A Terrain garden center, an Anthropologie, a boutique hotel, two restaurants and complementary shops and amenities are all coming to Devon. And in one fell swoop, the Main Line zip code that never had a town center near its train station will get a "downtown" to call its own.
Urban Outfitters has leased all 6.5 acres of the former Waterloo Gardens site from the property’s current owners, developer Eli Kahn and partner Wade McDevitt, president of the Devon Horse Show and the CEO of a retail real estate company .
Kahn, McDevitt and Urban Outfitters executives unveiled a detailed preliminary sketch plan for the site to the Easttown Township Planning Commission and about 50 neighbors Tuesday night.
“We’re expanding our bricks-and-mortar retail experience to a lifestyle experience that will meet the taste level of the Devon community,” explained Dave Ziel, chief development officer for Urban Outfitters.
The project’s working title is Devon Yard.
Urban will own and operate two of its own concepts: the fashion and home accessories retailer, Anthropologie, and the upscale garden center, Terrain, which will include plant nurseries and a farm-to-table café.
The company plans to sublease two other buildings to a fine dining restaurant, a mid-level restaurant, a specialty foods market, a spa/wellness facility and/or a boutique exercise studio.
And it will partner with an unnamed boutique hotel operator “with a similar aesthetic” to open the Devon Inn. “A handcrafted, authentic and unique boutique hotel is the driver of this village concept,” Ziel said. The Devon Inn will cater to high-end leisure travelers and business travelers and “will be done in a superior way to anything in the area.”
The sketch plan calls for the hotel’s main wing to be five stories, the tallest building on the property. Adjoining wings of the hotel will be three-stories high. The Inn will take up about half of the Devon Yards complex and will mimic the historic Devon Inn of the 1920s, Ziel said. It will have 93 guest rooms, a restaurant, an event space and possibly a wine boutique and a spa.
To accommodate hotel guests, shoppers and restaurant customers, Urban Outfitters plans to build a multi-level parking garage extending from north to south on the Waterloo Road side of the property.
In a unique partnership with the Devon Horse Show, Urban has agreed to spruce up the Horse Show’s parking lot on Dorset Road and to make stormwater and other site improvements. While the garage is intended to be Devon Yard’s primary parking facility with more than 500 spaces, visitors will also be able to use the surface-level Horse Show lot for overflow. In exchange, patrons of the Horse Show will be able to park in the garage during the 11-day show each spring.
During the public comment period following the presentation, several neighbors said they were happy that Devon wasn’t getting yet another car dealership or bank. Others raised questions relating to the appearance of the parking garage, accessibility of the site to pedestrians, the required zoning changes, and the potentially late hours of events at the hotel.
In response, Ziel, Kahn and McDevitt emphasized that the project was in its very early stages and will likely undergo significant changes before it is brought before township officials for approval. If all goes as expected, zoning and land planning approvals would take about a year and construction would finish by April 2016, Ziel said. He estimated the complex would generate $3 million in annual taxes to the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District and $260,000 to Easttown Township, or “about 800 percent more tax revenue.”
Urban Outfitters has been a visionary retailer and would not be a cookie-cutter developer, Ziel promised.
“When you see a lifestyle center you often see a Chico’s, a J. Crew, a Cheesecake Factory. That’s not what we’re about,” he said. “We wanted to take this really unique environment and mix it with the right tenants to create a consistent experience, a place where people will want to come and stay for a while.”
He said his company would take its usual “reclaimed natural materials, found objects approach” to construction. The hotel will be made with Amish stonemasons. “Our attention to detail and authenticity is bar none. Everything will look like it’s been there a long time,” he promised.
After the meeting, McDevitt, the Devon Horse Show’s volunteer president who lives on nearby Chester Road, said the project was a win-win: for the community and the Horse Show. “Some might say you’re a fool to do it in your backyard where you’re going to get all the neighborhood criticism,” McDevitt said. “But we’re being very thoughtful about what we’re developing. I’m going to be proud to have this in my community. I look forward to walking to dinner and shopping there.”
