Tag Archives: development

hey east whiteland residents are you aware the weston development on w. king road in west whiteland is marching forward?

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Hi it’s me, the development critic. Weston is selling on West King Road across from Johnson Matthey. This is in West Whiteland, JUST over the East Whiteland border quite literally. I have written about this before:

oh west whiteland, what is up with weston property on west king road?
oh no…. in west whiteland along w. king road

So there was a meeting last night in West Whiteland. Planning. The Weston Development came up again. If it wasn’t for a West Whiteland resident looking at the agenda because they were at another meeting last night, I would not have known Weston was up again and with a zoning change going to zoning with I presume planning approval.

weston-overdevelopmentDownload

Now I have not seen the property change hands as of yet, but there is the possibility the sale is through since Chester County seems behind in what they record almost always.

I am kind of pissy about this. Right or wrong.

One reason WHY I am pissed is I have been on zoom calls of other meetings involving this property in the past. I even contacted them in writing as did many others from EAST WHITELAND. As a COURTESY, you all should have let East Whiteland residents know. I know full well they know how to reach me, and if not me the peo in East Whiteland Township.

This plan will drastically impact residents of East Whiteland who live on roads off of W. King or who are in the many houses that pepper W. King Road in East and West Whiteland.

It would be common courtesy to let your neighbors know when ANYTHING happens with this property because ANYTHING that happens with this property or the acreage across the road being sold by Johnson Matthey WILL AFFECT MORE THAN WEST WHITELAND, correct?

There is quite the eco system on that property. Has a property search been done as to any special special like bog turtles which might reside there? How many and what trees will be removed and how large will the trees be? And any tree planting should NOT be developer specials lined up like for a firing squad (what Toll brothers does) and left to die.

Also, the neighbors want a traffic signal as in yes a light right there at the mouth of that development at King and Weston Way. Otherwise, NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO GET OUT. And speaking of not getting out, has West Whiteland been monitoring the intersection of Ship and King lately? They should. And the guy who zips around on W. King in the motorized wheelchair in the lanes of traffic with nothing reflective? They should pay attention to him as well, and get him like those big reflective triangles Amish buggies have. It’s terrifying to be on W. King with traffic with him zipping around like he is driving a car.

West Whiteland approving a development of this size is going to affect the neighbors in more than one municipality. I saw a reference in old materials about a neighbors’ meeting in 2022. I don’t recall hearing about that. Thankfully this development will only overload West Chester Area School District.

I feel East Whiteland is completely out of the loop on projects that they border with West Whiteland and other municipalities and this has to stop. Soon we will not be able to navigate around the area with the development approved in West Whiteland on Route 30 from the Laborers past but including Ship Road and east on Lancaster to the municipal border with East Whiteland. Oh and this latest developer seeking big bucks at the expense of Chester County residents has a very similar plan to this brewing in Willistown. They are from Blue Bell which I sadly remember the farms and open space there before the developers moved in.

I am pretty tuned in to what happens around here, and I was a little distressed to see this all moving forward without us lowly East Whiteland folks being clued in.

Also has West Whiteland forgotten the pipelines that run through this property? Still want people running uphill or whatever?

I go out of my way to try to get East and West Whiteland to communicate. It’s only COMMON SENSE. Yet here we are.

Like I said, I can’t stop this development but I will talk about it. West Whiteland will have conditions of approval on this project and respectfully, one of those needs to include A TRAFFIC SIGNAL as well as answers to environmental questions.

It’s nice they are saving the historic structures, but as is the case with a lot of these things, seeing will be believing.

When I lived in Lower Merion they would create resident email lists for development projects. Someone in planning and/or zoning would notify residents of actions on a particular plan. A lot of your projects don’t just affect residents of just ONE municipality, they also affect residents of bordering municipalities.

It drives me CRAZY that no one in Harrisburg wants to get off of their asses and do a comprehensive non-Band-Aid update to the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), since hello the MPC drives our zoning. The last comprehensive update circa 1969 is what cause the first monster project to tear apart Chester County and blow up a school district: Chesterbrook.

