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

[PhillyEngineer]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Kimco takes on phase three at Suburban Square on the Main Line





https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...struction.html

Are they replacing the commuter parking? I park in that lot from time to time to take the Regional Rail into Center City.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by PhillyEngineer

Are they replacing the commuter parking? I park in that lot from time to time to take the Regional Rail into Center City.

Yeah, but they just finished a garage so there should be a net overall increase in parking.

[PhillyEngineer]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Yeah, but they just finished a garage so there should be a net overall increase in parking.

The garage is further away from the station than the existing lot. It seems unfair that people who don't have a parking permit for the lot on the other (Lancaster Avenue) side of the tracks will have a longer walk to get to the station.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by PhillyEngineer

The garage is further away from the station than the existing lot. It seems unfair that people who don't have a parking permit for the lot on the other (Lancaster Avenue) side of the tracks will have a longer walk to get to the station.

SEPTA has a 5 story lot planned on the Lancaster side of the station.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

SEPTA has a 5 story lot planned on the Lancaster side of the station.

Huh, you're right. Didn't know about that: http://septa.org/rebuilding/station/ardmore.html

SEPTA is proposing several improvements to Ardmore Station, including a new station building, high level platforms, modifications to the existing pedestrian tunnel, new canopies and passenger shelters, and site and circulation improvements.

Budget: $36.29M
Design: Complete
Construction Start: Fall 2018
Construction Complete: Spring 2020

[eixample]

Originally Posted by PhillyEngineer

The garage is further away from the station than the existing lot. It seems unfair that people who don't have a parking permit for the lot on the other (Lancaster Avenue) side of the tracks will have a longer walk to get to the station.

What's really unfair is that we have so much underpriced parking (subsidized by Septa and the community) around regional rail stations that benefits so few when we could have dense, mixed use development instead of those lots.

[PhilliesPhan]

I have to say that this really caught me off guard! Something (looks like a hotel) has risen at 4th and Welsh in Chester, pretty much right next to Industrial Highway and a block away from Chester Transportation Center:

[Milksteak]

Originally Posted by eixample

What's really unfair is that we have so much underpriced parking (subsidized by Septa and the community) around regional rail stations that benefits so few when we could have dense, mixed use development instead of those lots.

When I moved out of the city, I moved to a place where I could catch a train into the city easily. Those people taking the train have already made a decision to not drive into Philly...I hate to say it, but cheap and convenient train station parking is a necessary evil. I would love dense, mixed use construction to pop up by my train station, and I hate that parking takes up so much room in the center of town, but if it were to be removed or made more inconvenient, then you are going to discourage people from taking mass transit. This isn't Manhattan, which is a logistical nightmare to get into and will cost you half your month's mortgage payment in tolls, Philly is still very accessible by car.

[Knight Hospitaller]

^ Right. Unless you are within walking distance of a station, you have to drive there. The local suburban transit infrastructure is not there to efficiently get you to the station. The town I lived in had a station with next to no parking, so, for years, I drove to the town on either side to find station parking.

[eixample]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

^ Right. Unless you are within walking distance of a station, you have to drive there. The local suburban transit infrastructure is not there to efficiently get you to the station. The town I lived in had a station with next to no parking, so, for years, I drove to the town on either side to find station parking.

The residents of the new apartments on top of the old commuter parking lot would be within walking distance and take the place of those who have to drive to the train. Its a trade off, not that home owners or apartment dwellers are more worthy of convenient rail access but shifting towards dense nodes of development does make more sense from a regional land use perspective. And we would also build offices near regional rail stations (with no or minimal parking) so that all the people that live near all the other regional rail stations could commute to the jobs in the new office. I'm not suggesting we could flip a switch and become a French or German city overnight but little by little we can get there. At the very least, in the immediate term car to regional rail commuters should shoulder something closer to the real cost of their parking spots.

[Urbanthusiat]

East Norriton to get new $67M apartment complex

Tornetta Realty Corp. and Altman Group have broken ground on a $67 million apartment complex at the Bentwood Executive Campus in East Norriton, Pa., that will have 261 units. 

The project at 201 E. Germantown Pike will be the first multifamily development to go up in East Norriton in years. The last apartment community built in the vicinity of the Tornetta-Altman project was completed in 2015 about five miles away off Plymouth Road near the Pennsylvania Turnpike. That's where Brandywine Realty Trust and Toll Brothers Inc. partnered to develop Parc at Plymouth Meeting, which had 398 units and leased up at a fast pace.

...

The project is expected to be completed April 2019. Financing from the project comes from Bryn Mawr Trust and other investors include MacArthur Holdings and Blue Zees Real Estate, both of New York. The architect is Barton Partners.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...town-pike.html

[Urbanthusiat]

South Jersey hospital to begin work on $205M expansion project

Jefferson Washington Township Hospital is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for its $205 million expansion project.

The expansion at the medical center on Hurffville-Cross Keys Road in Turnersville, N.J., will take place in two phases: the first carrying a $23 million price tag and the second priced at $182 million.

