Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Philadelphia's Retail Vacancy Decreases to 6.3%
"The Philadelphia retail market did not experience much change in market conditions in the fourth quarter 2011.
The vacancy rate went from 6.4% in the previous quarter to 6.3% in the current quarter. Net absorption was positive 725,884 square feet, and vacant sublease space decreased by 366,346 square feet.
Tenants moving into large blocks of space in 2011 include: Target moving into 133,500 square feet at Shoppes at Kissel Village; and Burlington Coat Factory moving into 110,000 square feet at Whitman Plaza.
Quoted rental rates decreased from third quarter 2011 levels, ending at $13.96 per square foot per year.
A total of 12 retail buildings with 453,996 square feet of retail space were delivered to the market in the quarter, with 1,819,784 square feet still under construction at the end of the quarter.
This trend is compared to the U.S. national retail vacancy rate, which decreased to 6.9% from the previous quarter, with net absorption positive 16.3 million square feet in the fourth quarter."
http://www.omegare.com/
The vacancy rate went from 6.4% in the previous quarter to 6.3% in the current quarter. Net absorption was positive 725,884 square feet, and vacant sublease space decreased by 366,346 square feet.
Tenants moving into large blocks of space in 2011 include: Target moving into 133,500 square feet at Shoppes at Kissel Village; and Burlington Coat Factory moving into 110,000 square feet at Whitman Plaza.
Quoted rental rates decreased from third quarter 2011 levels, ending at $13.96 per square foot per year.
A total of 12 retail buildings with 453,996 square feet of retail space were delivered to the market in the quarter, with 1,819,784 square feet still under construction at the end of the quarter.
This trend is compared to the U.S. national retail vacancy rate, which decreased to 6.9% from the previous quarter, with net absorption positive 16.3 million square feet in the fourth quarter."
http://www.omegare.com/
Action Manufacturing Chooses PA over South Carolina
"Action Manufacturing purchased a 128,000 sq.ft. former Ferag Inc. printing-automation equpiment plant at 190 Rittenhouse Circle, Keystone Industrial Park, Bristol, PA. Action is a Philadelphia-based company that makes military fuses and detonators maker, for $6.125 million.
Action boss Arthur Mattia has been considering moving the company and 175 jobs from aging buildings on the St. Christopher's Hospital's campus at 2nd and Erie, to North Carolina, which is trying to entice Northern companies South to replace manufacturing jobs that have left for China and other countries.
Their broker said the state and local government officials deserve credit for raising job-training funds to help keep Action in Pennsylvania."
http://www.omegare.com/
Action boss Arthur Mattia has been considering moving the company and 175 jobs from aging buildings on the St. Christopher's Hospital's campus at 2nd and Erie, to North Carolina, which is trying to entice Northern companies South to replace manufacturing jobs that have left for China and other countries.
Their broker said the state and local government officials deserve credit for raising job-training funds to help keep Action in Pennsylvania."
http://www.omegare.com/
Monday, January 30, 2012
Construction Begins on the Courts at Spring Mill Station
A fence went up around the Reilly Foam building at Hector and North Lane recently and some demo work as begun on the back of the property. As we have previously reported, Home Properties is building over 300 apartments and some retail at the location.
Previously Reported: http://tinyurl.com/83hcgb9
http://www.omegare.com/
Previously Reported: http://tinyurl.com/83hcgb9
http://www.omegare.com/
Friday, January 27, 2012
Landlords Poised to Regain Upper Hand In Recovering Office Market
2011 Sees Office Leasing, Sales and Pricing Improve Amid Growth In Office Jobs and Rising Tenant Demand. Outlook Has Landlords Preparing To Sing: "Our Day Will Come"
"Office space absorption doubled during 2011 as the office-using job base expanded and vacancies declined across nearly two-thirds of U.S. submarkets, CoStar Group reported this week in its Year-End 2011 Office Review & Outlook. The report presented to CoStar clients found that positive momentum in office fundamentals and the continued absence of new construction is expected to result in higher rents for building owners over the next few years.
Office sales increased steadily through 2011 over the previous year as investors sought to get ahead of the curve, with investor interest spreading beyond the safer well-leased investment-grade buildings in top-tier markets and into smaller properties and second-tier markets such as Seattle, Atlanta and Northern New Jersey. Total fourth-quarter 2011 office sales are likely to match or exceed fourth-quarter 2010’s impressive $25 billion once all sales are tallied.
