$60M 320-apartment complex planned for King of Prussia

The site Bentley is buying on Vandenburg Boulevard is close to Route 23 and Allendale Road in King of Prussia, Pa

Known for its well-appointed million-dollar manses throughout the Main Line and Chester County, a homebuilder is taking a stab at apartment development.

Bentley Homes is teaming up with Cornerstone Communities of Villanova, Pa., to construct a $60 million project that has 320 apartments in four buildings at 751 Vandenburg Blvd. in King of Prussia, Pa. Though Bentley has built townhouses before, this would be the developer's first large-scale rental community.

“It’s an opportunity,” said Tom Bentley, CEO of Bentley Homes. “We still have a very viable business with our million-plus market, but I don't think millennials coming up want 5,000-square-foot homes and there are a lot of Empty Nesters looking to downsize. Philadelphia is also underserved when it comes to apartments.”

It’s not unusual these days for residential real estate companies that had focused on constructing traditional single-family houses in a typical suburban subdivision to shift gears and tap into demographic trends that have more people turning to apartment living. Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) has started to do more multifamily rentals in conjunction with condo and single-family home development. Office developers, such as Brandywine Realty Trust and Mack-Cali Realty Co., have gotten in on the act and have incorporated apartments into their business platform.

The Vandenburg Boulevard property had been occupied by what was at one time known as the SI Organization, which spun off from Lockheed Martin Corp. five years ago. The SI Organization was renamed Vencore last year and serves the intelligence community, the department of defense as well as federal and civil agents. It is owned by the private equity group Veritas Capital.

SI Organization bought the property from Lockheed Martin in a separate transaction in 2010 for $21.4 million, according to Montgomery Country property records.

The property consists of a vacant 290,000-square-foot research building that will be demolished. The site totals about 20 acres. Bentley expects to close on buying the parcel next month.

Bentley is just starting the approval process with Upper Merion and the developer’s plans involve building the apartments around a large green courtyard that will have outdoor landscaped “rooms” for residents to hang out as well as a pool. About 15,000 square feet will be dedicated to amenities and a portion of that will include a cafe that will be open to the public.

This is one of the first projects that will take advantage of new zoning that allows for dense, mixed-use development in the King of Prussia Business Park.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal