The death knell for new luxury apartments and retail with
public parking in the heart of Ardmore
should not be rung just yet.
The man who wants to build all of this on Lower Merion
Township’s Cricket Avenue parking lot said he remains “fully committed” to the
project, and looks forward to a groundbreaking in 2014.
That was Carl Dranoff’s response one day after Lower Merion
officials were notified that Pennsylvania’s Office of the Budget will not
support the use of $12 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program
grant funds for a mixed-use project there. In a letter received Monday through
the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority, which would be the conduit for
the funds, the state office relates that of the $15.5 million in RACP grants
pledged for an Ardmore Transit Center and downtown revitalization initiative,
Gov. Tom Corbett will release only $3.5 million tied directly to a first phase
of planned improvements at the Ardmore Train Station.
In light of that development, it was expected that the
topic, though not listed on the agenda, would come up for discussion at a
meeting of the board of commissioners tonight.
In a similar reaction to board President Liz Rogan’s initial
comments to Main Line Media News Monday, Dranoff said in a phone interview
Tuesday, “Our interpretation is this is a misunderstanding” of the project. And
it is a misunderstanding that he said he believes “will be rectified.”
Dranoff’s company, Dranoff Properties, is the township’s development partner on
the Cricket project, which he has dubbed One Ardmore Place.
Other responses Tuesday were either noncommittal or outright
gloomy.
In response to a request for an interview, Township Manager
Douglas Cleland said through a spokesman that he would not be available for
comment Tuesday. Public Information Officer Thomas Walsh related that Cleland
felt he could not add much more than Rogan had said in her comments, when she
focused on “inaccuracies” in the letter from the Commonwealth. “We are
developing a plan on how to deal with the situation,” Walsh said in a
voicemail.
Christine Vilardo, executive director of the downtown
business authority, The Ardmore Initiative, said late Tuesday that the
organization would not comment at this time, feeling that it did not have
enough information about the funding decision.
Commissioner Lewis Gould, who has repeatedly raised concerns
whether the funds could be redirected to a project on the Cricket lot, most
recently at board meetings and in a letter to the Main Line Times this fall,
took a dimmer view. But he also said he took no joy in apparently being proven
right.
“I am heartbroken about it,” he said, referring to the
overall Ardmore project. As he has pointed out, it was he who nearly a decade
ago encouraged Lower Merion to pursue transit-oriented development in Ardmore.
He was also instrumental in working with U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, the township’s
then-Congressional representative, to secure an initial $5.8 million federal
grant for an Ardmore Transit Center project in late 2004.
Gould said he questioned from the beginning whether the RACP
grant funds could be used for a project that is primarily residential, rather
than for transit improvements to include a new commuter parking garage.
That is one point, however, on which Dranoff agrees with
Rogan that the letter from the state official seems “inaccurate.” The developer
of several major residential redevelopment projects in Philadelphia, he noted
that RACP grants were used in both his Symphony House and 777 South Broad
projects, which include commercial components.
As for One Ardmore Place, “The portion being funded [with
RACP funds] are the commercial areas, not the residential part,” Dranoff said.
He also said the state’s letter was incorrect in stating that the project was
still “conceptual” and in suggesting that its financing has not been secured.
“The project is moving forward,” he said. “We have
preliminary plans being prepared, we have done the geotechnical work on the
site, we’re rolling this thing out right on our schedule for mid-2014,” he
said, pointing out that the letter itself cites an expiration date for the
grants of Dec. 31 of that year.
As far as financing, “I’m the person putting up the
[private] money,” he said, meeting the grant requirement of a 100 percent match
of funds. The requirement for matching funds is one reason the $12 million
cannot simply be applied to building a parking garage at the train station,
where a significant fund gap remains and township commissioners have been
adamant no additional township taxpayer money will be spent.
Dranoff said he personally was present, along with Dranoff
Properties’ general counsel, Rogan and Cleland, at a meeting in Harrisburg
earlier this fall, when as Rogan has said, the group was given verbal
assurances that the application of the use of the $12 million was in order.
Working cooperatively with the township, Dranoff said that,
as it did in playing a large role in securing the full amount of the RACP
grants initially, his team will work to get the Cricket lot project “back on
track.”
“As a developer who is used to [having to get] past speed
bumps and obstacles, this is what we do,” he said. “Usually we prevail, and we
look forward to breaking ground next summer.”
Check back with Main Line Media News for updates following
tonight’s board meeting.
Source: Main
Line Times
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