Total CRE sales, which evened out in 2011 across all property types, is estimated at nearly $300 billion, the highest since the peak of the real estate boom in 2007, and well above the historical average of around $220 billion since 2000.
Although office tenants continue to hold the cards in many markets, (see related topic:"Renew or Relocate? Incumbent Landlords Willing To Sweeten the Pot") CoStar reports the outlook appears to increasingly favor building owners in coming years as the cycle continues.
"To sum it up, for the office market, we’re just now getting started. Now is a good time to be an office investor," said Walter Page, director of research for Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and forecasting division. "We expect vacancy to continue to decline through 2015, and when you have declining vacancy rates, you can raise rents, returns are better, and for an investor, that’s good news."
Economy Shows Positive Signs For CRE
CoStar Group founder and CEO Andrew Florance noted that, although overall employment growth has been anemic, the U.S. posted a solid 1.7% gain in office-using jobs, led by technology and energy markets such as Seattle, Boston, San Francisco and Dallas.
Other positive signs abound, including a leveling off in the loss of manufacturing jobs and a bottoming of the housing market, which should be less of a drag on the economy going forward, and likely to be the source for new jobs as replacement demand for single-family and apartment housing fuels expected construction demand.
Meanwhile, corporate profits are off the charts, from $800 billion in 2000 to $2 trillion in 2011.
"Coupled with low interest rates, companies are in a position to invest aggressively in new facilities and equipment. From a CRE perspective, Corporate America is well positioned to invest in their businesses, plant facilities and equipment," Florance added.
Challenges remain, including relatively weak consumer confidence, continued high unemployment, a record federal budget deficit and economic upheaval in Europe. Occupancy recovery varies widely between metros, with "have" markets such as supply-constrained New York City showing 7.4% vacancy and housing bust "have-nots" like Phoenix lingering at a stubbornly high 20.7%.
However, CRE values have recovered to roughly 2000-year levels, and vacancies declined across the country last year. In a strong indicator of an impending office rebound, vacancy rates declined in 63% of the 2,400 office submarkets tracked by CoStar. That’s the strongest number since 2004-05, which roughly marked the beginning of the last CRE up cycle.
In the fourth quarter, CoStar recorded 18 million feet of net absorption, which drives occupancy rates and other leasing fundamentals, and a total of 49 million square feet for the year, doubling 2010’s absorption.
Despite rising concerns about the darkening economic picture that started last spring and continued through the year, absorption rose sharply in the second half of 2011, said Page, noting that companies are leasing space "and smaller tenants, the lifeblood of the office sector, are back."
Jay Spivey, CoStar senior director of research and analytics, said that the office recovery, while not feeling very strong so far for many landlords and investors, is actually much stronger than the recovery in the office market following the collapse of Internet companies and real estate downturn 10 years.
"We have seven quarters of positive growth, and at that same point 10 years ago, we were still seeing negative absorption," Spivey said.
Concessions Starting to Disappear
With improving occupancy and little new supply, concessions like free rent and tenant improvements are burning off in some markets and overall, the long downward slide in average office rents has likely bottomed.
CoStar sees significant upside in office rents, which are currently 11% below their long-term trend, Page said. With office construction at an all-time low, rents will rise and are expected to reach their long-term average between 2015 and 2017.
The analysts singled out "premier" suburban areas located near the urban core in markets such as Bethesda, MD, and West Los Angeles are seeing net absorption recover much more quickly on a rolling annual average compared with CBDs or outer suburban areas. Likewise, a survey of four- and five-star buildings in CoStar’s new Building Rating System, the equivalent of the top Class A properties, shows that the best buildings are absorbing most of the space. One- and two-star buildings, typically Class C, were hammered during the recession and are recovering more slowly.
While national vacancy and availability rates are both trending down, there are vast differences within metros and within the CBD and suburban properties in those markets. In Miami, for example, the CBD vacancy rate is about 22%, while suburban and premier suburban rates are lower. By contrast, Atlanta’s Buckhead premier office suburb, where much new construction came on line as the recession hit, has the highest vacancy at over 20%, more than 6 percentage point higher than the Atlanta CBD.