It drives me CRAZY that municipalities that border each other and often have similar issues act like independent island nations. When there is collaboration there is often greater success. And West Whiteland and East Whiteland had success, great success years ago over what Rouse had planned for Church Farm. More recently, residents banned together to stop a hydrogen plant.

Development rant over. For now.

meet meadowbrook manor in west west whiteland

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I have friends who live in Meadowbrook Manor in West Whiteland. It’s a wonderful little cluster neighborhood of adorable little houses. Many of the residents have lived there for decades.

These residents have seen a lot of change. They have literally seen development gobble up big parts of Exton, and West Whiteland in general. They are also pipeline victims and part of hell on earth ground zero of those blasted pipelines.

Some folks from Meadowbrook Manor in West Whiteland have asked me to share the photos you see in this post and the videos. And they sent me a little statement as well which I am sharing with my readers verbatim:

Meadowbrook Manor built in the 1950s before anyone ever thought about floodplains or storm water management. We are one of (if not the) lowest point in the Whiteland valley. There are two streams that wind through our development; Valley Creek and an unnamed stream. As big, new developments have popped up along Valley Creek, one has to wonder how all the building and impervious ground cover impacts those of us downstream.

Yes, every new development must submit stormwater management plans to the township, but do those plans only protect the new construction from flooding? It is my understanding that new developments are not required to make things better for those of us downstream, but they certainly are not supposed to make it worse. Who is measuring and how is that determined, because things have definitely gotten worse. I have lived here for 26 years. The house next door didn’t flood even with hurricane Floyd, but in the last three years, it has had up to 10” of water inside. The poor young couple who bought it, has been displaced three times in three years. The house next to that has suffered the same fate. Some may blame climate change, and the intensity of recent storms, and I’m sure that is part of it.


The township has expressed sympathy, but we need action.


We need township engineers to follow the path of these streams and find places where more retention basins can be added to slow the tsunami of water that is engulfing homes with each heavy storm.

So won’t you be their neighbor, West Whiteland? When you look at this you realize exactly why Chester County needs to do better. And yes Chester County Planning Department this is why you all need to do better and get an executive director who is from Chester County and lives here. And then there are our state representatives and state senators who need to step up and get the damn Municipalities Planning Code updated and to protect our communities better.

I see all of you in Meadowbrook Manor. I just wish I had a magic wand.

same old song, different day

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Toll Townne on Route 100

Oh, I know people are tired of my posts about development. I don’t really care because in my opinion, all of this infill development combined with other elements like climate change are a recipe for disaster in Chester County.

I was speaking to someone recently, who had served on a planning commission in the region about all of the development in Chester County recently. They interpreted what I was trying to articulate as I was against new residents in Chester County. And no that couldn’t be further from the case, it’s about the number of residences.

Our communities are on overload. Our infrastructure can’t handle the current pace of development, and neither can things like our hospitals and schools and that’s not fiction. That is a fact.

Infrastructure would be not just the roads. Infrastructure includes things like our first responders and other municipal personnel. A lot of municipalities don’t have rental inspection ordinances, and a lot of these developments are purely rental. The increasing number of rental properties is also creating a more transient community and it is also driving the real estate to the point where people can’t stay in their own communities.

The people getting priced out of their communities are various business service workers, for example. Individuals getting priced out are also like the people that serve on our police forces, in our fire companies, and who teach our kids. In addition there are the elderly who raise their families here and wanted to end their days in their community. Or the younger folks, who may be newly married, and are looking to start and raise their families and put down roots where they were raised.

We have seen what this has done to the Main Line. And frankly, these are just the same developers moving west. They don’t care about our communities and they will pay lip service to whatever, and a lot of municipalities are dumb enough to think that ratables will get them by. And possibly Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome, yes?

From township to township they march. Gobbling up acre after acre. And as acre after acre are gobbled up, in addition to the aforementioned issues I have pointed out about infrastructure stresses and overcrowding the school districts, look at today’s thunderstorms and flooding. Yes, climate change.

Flooding today

All of these townships, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pay lip service to the environmental issues we are seeing increasing day by day. If they really cared they would not only do something about pipelines in Chester County and across the state, they would update the Municipalities Planning Code of The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to protect our communities environmentally. But they don’t.

