Ten real
estate firms have signaled they are interested in redeveloping more than 800
acres at the former Naval air base in Willow Grove, Pa.
The
companies range from residential developers to those that do mixed-use
projects. Some of the developers are from the region while others are from
outside of the Philadelphia area.
The
competition will be stiff. It’s seldom a property comprised of several hundred
acres comes available for development in a mature suburb just outside of a
major metropolitan area.
The
companies that responded to a request for qualifications from the Horsham Land
Redevelopment Authority include:
American
Real Estate Development of Souderton, Pa. The company was established by a
former executive of TH Properties, a residential developer that went through
Chapter 11 bankruptcy during the recession.
A group
comprised of Avalon Bay Communities Inc., an apartment developer from
Arlington, Va., Pulte Group Inc., a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich.,
and Paramount Realty, a Lakewood, N.J., retail developer.
Catellus
Development Corp., a mixed-use developer from Oakland, Calif.
Hankin
Group, a mixed-use developer from Exton, Pa., better known for Eagleview
Corporate Center in Exton that also has a planned mixed-use community.
LCOR, a mixed-use
developer from Berwyn, Pa.
Lennar
Corp., a national home builder based in Miami.
NVR Inc., a
Reston, Va., home builder.
O’Neil
Properties Group, a King of Prussia, Pa., developer that also does mixed-use
development. Some projects the company has done locally are Uptown Worthington
in Malvern, Pa., and several apartment complexes in Conshohocken, Pa., and along
the Main Line, and office buildings throughout the suburbs.
Realen
Properties, a Berwyn, Pa., developer that has dabbled in mixed-use developments
in the suburbs and in Center City. Realen is currently involved with the
Village at Valley Forge, a mixed-use project in King of Prussia where a
Wegman’s is located.
Toll
Brothers Inc., a residential home builder based in Horsham. The company does
single-family and multifamily development.
“We were
hoping for three to five responses,” said Tom Ames, deputy director of the
Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority, or HLRA. “We got 10.”
Ames and his
group will review the developers' credentials, interview them, and then create
a shortlist of companies that will then be asked to draw up a plan for what
they would construct on the 862-acre site. From that, a master developer will
be picked.
The HLRA,
with community input, has come up with a redevelopment proposal that would
incorporate a town center, residential, office, retail, recreational and
educational uses. The master developer would execute on that vision.
“This is
going to take some time,” Ames said about the selection process. “We want to
make sure we make a good decision.”
This is
occurring at the same time the redevelopment authority is negotiating to
acquire the former air base from the Navy. Once HLRA gets title to the ground,
it will then sell the property to the master developer. The transaction would
involve the redevelopment authority to use proceeds received from the sale of
the land to a private developer to pay for buying the property from the Navy.
Ames is
projecting the redevelopment authority will have identified a master developer
by the end of summer.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
No comments:
Post a Comment