Big plans for an 11-acre parcel on the Schuylkill River in Bala Cynwyd

Natalie Kostelni Reporter Philadelphia Business Journal
For the last 17 years, Sean McCloskey has been patiently plotting a more than $50 million mixed-use development on an 11-acre site along the banks of the Schuylkill River where the former Pencoyd Iron Works Inc. plant operated. Finally, he is now the closest he has ever been to getting his project out of the ground.

McCloskey’s Penn Real Estate Group anticipates breaking ground later this year on the first phase of Pencoyd Landing, which will include a public square, two hotels, a restaurant as well as an already renovated building that once served as Pencoyd’s headquarters but is now occupied by the real estate company McCloskey runs with business partner Donna Glavin. The first part of the project to be constructed is a 123-room Marriott Residence Inn. The other hotel will follow at some point and be about the same size but more upscale. McCloskey said he has lined up an operator for it but declined to disclose who it is.

Between 1999 and now, Penn Real Estate has been assembling parcels, conducting environmental remediation, installing infrastructure such as stormwater management systems and retaining walls as part of its effort to bring Pencoyd Landing to fruition. “Our objective is to encourage people to visit the river not only from Philadelphia but from around the world,” McCloskey said. “We are re-imagining and repurposing this part of the waterfront for the first time since 1852.”

That’s when Pencoyd Iron Works began production along the Schuylkill River and one of its last remaining operations, the fabrication of rebar, fully ceased operations last month. That meant Penn Real Estate could finally move forward with its plans.

Two hotels next to each other on the Lower Merion side of the Schuylkill River may seem a little preposterous until McCloskey makes his case. For one, he believes there’s demand for additional rooms in that area and at that particular spot, where Righters Ferry Road dead ends into the river, will provide an experience visitors can’t get elsewhere.
Full story: https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2017/04/14/big-plans-for-an-11-acre-parcel-on-the-schuylkill.html
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