Until then, people from municipality to municipality in Chester County need to go to their local meetings. You can go to the meetings via Zoom, or you can go in person, but you can’t just complain on social media or expect your friendly neighborhood blogger to carry all of your water.

Downingtown PA today

And even if you can’t go to every meeting, that’s fine, we all have lives. Just take a stand and be counted. It’s your right as a resident. Even more important, is to have a basic awareness of what is going on in your municipality and so many people do not.

Ship Road Development

Recently I was somewhat floored when someone asked in a social media forum what was going on around Ship Road and Route 30 in West Whiteland. It was almost incomprehensible that people and even residents of West Whiteland have no idea what has been going on there and what has been planned there for almost 10 years at this point! Even if you don’t go to meetings, that’s a really big development issue that’s been covered in local media.

Ship Road Development

Something else that is cropping up all over are “rain taxes.” Essentially, it’s a direct result of other development and municipalities. It’s been raised as an issue in West Goshen and West Chester Borough, and other places. Well this showed up as also as a current hot topic in Tredyffrin:

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/te/i-told-you-2019-nodx

Development has consequences. And the fact that we pay for those consequences comes down to simple economics as well because the developers take the profits from their projects and they simply move on to the next municipality leaving all the residents and taxpayers holding the bag. Bag men one and all is ok with all of you?

Ship Road and Route 30: Ground Zero in West Whiteland including development all around this development

Adaptive reuse and preservation is possible. Even with the rampant overdevelopment occurring in West Whiteland Township for example, you have bright, shiny gems of preservation in places like the Benjamin Jacobs house and the Benjamin Pennypacker House as but two examples.

People do love our old structures. They love our open space we need to do more to preserve that. We need to do more to preserve our communities as well as foster a sense of real community.

This development is not sustainable anywhere long-term. You can’t just continue to say build it and they will come because what do we do with all of the people what happens as we are replacing our farm fields with plastic townhouses or apartment buildings?

People on planning commissions and elected officials have drunk the KoolAid to a degree in so many municipalities. And the officials who haven’t drunk the KoolAid are then often outnumbered by those who have. And then the good guys get blamed along with everyone else. It’s a vicious cycle and problems are precipitated by other factors including a lot of people simply do not understand how the planning and zoning processes works and don’t seem to wish to learn.

People love to talk about what they don’t like. But people don’t tell their elected officials and local leaders and they have never attended a meeting. And now there are ways to attend meetings virtually as well as in person. Even I Zoom meetings. If you don’t want to speak in public you can often submit a written comment.

The more land that is gobbled up and the less open space there is and the increase of impervious surface coverage also is important because whether you subscribe to climate change or not, our environment is changing and water, flood waters in particular, will seek their own level. And voila, flooding. All this development means the water simply has no place to go.

So pick your poison people. Take a stand. We live here. We should have greater rights to help decide how our communities are preserved and shaped for the future. Real rights. And until we can get the bozos in Harrisburg to update the Municipalities Planning Code we can and should ask for every other protection we can legally get.

Our elected officials CAN implement conditions of approval that help our communities.

Our elected officials CAN enact rental ordinances.

Our elected officials CAN badger Harrisburg and Washington DC for more meaningful historic and land preservation…including protection for our farmers.

Our elected officials CAN say no to rezoning a property from commercial to residential. (Hey East Whiteland Township are you listening? You CAN say no to rezoning Clews & Strawbridge on Route 30 so there are fewer rental apartments including on Route 30, can’t you? But will you? )

The entirety of Chester County needs protection from overdevelopment. People, find your voices. Hold elected officials and municipalities accountable, but learn how to do it properly.

And above all else don’t become political pawns of political parties. Why do I say that? Simple. These issues are actually non-partisan. Make the politicians endorse all of you and your positions/issues out there. Stop endorsing them because all that accomplishes is you get them elected and then they dump you once they have gotten what they wanted: your vote. Your vote should be earned by them.

Have a good evening.

Please wake up Chester County. Before it’s too late.

look out tredyffrin! radnor has more plans in for dodo land

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Giddy up Tredyffrin and Radnor residents because it’s always in the dog days of summer or any kind of holiday time when big ol’ important things come to be discussed. More on Dodo Land is back. Plans for Strafford Avenue and Forrest Lane.

