Urban Outfitters warns it could walk away from Devon Yard

Urban Outfitters' future in the much-anticipated Devon Yard project on the Main Line is far from guaranteed.

The Philadelphia-based retail company allegedly told lawyers who represent neighbors that it is prepared to walk away from the project if anyone files an appeal over the proposed zoning amendment that would allow the mixed-use development to go up, according to Main Line Media News.*

One of the attorneys representing the residents said the warning from Urban Outfitters came about in a meeting between themselves, and representatives for the retailer and the Devon Yard developers. He read a letter stating the claims during an April 6 Easttown Township Planning Commission meeting.

Set for the Lancaster Avenue site once home to Waterloo Gardens, the proposed project – or lifestyle center – includes a four-story apartment complex with 100 units and a shopping center that would feature two Vetri restaurants.

“Nothing in the proposed ordinance requires that an Antropologie or Vetri restaurants open or remain on the site,” the letter said. “In short, the proposed unified development is just a concept, not a guarantee of what will be built there. You are instead being asked only to consider whether the zoning law should be completely overhauled to permit a development like this, or countless other less desirable uses for this land.” The letter continued to say that in meetings between the residents’ lawyers and developers Eli Kahn, Wade McDevitt, their attorney and David Ziel, an Urban Outfitters representative, the lawyers were warned “several times and in no uncertain terms that if anyone appeals the enactment of the proposed zoning amendment beyond the Board of Supervisors, then Urban Outfitters will abandon the project, ‘walk away’ from the deal and that Urban has the absolute right to do so under its agreements.”

The letter did not faze Eli Kahn, the developer behind the massive project.

Kahn said he wasn't surprised Urban Outfitters is frustrated. Devon Yard's prospective tenants have already gone through a lengthy process since expressing interest in the project, yet shovels have yet to move ground.

The next public meeting on the zoning ordinance is May 5.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journals