Investors Explore Secondary, Suburban Markets for Deals
The return of portfolio sales outside the largest markets in 2011 shows that investors, who largely retreated to the safety of well-leased properties in safe core markets like Washington and New York over the last couple of years, are ready to assume risk in certain transactions, with the help of a slowly returning flow of debt financing.
Distressed sales volume as a percentage of total office sale transactions fell during 2011. As distress has abated, prices have begun to rise over the last couple of quarters, spreading from investment-grade properties to smaller general commercial sales, according to the CoStar Commercial Repeat Sale Index (CCRSI).
Pricing has risen in most markets and is approaching replacement cost for some buildings, Spivey noted. Higher occupancy buildings are fetching a higher price premium currently than in 2007, possibly opening a window for investors on opportunities in select vacancy challenged properties.
http://www.omegare.com/
"Office space absorption doubled during 2011 as the office-using job base expanded and vacancies declined across nearly two-thirds of U.S. submarkets, CoStar Group reported this week in its Year-End 2011 Office Review & Outlook. The report presented to CoStar clients found that positive momentum in office fundamentals and the continued absence of new construction is expected to result in higher rents for building owners over the next few years.
Office sales increased steadily through 2011 over the previous year as investors sought to get ahead of the curve, with investor interest spreading beyond the safer well-leased investment-grade buildings in top-tier markets and into smaller properties and second-tier markets such as Seattle, Atlanta and Northern New Jersey. Total fourth-quarter 2011 office sales are likely to match or exceed fourth-quarter 2010’s impressive $25 billion once all sales are tallied.
Total CRE sales, which evened out in 2011 across all property types, is estimated at nearly $300 billion, the highest since the peak of the real estate boom in 2007, and well above the historical average of around $220 billion since 2000.
Although office tenants continue to hold the cards in many markets, (see related topic:"Renew or Relocate? Incumbent Landlords Willing To Sweeten the Pot") CoStar reports the outlook appears to increasingly favor building owners in coming years as the cycle continues.
"To sum it up, for the office market, we’re just now getting started. Now is a good time to be an office investor," said Walter Page, director of research for Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and forecasting division. "We expect vacancy to continue to decline through 2015, and when you have declining vacancy rates, you can raise rents, returns are better, and for an investor, that’s good news."
Economy Shows Positive Signs For CRE
CoStar Group founder and CEO Andrew Florance noted that, although overall employment growth has been anemic, the U.S. posted a solid 1.7% gain in office-using jobs, led by technology and energy markets such as Seattle, Boston, San Francisco and Dallas.
Other positive signs abound, including a leveling off in the loss of manufacturing jobs and a bottoming of the housing market, which should be less of a drag on the economy going forward, and likely to be the source for new jobs as replacement demand for single-family and apartment housing fuels expected construction demand.
Meanwhile, corporate profits are off the charts, from $800 billion in 2000 to $2 trillion in 2011.
"Coupled with low interest rates, companies are in a position to invest aggressively in new facilities and equipment. From a CRE perspective, Corporate America is well positioned to invest in their businesses, plant facilities and equipment," Florance added.
Challenges remain, including relatively weak consumer confidence, continued high unemployment, a record federal budget deficit and economic upheaval in Europe. Occupancy recovery varies widely between metros, with "have" markets such as supply-constrained New York City showing 7.4% vacancy and housing bust "have-nots" like Phoenix lingering at a stubbornly high 20.7%.
However, CRE values have recovered to roughly 2000-year levels, and vacancies declined across the country last year. In a strong indicator of an impending office rebound, vacancy rates declined in 63% of the 2,400 office submarkets tracked by CoStar. That’s the strongest number since 2004-05, which roughly marked the beginning of the last CRE up cycle.
In the fourth quarter, CoStar recorded 18 million feet of net absorption, which drives occupancy rates and other leasing fundamentals, and a total of 49 million square feet for the year, doubling 2010’s absorption.
Despite rising concerns about the darkening economic picture that started last spring and continued through the year, absorption rose sharply in the second half of 2011, said Page, noting that companies are leasing space "and smaller tenants, the lifeblood of the office sector, are back."
Jay Spivey, CoStar senior director of research and analytics, said that the office recovery, while not feeling very strong so far for many landlords and investors, is actually much stronger than the recovery in the office market following the collapse of Internet companies and real estate downturn 10 years.
"We have seven quarters of positive growth, and at that same point 10 years ago, we were still seeing negative absorption," Spivey said.