Look my opinion hasn’t changed: too much density planned for this area between this and Holloway Land McBox Theme Park. Stormwater management and traffic issues pre-existing to any of these plans and you need to PHYSICALLY BE AT THESE MEETINGS AND BE PRESENT WHEN THEY GET SCHEDULED IN PERSON! SUPPOSEDLY COMING IN JULY. THAT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER.

From: Maryann Cassidy <mcassidy@radnor.org> 
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2023 10:47 AM
To: KevinKochanski <kkochanski@radnor.org>; William White <wwhite@radnor.org>; John B. Rice <jrice@grimlaw.com>

Cc: Peggy Hagan <phagan@radnor.org>
Subject: 204, 218 Strafford Ave & 18 Forrest Lane

Good Morning,

The Community Development Department received a Conditional Use Application for the Hamilton Estate, properties located at 204 and 228 Strafford Avenue and 18 Forrest Lane.  We have not received the digital version yet, once received I will forward it to you.

Maryann Cassidy

Administrative Assistant

Community Development Department

Radnor Township

301 Iven Avenue

Wayne, PA  19087

610-688-5600 x 146

610-971-0450 – fax

mcassidy@radnor.org

Conditional Use Application for Hamilton Estate (1)Download
Conditional Use PlansDownload

And then I found these gems on the Radnor Historical Society website:

So Tredyffrin and Radnor residents you have been warned: more development games afoot in Radnor Township. I can’t even imagine how terrible the traffic will be right there someday….

dear developer, try harder in east whiteland

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Remember, I wrote a post recently about a developer buying the Clews and Strawbridge site and wanting to plunk down yet more god damn apartments on Route 30 and in East Whiteland?

wtf development proposed AGAIN in east whiteland…

So that screenshot you see above is the letter that the developer is dropping by the businesses on Route 30 in East Whiteland seeking support. Well, I shouldn’t say the developer personally because then you would see him and his vanity plate on his car… nope he’s sending minions.

I just love developer minions, don’t you?

This means that we need to keep writing East Whiteland Township and keep voicing our opinion, and going to meetings. Because if they thought getting their rezoning and everything was a done deal, they wouldn’t be sending minions would they?

Thank you developer minions for amusing me.

they all look the same.

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These are the apartments in Frazer known as “The Yards.” And like everything else being built today they look pretty much like everything else being built today.

I don’t find them attractive. I don’t find them architecturally significant. It looks like Legos put together for grown-ups to live in.

And these are the buildings that are being erected in communities all around the area. And it doesn’t matter who the developer is THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME.

Probably one of the only ones that I don’t find as offensive in Chester County are some in Paoli behind the train station. The Airdrie. But it’s still a similar design, only that has some actual setbacks, so it doesn’t smack you in the face along Lancaster Avenue and elsewhere.

But if you drive around, and you look at all of the apartment complexes being erected, they all are the same variations on a similar theme.

It’s NOT architecture.

I really started noticing these buildings when Eastside Flats in Malvern Borough were built. Most of these buildings have lousy setbacks, ignore human scale, ignore the architecture that exists around them, pretty much ignores everything that makes Chester County special.

The design in a word in my opinion, sucks. This is all about these developers, making money and moving onto the next project. It’s not about enhancing a community or enhancing a sense of community. These developers don’t care about our communities, we are just an area where they can make a profit.

From municipality to municipality it’s all the same. Literally Lego boxes for people to live in or plastic mushroom houses squished too close together.

Somebody gave me a hard time for saying I think these apartments are also ugly etc. and then they told me I was insulting people’s homes. Apartment dwellers don’t move into communities and stay forever. They are more transient it’s the nature of apartments.

If it’s a senior living community, it might be a little different, but the architecture is all the same and it’s all bad.

These developers are changing the nature of community quite literally. More and more. All of the rentals mean people stay for a while. They don’t stay like buying a home in a neighborhood. And even the nature of those neighborhoods with single-family homes are changing. Front end loaded cheek to jowl. No gardens. Just boxes with bad siding.

The developers are driving the real estate prices which is driving how long people stay if they stay. Sometimes just flip property and leave and so on.