...

The first phase of the project will include the construction of a eight-level parking garage with more than 800 spaces, which will be free to patients and visitors. The project will also create an additional 340 surface parking spaces.

The parking structure is expected to be completed next spring.

The second phase, set to begin in March of 2019, will include construction of a seven-floor patient tower with 60 private rooms – and space for another 60 private rooms if needed in the future.

Also planned for the tower are:
- a new main hospital entrance;
- a "spacious, two-story, light-filled" hospital lobby;
- a hospital cafeteria with outdoor seating;
- a same-day surgery unit and recovery room; and
- a new central processing distribution center.

The anticipated completion time for the second phase is the spring of 2021.
...

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...ew-jersey.html

[jonesrmj]

Wilmington seeing fewer shootings, killings so far in 2018

After a year of record-breaking shootings and killings, Wilmington on Tuesday issued a "cautiously optimistic report" announcing its crime complaints had dramatically dropped.

Overall, crime was down by 8 percent, according to Wilmington statistics that compared crime reports from the start of this year through Monday to the same time last year.

More dramatic drops in crime including shootings – down by 61 percent – and homicides – down by 63 percent. Tuesday's announcement included Monday's shooting homicide, in which 35-year-old Khalif Friend was killed.

Wilmington has seen 27 shootings, six fatal, so far this year, according to The News Journal's shooting database. Last year at this time, 74 people had been shot, 17 of them fatally.

The announcement comes weeks after Robert Tracy completed his first year as Wilmington's police chief.

Read more - https://www.delawareonline.com/story...des/591168002/

[Urbanthusiat]

DuPont plans new $45M O-ring factory, will keep 200 area jobs

Reversing a trend of factories leaving the region, DowDuPont said today it will invest $45 million in “the purchase of a new facility in Newark, Delaware, to manufacture DuPont Kalrez,” a high-temperature sealing material used to make O-rings for electronics and other tough industrial environments.

DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers plans to replace an existing factory at Tralee Industrial Park, just east of the University of Delaware campus, with a new facility twice as large on Ruthar Drive near the sprawling main campus of Christiana Hospital. The current plant employs around 200 “skilled operators,” and “we expect to need at least this number to operate the new facility,” said DuPont spokesman Daniel Turner.

The plant will be DuPont’s main production site for Kalrez, and the company expects demand will grow

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...-20180509.html

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

East Norriton to get new $67M apartment complex





https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...town-pike.html

It's crazy to see all of the big development going on in this part of the County. You really notice it with the traffic too, it gets not noticeably worse every year.

[jonesrmj]

Wilmington demolishes 10 East Side homes, makes way for new development

Ten vacant rowhomes on Wilmington's East Side were demolished on Monday morning to make way for new townhomes.

Fourteen three-bedroom, 2.5-bath houses will replace what were vacant, abandoned and nuisance properties on the 900 block of Bennett Street, officials said.

"Things have to be brought down in order for things to be built up," said the Rev. Terrence S. Keeling, a leader in the neighborhood's East Side Rising development plan. "When we see events like this, hope is being restored."

Construction is slated to start in winter 2019 and officials expect them to be completed by early 2020.

The new units will be sold for about $155,000. Three of the units will be "geared" toward families earning 60 percent of median income, although that's not a requirement, Martin said.

Read more - https://www.delawareonline.com/story...ent/437420002/

[Milksteak]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

It's crazy to see all of the big development going on in this part of the County. You really notice it with the traffic too, it gets not noticeably worse every year.

I'm surprised Norristown hasn't taken off more given its proximity to KOP and Plymouth Meeting/Blue Bell. I still think it's coming, it's just not happening as quickly as I thought it would.

[Boku]

In triumph, One Ardmore Place towers above Main Line town

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pe...-20180514.html

A prolonged legal battle that embroiled public officials, a developer and residents in Philadelphia’s Main Line has ended not with a bang, or a whimper, but with the rumble of a construction truck.

Two years after Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ended a decade-long campaign of opposition by residents of Ardmore to block a major redevelopment project, One Ardmore Place is rising from the parking lot that had become the epicenter of this suburban development struggle. It turns out – to some – that maybe this grand idea didn’t need to have so much of the town on edge, after all.

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by Milksteak

I'm surprised Norristown hasn't taken off more given its proximity to KOP and Plymouth Meeting/Blue Bell. I still think it's coming, it's just not happening as quickly as I thought it would.

It's definitely moving rapidly in a few spots but overall the crime is still a real issue and until that is drastically reduced I don't see it moving in more spots.


In triumph, One Ardmore Place towers above Main Line town
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pe...-20180514.html

[shadowbat2]

First look inside the Hard Rock casino, Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal replacement
http://www.nj.com/atlantic/index.ssf...placement.html

Interior renderings included

Also SCOTUS has just struck down the federal ban on sports betting, allowing it in AC (as well as PA casinos)