Urban Outfitters in Gap: A colossus takes shape

 

Traveling east from Kinzers on Route 30, you crest the summit of a low hill and there it is: A massive concrete dreadnought off to your right, afloat in Lancaster County farmland.

On the square, squat towers: URBN.

It’s Urban Outfitters’ 1-million-square-foot distribution center, under construction in Salisbury Township west of Gap.

When it opens next summer, about 500 people will work there, packaging online orders for direct shipment by van to customers up and down the East Coast.

Staffing is expected to grow, reaching as many as 1,500 workers at seasonal peak times, officials have said.

Salisbury Township’s largest community, Gap, had fewer than 2,000 people as of the 2010 Census.

The building is like nothing else in the area. Urban Outfitters is investing $110 million in it: For comparison, that’s more than one-sixth the township’s total assessed property value, which is $634.5 million, according to the county Property Assessment Office.

Urban Outfitters will pay property taxes on 110 percent of the site’s present land value, township supervisor Les Houck said. Because local and state officials agreed to make the site a Keystone Opportunity Zone, however, the value of the new building won’t count toward the property assessment for 10 years.

The township and Pequea Valley School District are coming out ahead compared to before, Houck said. That’s because the farm that was on the site was getting a substantial property tax discount thanks to its enrollment in the state’s “Clean & Green” program.

The local Amish community doesn’t much like the project.

“Everyone thinks it’s a real eyesore,” said a Plain farmer with land nearby, who asked that his name not be used. Amish culture frowns on individuals calling attention to themselves.

Not only that, it represents the loss of dozens of acres of irreplaceable farmland, he said. You can harvest three crops a year on it if you know what you’re doing.

Gap used to be nice and quiet, he said: “I’m afraid of what the future will bring.”

Non-Amish residents worry about the additional traffic.

But at least for those interviewed by the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, those concerns appear to be outweighed by the economic benefits promised by the new facility.

Traffic has been a constant in the area for decades, they said. Good jobs, not so much.

Aimee White, the manager of the Gap Diner, thought the fulfillment center would be good for the local area when this newspaper interviewed her in October.

She’s seen nothing to change her mind since then.

“Everyone keeps coming in and asking what that big building is,” she said. When they find out, she added, their next question is often, “When can I put in an (employment) application?”

“It’s hard to get a job in Gap,” she said. “It really is.”

Other diner staff members concurred. They described putting in dozens of fruitless job applications at local businesses. They’re small, many are family-owned, and they rarely hire, they said.

Urban Outfitters has operated a smaller conventional distribution center on Brackbill Road since the mid-1990s. Employees there generally say positive things about the company, said Bob Clark, a local resident.

Most of the hiring for the e-fulfillment center will be done in the spring, but Urban Outfitters has said it is willing to take applications before that. Jobseekers can go to the existing facility to fill out an application.

The new jobs should give a boost “at some point” to the local housing market, said Steve Barr of Barr Realty Inc. and Barr-Davis Auctioneers.

He hasn’t seen any effect yet, he said. But that’s to be expected, since the planned opening is still about a year away.

Gene Feerrar, co-owner of Apple Auto Sales on Route 30, is bullish about the new enterprise.

“This is going to be huge for Gap,” he said.

Source: Lancaster Online