There is quite simply put too much development. And there especially seems to be too many apartment complexes being built Chester County is looking more and more like King of Prussia. Does Chester County want to look like King of Prussia? Or Bensalem? Does Chester county want all these apartment buildings creating urban landscapes?

And when you post the pictures of these developments, people think someone’s palms are being greased. I don’t know anything about that what I do know is what allows these buildings, and these developments to march forward. The Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or MPC.

The MPC has not been comprehensively updated since circa 1969. The MPC guides all local zoning. No one holds state representatives and state senators accountable for this. It is their job to an act an act of the state constitution and get off their asses and update the MPC .

However, there is also the fact that people really don’t bother to learn what is going on within their communities until there’s a crisis. People do not keep up with what local government is doing and what plans are being presented for development and there’s no excuse now really because meetings are hybrid and in person and recorded so if you can’t make a meeting, you can watch a recording of a meeting or you can watch a meeting via zoom platform or even YouTube.

If people went to meetings, local government would have a better idea of what they didn’t want before it actually happened. It wouldn’t necessarily be within municipal power to deny a plan, but they might be able to mitigate certain circumstances or conditions of approval.

Or when municipalities are updating comprehensive plans for municipality to municipality it’s not necessarily super exciting but it’s also something that residents ignore the opportunities they have to comment on these plans so again it’s another avenue of being able to get your message out there as a community as to what you want to see vis-à-vis development or not see.

And basically the hands of local officials are truly tied from protecting communities from bad development without the proper support from not only county planning but primarily because the MPC is so out of date.

It’s all a drag. I’ve spent years going to meetings and listening to meetings and going to meetings now via Zoom for a few years, but if you don’t pay attention to what goes on in your own community, you never learn.

I’m really sick of people that either want to complain to me about development or criticize me for not liking development. if they use half the amount of energy participating in their community as they do coming after me for my opinion, think of everything that could be accomplished from municipality to municipality?

I’m sure I will receive criticism for this post. I’m being mean I’m being unfair. Whatever. I don’t like all of this development. It all looks the same. It’s ruining the landscape that once was Chester county. And that people is the bottom line.

Happy Monday.

mall news that could affect exton square mall and west whiteland ?

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Yesterday a friend of mine posted a brief video on social media of the ghost town that the Exton Square Mall has become. So I took a couple of screenshots for this post.

It’s creepy empty at this point. It used to be a thriving mall. Sometimes I have wondered if this mall ghost town has been created by shifting retail trends or by mall owner design?

I ask if by design because there have been plans floating around West Whiteland for a while about developing a lot of the mall into apartments which makes perfect sense to developers because what else can you shove into communities around here besides crappy all look the same Lego looking apartments or cheek to jowl lemming like townhouse developments, right? Especially in West Whiteland, right? [CLICK HERE TO GO TO WEST WHITELAND’S WEBSITE]

Anyway some recent news will just make you wonder even more what is up. First there was the interesting blog article on More Than The Curve about Plymouth Township according to PREIT who owns that and Exton Square Mall, “ghosting” the mall owners. Apparently Plymouth Township isn’t interested in their mall dream of apartment Valhalla? (And yes kinda like the mall dream Valhalla proposed for Exton Square Mall.)

Owner of Plymouth Meeting Mall claims it has been “ghosted” by Plymouth Township

That definitely made me think. I mean if heavily developed Plymouth Township doesn’t seem so interested in this why should West Whiteland Township be a Guinea Pig here?

But Vista Today pointed out yesterday some even more troubling and interesting news concerning mall owners PREIT. (PREIT a stands for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, incidentally.) Vista pointed out a potential board shake up worthy of Succession (HBO MAX series). 7 board members tendered resignations:

Among the resigners were Chairman and CEO Joseph Coradino, Temple University Interim President JoAnne Epps, George Alburger, Michael DeMarco, Mark Pasquerilla, Charles Pizzi, and John Roberts. Each received more withheld votes than votes for as they were up for reelection. PREIT’s proxy statement requires that board members who get more withheld votes than votes for must tender their resignations.

