Reporter's notebook: Development is in the air

Connected lots can be hard to come by, especially when the real estate market is heating up.

But investors have a rare opportunity in Swatara Township, where 17 lots extending from 62nd and Fulton streets to 65th Street are currently available.

RSR Realtors is listing the undeveloped 12-acre tract for $1.2 million.

"It's the prototypical infill piece," said Bill Rothman, founder of RSR and listing agent on the tract. "People drive by it for years and years and then they notice it."

The strength of the tract is not only in its location — it's near a Walmart, Derry Street and retail along Route 283 — but also in the flexible commercial general zoning available for most of the tract's plots, he said. 

About 120 townhomes or apartments could fit the entire tract, or it could be broken up for other commercial uses.

And a buyer could snap up just a few of the lots, he said. "Someone could buy one lot or the whole lot."

At one time, the tract was going to be part of a planned residential community, but that project failed to materialize. 

"It's ready to go. It just needs somebody to come up with some ideas for it," Rothman said.

Carlisle Pike

Meanwhile, construction is underway on a 9,000-square-foot retail building on the Carlisle Pike in Silver Spring Township. The project is near the traffic signal at the intersection with Silver Spring Square, home of Wegmans and Target stores.

Buildings were demolished on the site last year. Mattress Warehouse has signed a lease for half of the new building going up, said Art Campbell of Campbell Commercial Real Estate.

He has letters of intent with unnamed tenants for the other half.

"There is a lot of interest in the site," Campbell said. "With a small building at a traffic-controlled intersection, it's hard to get more exposure. This was a premier tract."

Tenants are expected to occupy the building by the fall.

In Camp Hill, at the corner of Market and 32nd streets, Campbell said designs are in the works to add about 6,000 to 8,000 square feet of retail space to the Orrstown Bank branch. 

Orrstown is relocating about 1 mile west to 4075 Market St. in Hampden Township.

That's a good sign if you're in the retail business.

Got big real estate plans for the remainder of 2016? Let me know.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal