Ten developers vie for 862-acre Willow Grove air base

by Natalie Kostelni, Staff writer for the Philadelphia Business Journal

Ten real estate firms have signaled they are interested in redeveloping more than 800 acres at the former Naval air base in Willow Grove, Pa.

The companies range from residential developers to those that do mixed-use projects. Some of the developers are from the region while others are from outside of the Philadelphia area.

The competition will be stiff. It’s seldom a property comprised of several hundred acres comes available for development in a mature suburb just outside of a major metropolitan area.

The companies that responded to a request for qualifications from the Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority include:

• American Real Estate Development of Souderton, Pa. The company was established by a former executive of TH Properties, a residential developer that went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy during the recession.
• A group comprised of Avalon Bay Communities Inc., an apartment developer from Arlington, Va., Pulte Group Inc., a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Paramount Realty, a Lakewood, N.J., retail developer.
• Catellus Development Corp., a mixed-use developer from Oakland, Calif.
• Hankin Group, a mixed-use developer from Exton, Pa., better known for Eagleview Corporate Center in Exton that also has a planned mixed-use community.
• LCOR, a mixed-use developer from Berwyn, Pa.
• Lennar Corp., a national home builder based in Miami.
• NVR Inc., a Reston, Va., home builder.
• O’Neil Properties Group, a King of Prussia, Pa., developer that also does mixed-use development. Some projects the company has done locally are Uptown Worthington in Malvern, Pa., and several apartment complexes in Conshohocken, Pa., and along the Main Line, and office buildings throughout the suburbs.
• Realen Properties, a Berwyn, Pa., developer that has dabbled in mixed-use developments in the suburbs and in Center City. Realen is currently involved with the Village at Valley Forge, a mixed-use project in King of Prussia where a Wegman’s is located.
• Toll Brothers Inc., a residential home builder based in Horsham. The company does single-family and multifamily development.

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