7 Board Members of Exton Square Mall’s Owner, PREIT, Send in Resignations

Also covered by More Than The Curve:

Potential shakeup of the board of the owner of the Plymouth Meeting Mall

Sooooo….is this God opening a window to let some reality in (you know God closes a door, opens a window of it all?) Maybe West Whiteland can just pause the thought of any redevelopment there at Exton Square Mall until they get their sheit together at PREIT? Oh and did you know Vanguard Group has their paws in PREIT? Read that in an Inquirer article.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Majority of PREIT board offers resignations after shareholder vote

The latest sign of trouble at the huge Philadelphia-area mall owner could be a sign of a sale to come.

by Jake Blumgart and Joseph N. DiStefano

Published June 8, 2023

In a major shake-up for the Philadelphia area’s largest shopping-mall owner, seven Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) directors, including CEO Joseph F. Coradino, offered to resign from the board after a majority of shareholders refused to support them in recent elections.

Although PREIT’s malls are mostly occupied and sales are strong,  the company owes creditors almost $1 billion. Debt service costs have strained its financial performance, and its share price has fallen below $1. Last December it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

The shake-up occurred when PREIT held its annual shareholder meeting on June 1, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released Wednesday.

Shareholders include large-money managers led by Vanguard and BlackRock, activists who have been pressing PREIT to improve results, and individual investors. They collectively withheld around one million votes from each of the sitting directors, leaving fewer than 600,000 cast for most of them. Coradino did slightly better than his board colleagues, but still failed to win a majority.

According to the company’s corporate governance guidelines, those who did not win a majority of votes must offer to resign. Shareholders also rejected the board’s compensation proposal for Coradino and other top executives, by a ratio of 3-1.

Within 90 days of the certification of the board meeting’s results, board leaders will have to decide whether to accept the resignations. According to the SEC documents, the directors ran unopposed but still couldn’t win majorities from those voting.

Now a ghost town mall sitting there is not so fabulous but West Whiteland and municipalities with PREIT properties that are floundering maybe shouldn’t have to entertain their grand plans for redevelopment while this corporate fallout is swirling around? I mean why approve yet more apartment and lemming friendly development if you don’t even know in what form at this point this company will shake out at?

Seems like the proverbial hot mess to me, doesn’t it?

If you ever wondered if giving municipalities in Pennsylvania the ability to have a temporary moratorium on development was a good idea, this is a great example where it would be a great idea. Hit the pause button already. I mean in 2022 it was announced that Exton Square Mall was being sold to a developer yet that didn’t seem to actually happen?

Exton Square mall being sold to a developer

—The owner of Exton Square Mall in West Whiteland has entered into an agreement to sell the property.

The announcement was made during a 20-minute earnings call Tuesday, March 15, as the mall’s owner PREIT (Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust) discussed 2021 year-end and first quarter 2022 results.

PREIT Chairman and CEO Joseph Coradino said the company had executed an agreement of sale late Monday to sell the mall to a developer.

No specifics were provided, in terms of sale price or who the buyer is.

“As we have said previously, this property is better suited as mixed-use,” Coradino said on the call. “This sale will allow the builder to fulfill that destiny.”

Exton Square Mall has just over 1 million square feet of space, is 52% occupied and has sales of $283 per square foot, according to information on the PREIT website.

~ POTTSTOWN MERCURY March 16, 2022

….And then that deal fell through didn’t it?

PREIT Still Searching for Buyer for Exton Square Mall as Deadline Approaches

PREIT is still searching for a buyer for Exton Square Mall to shore up cash as a pivotal loan deadline inches closer, writes Paul Schwedelson for the Philadelphia Business Journal. 

Recently, PREIT added Plymouth Meeting Mall to the malls it is attempting to sell. 

Last spring, Brandywine Realty Trust was set to buy Exton Square Mall for $28.8 million, but that deal fell through.

~ VISTA TODAY May 8, 2023

Philadelphia Inquirer: Facing almost $1 billion in debt, Philly mall owner PREIT emphasizes strong sales and high occupancy

Pennsylvania largest mall operator faces severe headwinds and says it’s exploring all possibilities for the future.

by Jake Blumgart
Updated on Jun 4, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

It isn’t the best time to be the largest mall owner in Pennsylvania, especially with a debt load of almost $1 billion coming due at the end of 2023.

