we are worried about lost population majorly as well, and infact, in percentages of there total population you could see they lost more then us in some cases. All of floridas major cities except Orlando lost thousands and countinue to do so, austin, Dallas, san antonio, and houston have all seen large decreases and flattened out, or in Houston and Dallas' case continue to loose population as well, houston went from 2.316 mil in 2019 to 2.188 million in 2021 and most projections have it falling still.
I also think the census just really underestimates us and our metro, i think that eventually there is a chance we will fall down a rank again, but I'm hoping we can stay a bit ahead of them for a while longer.
Also i apologize if i opened a whole new can of worms

[EastSideHBG]

After Spending Years Vacant, Former Kennedy-Kenrick Site in Norristown to Be Developed



https://montco.today/2023/06/housing...nnedy-kenrick/