The other failed project
divaris.com
And a publication your parakeet might like
shoppingcenterbusiness.com
Last I saw, the ice is still keeping those trucks still a year later
The Village at Valley Forge still on track to reality
Sunday, February 1, 2009
By GARY PULEO
Times Herald Staff
UPPER MERION — A hard winter may have temporarily rendered the cranes and backhoes motionless and frozen the earth solid, but before too long The Village at Valley Forge will begin to resemble the bustling metropolis its creators had in mind.
“Construction has been hampered by the weather, but nevertheless it’s moving forward,” said Dennis Maloomian, president of Realen Properties, the developer and partner of Realen Valley Forge Greenes Associates.
“Construction for the infrastructure necessary to support the first phase of the project, which will include retail, restaurant and entertainment space together with several hundred residential units and 300 hotel rooms, is currently under way.
“We have some strong commitments, but it’s premature for me to comment on specific tenants right now,” Maloomian said when asked about early speculation that a Wegman’s market would be moving in.
Driving down North Gulph Road, the once lush Valley Forge Golf Course may seem barren and still, but take a turn down Guthrie Road and the gradual reinvention of the 130-plus acres begins to reveal itself, Maloomian noted.
“Right now if you drive down Guthrie you see people working, to the extent that they are unaffected by weather, but certainly in this cold weather the ice has been a factor in the progress we’ve been making. But there you will see some infrastructure construction necessary for the project.”
Upper Merion Township Manager Ron Wagenmann noted earlier in the week that the township had long approved the plans for The Village at Valley Forge.
“As far as we know, they’re still proceeding with the project, trying to get their storm water permits from DEP and working on getting their highway occupancy permits from PennDOT in order to have access on state highways ... and three of the four sides are state highways. If you go over there you can see there is some tweaking of the storm water system and they are fixing sinkholes, from my understanding.”
According to the initial concept, as reported by The Times Herald in the spring of 2007, The Village at Valley Forge — bordered by Swedesford, North Warner, North Gulph and Guthrie roads — will include a cinema complex, hotel, and 310 apartments located above first-floor shops and restaurants on the 60 acres of the Phase 1 project. Parking in six surface lots for nearly 3,000 cars will eventually be replaced by multi-story parking garages.
It was determined that a five-lane access road into the development will be located at North Gulph Road and a reconfigured exit roadway from the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll booths at the Valley Forge interchange.
About $4 million in off-site road improvements would be built according to the requirements of the state Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over three state roads Swedesford, North Warner and North Gulph roads, noted attorney Marc Kaplan before the Upper Merion Board of Supervisors, according to a Times Herald article.
“We have now made a number of road improvements around the perimeter of the site, including a complete rework of the ramps coming off of the turnpike and onto the expressway on North Gulph,” Maloomian said. “As part of this we had to acquire tiny pieces of ground from some of our neighbors, who’ve been very cooperative. This is a very big, very sophisticated project and the entitlements for it are equally so.”
To satisfy PennDOT’s easement and right-of-way stipulations, roads needed to be widened, noted Jenny Robinson, PennDOT spokeswoman.
“Realen Valley Forge Greenes Associates needed to acquire some small pieces of property from Brandywine Operating Partnership in order to do the road widening that they had planned.
“The approval from us now includes a new traffic signal at North Gulph Road and Village Drive, and a signal at the entrance to the development.
“It’s fairly routine.”
Maloomian stated that the issues with PennDOT and DEP were “really non-issues, just part of the ongoing process. We have a very sophisticated storm water management for this project and we fine tune the engineering as the results are interpreted.”
Dennis Harney of DEP indicated that the original plans for storm water management that were approved have been modified by the developer’s ongoing findings as the project continues.
“They wanted to reduce the number of gravity drains and locations based on their own research and requested permit modifications to change some of the storm water management structure plans at the site,” he said. “The next step is for DEP to complete its technical review of the permit.”
Residents from nearby Tredyffrin, Chester County, had turned out to hear the details of a third permit application to the state DEP to control storm water back in May 2007, The Times Herald indicated at the time.
The report noted that the 131.9-acre mixed-use commercial and residential development on the former Valley Forge Golf Course on North Gulph Road would discharge storm water into tributaries of the Trout Creek. The 1,700-acre watershed area of Trout Creek includes the proposed development and the adjacent Pennsylvania Turnpike Valley Forge interchange.
The 40-acre GlenHardie Condominium Association, with 449 units and a nine-hole, 41-acre golf course located in Tredyffrin had appealed Realen’s request for permit, and the litigation continues, Harney noted.
Back then, Realen won a state Supreme Court case following a successful challenging of an agricultural zoning for the golf course, The Times Herald reported.
At the time, Maloomian had maintained that smart growth strategies had been incorporated into the design to “reduce traffic through shared parking and locating residents closer to existing employment centers.”
It was determined that storm water runoff from the adjacent turnpike and Lockheed Martin properties would be handled by filling in sinkholes on the property and channeling water into both natural and decorative water features of the development.
Twenty percent of the property, including urban spaces, parks and water features, was to be devoted to open space.
The management of all those obstacles notwithstanding, Realen must now consider the intrusion of an unanticipated but potentially more troublesome entity — a sluggish economy.
“Not unlike everyone else who is affected by these unprecedented economic times, we are taking pause to try to put our finger on the pulse of this volatile economy,” Maloomian said. “Aside from the enormous problems on Wall Street and with the banking system and capital markets, housing prices continue to decline and consumer confidence is at a historic low, all of which has had a chilling effect on retail sales. Understandably then, some retailers are evaluating the timing of their expansion plans, which has caused some delay in our overall schedule.
“Fortunately for us,” Maloomian added, “we have partnered with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which has been unscathed by the subprime loan crisis that has crippled so many other financial institutions across the country and therefore we are not dependent on bank financing for this project. Equally important, we have a number of strong retail, entertainment and restaurant tenants who remain committed to opening at The Village of Valley Forge.”
Carl Rotenberg contributed to this story.
Gary Puleo can be reached at 610-272-2500, ext. 205, or at gpuleo@timesherald.com.
|
