Northampton Takes Action To Redevelop Former Police Station Site

RICHBORO, PA — Northampton Township has engaged the Bucks County RDA to redevelop the former Northampton Township Police Station at 50 Township Road.

At its June meeting, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to transfer ownership of the 7,300-square-foot cinder block building to the Redevelopment Authority of Bucks County, which will solicit and vet proposals to redevelop the property with a new use.

“The ultimate intent is to dispose of the property through a development process where the board will consider proposals received by the RDA,” said township manager Bob Pellegrino.

Those proposals, said Pellegrino, will be for various development options. “The board will have the ability to choose whichever option it deems appropriate and at that point they would approve the RDA entering into an agreement of sale for the property.”

That agreement of sale will likely contain a condition that the sale would happen upon land development approval by the township.

“Hopefully at some point we go to settlement,” said Pellegrino. “And as a sale of an asset, I would recommend using that money toward improving our capital infrastructure.”

The property, which has been appraised at $880,000, will most likely be demolished and replaced by new construction, said Pellegrino, noting the building’s aging systems and its cinder block construction makes it a challenge to reuse.

“Someone may come in with a plan that uses the existing building. I don’t think personally that is going to happen knowing the building as I do,” said Pellegrino. “It’s old. It’s got old systems in it. It’s a concrete block building, both on the outside and on the inside, and it’s very hard to change interior walls.”

With that said, Pellegrino said if a developer comes in with a proposal that the board likes that reuses the existing property then that’s what the board will approve,” said Pellegrino. “Whatever the proposals are, the board gets the opportunity to approve the one they like.”

The new use is also likely to be commercial given the building's location next to the district court and across the street from the township building. The site is zoned institutional public.

The township went through the same process a decade ago with the former Richboro School property, which is now an office building.

The township also utilized the Bucks RDA to solicit proposals for the redevelopment of the former Mill Race Inn in the Holland section of the township. A proposal to redevelop that site with age restricted condominiums will be considered by the supervisors later this summer.

In April, the township’s planning commission voted 4 to 0 with one abstention to recommend approval of a preliminary/final plan with conditions to redevelop the site with a 55 and older residential condominium complex overlooking Mill Creek.

The plan proposes to demolish part of the former mill, but preserve the historic part - about 2,000 square feet - for use as office space.