That’s why the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) has spent the last few years shedding weaker properties and adding medical, residential, and experiential entertainment in locations where retail sales have softened.

“We’ve got a quality portfolio,” Joseph F. Coradino, CEO of PREIT, saidin a recent interview. “At the end of the day, it’s as good as the assets you own. That’s an important point because when one thinks about investing in a [Real Estate Investment Trust] you get caught up in extraneous details.”

In recent years, PREIT has faced the devil’s own details.

A major bet on the Fashion District, a high-end renovation of Center City’s Gallery mall in collaboration with Macerich, soured rapidly after the pandemic struck mere months after it opened. It is currently 79% occupied, the second weakest performer in PREIT’s portfolio after the half-vacant Exton Square Mall — which the company is struggling to sell….PREIT’s share price, meanwhile, fell dramatically from over $166 five years ago to $2.60 last December when it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. As of late May, the price had fallen further still to a mere 55 cents….On the company’s first-quarter earnings call, CFO Mario C. Ventresca named the Exton and Plymouth Meeting malls as examples of sites the company would still like to sell. The Philadelphia Business Journal reported in early May that a sale of Exton Square Mall to Brandywine Realty Trust had fallen through….”With Exton, we’ve kind of decided that the best group to develop it is us,” he said. “We’ve identified several tenants that we’re working with.”

At Plymouth Meeting — which has among the lowest occupancies of the core malls at 85.4% — Coradino said PREIT’s efforts to diversify into residential development have been stymied by local politics. The company wants to add 750 housing units to the site.

“Plymouth is the one where we’re banging our head against the wall,” Coradino said. “Plymouth has just been a bear. The township’s been unresponsive. What do the kids say? ‘We’ve been ghosted.’ ” …Last year, PREIT said it had plans for 5,200 apartment units across six sites to add a new revenue stream to bolster malls where sales were down. So far, less than half of those have been permitted with a majority of the momentum in Fairfax County, Va., and Prince George’s County, Md.

Ummm Coradino says they’ve been “ghosted” by one township (Plymouth) where they have a failing mall yet magically they are the “best” group to redevelop another failing mall in another township (West Whiteland)? Ok yeah that’s some Kool Aid he’s drinking, huh?

West Whiteland get legally creative and put these people on a shelf until they figure their stuff out. I mean talk about the handwriting on the wall, right? From a practical standpoint you can’t really trust them to do anything right now can you? I mean what if they started something and you all were left with a giant hole in the ground or Tyvec waving in the breeze off of some unfinished something or other?

Pause pause pause! Warning warning danger ⚠️ Will Robinson! Proceed with caution ⛔️!

this is why municipalities need ordinances that correct wrongs

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219 Namar Avenue, Exton, PA

Namar Avenue in Exton/West Whiteland is one of those little neighborhoods of post-war (as in World War II) housing and earlier. There was a housing boom in Chester County before and following World War II which is how places like General Warren Village in East Whiteland came to be for example, and parts of Northeast Philadelphia too. This house is in Whiteland Crest I believe the name of this little area in Exton. And that area started coming into existence I think in the 1930s and most building was done up to the 1950s at some point.

Sadly this cute area is home to a rather derelict house.

Can you imagine living with this derelict house next door to you? It was sold most recently in 2021. It is the first photo in this post and the two just above.

But if you just Google the address, that house has had a lot going on for years:

I think there is probably a rather sad story here PRIOR to 2021 but the new owners have continued to let it rot since 2021, so what gives?

My point of this post is not all negative. My point actually is there is hope for dealing with properties like this at least in West Whiteland since is West Whiteland is a municipality that approved a property maintenance ordinance in March. Now if that ordinance had been in effect before the property changed hands in 2021, the township would have perhaps been able to help the homeowner find a non-profit group to help them clean up. But since this property changed hands in the fall of 2021 it has continued to dangerously deteriorate, so now this code will also be of help to the neighbors who deserve better than this.

