Sketch Plans Unveiled For Luxury Apartment Building In Newtown

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — A New Jersey-based developer has unveiled sketch plans for a 245 unit luxury apartment building in the southeast corner of the township.

Appearing before the planning commission just days before Christmas, KRE Group and DeLuca Homes floated the idea of developing a 17 acre piece of ground located in the township’s office research zone with market rate apartments.

The multi-family residential building on Lower Silver Lake Road would be a first of its kind in the township marketed to young couples and older adults looking to downsize.

“This is certainly a sketch plan, but it’s a sketch plan that we have put in a lot of thought,” said Noah Chrismer of the KRE Group, which owns and manages 15,000 apartments in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. “We think there’s a pretty vibrant and viable multi-family use here one that is going to bring ratables to the township and the school district, one that is going to keep the Bypass nice with a lovely buffer that is preserved, one that will use half of the impervious coverage currently allowed, and one that will respect the natural resources that make the site beautiful and a great site for the project.”

The plan envisions an E-shaped multi-story residential building with a 232 space parking garage, outdoor activity areas and 244 surface parking spaces. The building would sit perpendicular to the bypass between Woodbourne and Lower Silver Lake roads, but will be mostly hidden from view by thick vegetation.

The sketch plan shows an E-shaped market rate apartment building between the Newtown Bypass (left) and Lower Silver Lake Road (right).

Monthly rents would range from the mid-$2,000’s for one bedroom units to the high $2,000’s to low $3,000’s for two bedroom units.

The site had previously been approved for a 210,000 square foot office building as part of the Silver Lake Executive Campus built in the 1990s.

“The likelihood of this ever being developed as a 210,000 square foot office building is most remote,” land development attorney Ed Murphy told the planners. “We’re trying to identify a productive use of the property that hopefully benefits the community as well.”

Murphy noted that it’s been more than a generation since any new market rate apartments have been introduced into the township. “We know from other experiences in other townships that young millennials represent a large demographic of the work force who would be most served by a site like this,” he said.

Murphy also pointed to its close proximity to the Newtown Business Commons, to Interstate 295 and to the Woodbourne station in neighboring Middletown Township as strong selling points for the proposed residential use.

A developer is eyeing the construction of a luxury apartment building on this site in Newtown Township.

“We recognize this would be a big step for the township,” said Chrismer. “We believe it’s viable. And we see this as an opportunity for us to work with you to turn it into something we can all be proud of.”

The plan met with mixed reviews from the planners some of whom, like chairwoman Peggy Driscoll, questioned the need with similar projects being developed at the Oxford Valley Mall and in neighboring Lower Makefield on Stony Hill Road.

“I can’t believe you’re coming in with a plan like this for a property that’s not even zoned for residential,” said Driscoll. “It doesn’t comply with one ordinance. Nothing.”

For the project to happen, the developer would either need to secure a use variance from the zoning hearing board or to file a petition to modify the jointure ordinance to allow the use.

“I don’t have words for it. It really makes me sick to see what’s going to happen down there if Wawa goes through and then this,” said Driscoll. “The ordinances were put in years ago to maintain Newtown and to keep it as rural as possible.”

Planner Warren Dallas said he’d be in favor of additional residential units in the township, especially with the business commons struggling to attract workers. “I believe it would be something good for Newtown and its in close to 295,” he said.

Planner Mary Donaldson urged the commission to give the project some “serious thought” before outright rejecting it.

“I’m afraid of us being too entrenched in, ‘We don’t want this,’ that we end up getting way more than what we want because we fight it in court and we lose because we didn’t provide the use,” she said. “The use exists. The world changes. It’s a use we didn’t think we needed. Now we need it.
Every time this happens we get way more than if we had worked with the developer. I’d like us to take a deep breath and give this some serious thought.”

After a lengthy discussion, the planners and the developers agreed to continue the conversation in the new year. In the meantime, the developers said they will review their conversation with the planners and begin addressing their questions and concerns.