Urban Outfitters has leased all 6.5 acres of the former Waterloo Gardens site from the property’s current owners, developer Eli Kahn and partner Wade McDevitt, president of the Devon Horse Show and the CEO of a retail real estate company .
Kahn, McDevitt and Urban Outfitters executives unveiled a detailed preliminary sketch plan for the site to the Easttown Township Planning Commission and about 50 neighbors Tuesday night.
“We’re expanding our bricks-and-mortar retail experience to a lifestyle experience that will meet the taste level of the Devon community,” explained Dave Ziel, chief development officer for Urban Outfitters.
The project’s working title is Devon Yard.
Urban will own and operate two of its own concepts: the fashion and home accessories retailer, Anthropologie, and the upscale garden center, Terrain, which will include plant nurseries and a farm-to-table café.
The company plans to sublease two other buildings to a fine dining restaurant, a mid-level restaurant, a specialty foods market, a spa/wellness facility and/or a boutique exercise studio.
And it will partner with an unnamed boutique hotel operator “with a similar aesthetic” to open the Devon Inn. “A handcrafted, authentic and unique boutique hotel is the driver of this village concept,” Ziel said. The Devon Inn will cater to high-end leisure travelers and business travelers and “will be done in a superior way to anything in the area.”
The sketch plan calls for the hotel’s main wing to be five stories, the tallest building on the property. Adjoining wings of the hotel will be three-stories high. The Inn will take up about half of the Devon Yards complex and will mimic the historic Devon Inn of the 1920s, Ziel said. It will have 93 guest rooms, a restaurant, an event space and possibly a wine boutique and a spa.
To accommodate hotel guests, shoppers and restaurant customers, Urban Outfitters plans to build a multi-level parking garage extending from north to south on the Waterloo Road side of the property.
In a unique partnership with the Devon Horse Show, Urban has agreed to spruce up the Horse Show’s parking lot on Dorset Road and to make stormwater and other site improvements. While the garage is intended to be Devon Yard’s primary parking facility with more than 500 spaces, visitors will also be able to use the surface-level Horse Show lot for overflow. In exchange, patrons of the Horse Show will be able to park in the garage during the 11-day show each spring.
During the public comment period following the presentation, several neighbors said they were happy that Devon wasn’t getting yet another car dealership or bank. Others raised questions relating to the appearance of the parking garage, accessibility of the site to pedestrians, the required zoning changes, and the potentially late hours of events at the hotel.
In response, Ziel, Kahn and McDevitt emphasized that the project was in its very early stages and will likely undergo significant changes before it is brought before township officials for approval. If all goes as expected, zoning and land planning approvals would take about a year and construction would finish by April 2016, Ziel said. He estimated the complex would generate $3 million in annual taxes to the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District and $260,000 to Easttown Township, or “about 800 percent more tax revenue.”
Urban Outfitters has been a visionary retailer and would not be a cookie-cutter developer, Ziel promised.
“When you see a lifestyle center you often see a Chico’s, a J. Crew, a Cheesecake Factory. That’s not what we’re about,” he said. “We wanted to take this really unique environment and mix it with the right tenants to create a consistent experience, a place where people will want to come and stay for a while.”
He said his company would take its usual “reclaimed natural materials, found objects approach” to construction. The hotel will be made with Amish stonemasons. “Our attention to detail and authenticity is bar none. Everything will look like it’s been there a long time,” he promised.
After the meeting, McDevitt, the Devon Horse Show’s volunteer president who lives on nearby Chester Road, said the project was a win-win: for the community and the Horse Show. “Some might say you’re a fool to do it in your backyard where you’re going to get all the neighborhood criticism,” McDevitt said. “But we’re being very thoughtful about what we’re developing. I’m going to be proud to have this in my community. I look forward to walking to dinner and shopping there.”
Source: Main Line Media News
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