I remember when I first moved to Chester County, in East Whiteland there was a derelict house on Morstein Road. The police had to babysit it because kids kept going in etc. Eventually the family sold it for a two lot subdivision. But if there had been more of a maintenance ordinance then in that township, maybe it would have been different? I also think this West Whiteland ordinance will also address people building structures without permits that require permits. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Along with ordinance like this there should be rental ordinances. Not just life and safety and inspections required when a property changes hands. The developers have introduced so many apartment complexes and developments that are loaded with rentals that it is desperately needed.

And student rental ordinances. East Whiteland is home to Immaculata, as an example. And there is no rental ordinance or student rental ordinance is there?

What made me think about those kinds of ordinances again in particular were comments on NextDoor about Frazer Crossing Apartments which used to be known as William Henry. But I thought about rental ordinances when the whole human trafficking thing happened in East Whiteland. It just made me wonder if there were rental inspection ordinances, would there have been rentals with human trafficking going on? Or would that bad row of houses just past the Wawa at 30 and Planebrook Road exist if there were actual rental ordinances in place?

It’s a shame that we no longer live in a world where people will do the right things, but if people don’t know what the rules are will they do the right thing today? My thoughts on ordinances like this are nothing new. I wrote about the need for rental property ordinances in April.

I see West Whiteland as taking proactive steps in ordinances surrounding property maintenance and rental properties. It’s a good thing, it will create a level and safe playing field. Here’s hoping some of her neighbors follow suit.

Thanks for stopping by.

why townships need rules on rental properties

wtf development proposed AGAIN in east whiteland…

Posted on by
Start around the 1 hour 20 minute mark.

WTF East Whiteland Township? HOW MUCH ROUTE 30 DEVELOPMENT DO WE NEED? MORE FREAKING APARTMENTS?

OH BARF.

I mean seriously what is this bullshit?

This is planned for the Clews and Strawbridge property. 310 Lancaster Avenue Malvern/Frazer. Otherwise known as where the 18th century farmhouse has been rotting for YEARS and YEARS.

rotting 18th century chester county farmhouse in east whiteland.

People time to contact East Whiteland Township. Go to meetings. Like yesterday. Chester County is going to sink under the weight of development. Our infrastructure can’t support this, our school districts can’t support this, we can’t continue to live like this.

If you live in East Whiteland Township or drive through this area or live in a municipality on either side of this area, please contact East Whiteland Township. It’s time for us to start standing up for what we want in our community and not just standing idly by like a bunch of sheep.

Stop the madness. Slow down development.

Supervisor E-Mails:

slambert@eastwhiteland.org

rorlow@eastwhiteland.org

pfixler@eastwhiteland.org

Township Manager:

sbrown@eastwhiteland.org

Assistant Township Manager:

cricardo@eastwhiteland.org

Be polite but if you OBJECT, PLEASE speak up.

NOT RELATED but Also don’t forget about the FIRE at a new construction site in West Whiteland on Lancaster Avenue right near Church Farm School. It was May 5th. As described by West Whiteland Fire Company:

At 8:18AM The West Whiteland Fire Company was dispatched to the 800 block of E. Lincoln Hwy. in the new neighborhood under construction for a commercial building fire. The West Whiteland Township Police Department arrived to find heavy smoke showing.

Employees tried to extinguish the fire with an extinguisher prior to calling 911, unfortunately giving the fire time to grow. Initial arriving crews stretched two hand lines to the first and second floors. Crews found fire coming from the floor of the second floor. An attempt was made to extinguish the fire, but the fire had already spread throughout the void space between the two floors. Due to collapse concerns crews were ordered to evacuate the building. The fire continued to grow rapidly and reached gas lines. Eventually the fire reached the attic space and caused a collapse of the HVAC system on the roof into the second floor. Crews then went into defensive operations with master streams. The fire was placed under control in just under an hour and a half. Crews cleared the scene at 1 PM after extensive overhaul.

Thank you once again to our mutual aid partners for your assistance at todays fire. Lionville Fire Company, East Brandywine Fire Company, First West Chester Fire Co., Engine Co. 51, Goshen Fire Company, Uwchlan Ambulance Corps, Good Will Fire Company #2 of West Chester and East Whiteland Fire Company.

Also, a big thank you to The Paoli Fire Company and their crew for standing by while we operated and helping our crews get the apparatus cleaned and back into service.

~ West Whiteland Fire Company 5/5/23