Concessions Starting to Disappear
With improving occupancy and little new supply, concessions like free rent and tenant improvements are burning off in some markets and overall, the long downward slide in average office rents has likely bottomed.
CoStar sees significant upside in office rents, which are currently 11% below their long-term trend, Page said. With office construction at an all-time low, rents will rise and are expected to reach their long-term average between 2015 and 2017.
The analysts singled out "premier" suburban areas located near the urban core in markets such as Bethesda, MD, and West Los Angeles are seeing net absorption recover much more quickly on a rolling annual average compared with CBDs or outer suburban areas. Likewise, a survey of four- and five-star buildings in CoStar’s new Building Rating System, the equivalent of the top Class A properties, shows that the best buildings are absorbing most of the space. One- and two-star buildings, typically Class C, were hammered during the recession and are recovering more slowly.
While national vacancy and availability rates are both trending down, there are vast differences within metros and within the CBD and suburban properties in those markets. In Miami, for example, the CBD vacancy rate is about 22%, while suburban and premier suburban rates are lower. By contrast, Atlanta’s Buckhead premier office suburb, where much new construction came on line as the recession hit, has the highest vacancy at over 20%, more than 6 percentage point higher than the Atlanta CBD.
Investors Explore Secondary, Suburban Markets for Deals
The return of portfolio sales outside the largest markets in 2011 shows that investors, who largely retreated to the safety of well-leased properties in safe core markets like Washington and New York over the last couple of years, are ready to assume risk in certain transactions, with the help of a slowly returning flow of debt financing.
Distressed sales volume as a percentage of total office sale transactions fell during 2011. As distress has abated, prices have begun to rise over the last couple of quarters, spreading from investment-grade properties to smaller general commercial sales, according to the CoStar Commercial Repeat Sale Index (CCRSI).
Pricing has risen in most markets and is approaching replacement cost for some buildings, Spivey noted. Higher occupancy buildings are fetching a higher price premium currently than in 2007, possibly opening a window for investors on opportunities in select vacancy challenged properties.
http://www.omegare.com/
Five Tower Bridge in W. Conshohocken sold for $70M
by Natalie Kostelni
"Five Tower Bridge, one of the crown jewels of the suburban office market, has sold less than two months after coming on the market. It traded for an estimated $70 million to MIM-Hayden Real Estate Fund I, which is a partnership comprised of Hayden Real Estate Investments, Miller Investment Management, both of Conshohocken, and the Davis Cos. of Boston bought the building.
The last time Five Tower sold was in October 2008 when KBS Realty Advisors of Newport Beach, Calif., bought it for $73 million, or around $327 a square foot.
The eight-story, 222,058-square-foot building at 300 Barr Harbor Drive in West Conshohocken is one of the few premier office buildings to trade in recent years as investor appetites have gotten picky about which commercial property buildings, particularly office, they will invest in. When it comes to office structures, many want to buy well-leased, Class A buildings in prime locations.
“It was actively sought after this time as well as previous times for simple reasons, It’s the best of the best. If you’re in the office building investment business, West Conshohocken is undoubtedly the center of the universe.” The building commands $35 a square foot in rent, which is the highest in the suburbs with just a couple of other office properties managing to attain that level.
The MIM-Hayden fund is no different from those selective buyers seeking high-quality office buildings.
“This is a core property in a core market,” said J. Anthony Hayden, chairman of Hayden Real Estate Investments.
The MIM-Hayden fund, which totals a little more than $100 million, had been seeking to buy in the Conshohocken area for the last three years without much success. It decided to take a run at Five Tower in early December and KBS wanted to close by mid-January. The transaction was a “little complicated,” Hayden said.
A mortgage had to be assumed and typically the MIM-Hayden fund doesn’t like to put in more than 10 percent of the fund into a deal; it decided to put in a little more but was still short.
“We had to scramble,” Hayden said.
It sought out extra money from James J. Maguire Sr., founder of Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp. who is also an investor of the MIM-Hayden fund, and other undisclosed high-net-worth individuals to help close the funding gap. The transaction was finalized Jan. 23.
“We bought it right,” Hayden said.
The building is fully occupied and many of the tenants are in the space for the long term. Keystone Foods leases 50,000 square feet through 2019, Oracle America Inc. is in 49,000 square feet until 2020 and Hirtle Callaghan & Co. occupies nearly 30,000 square feet through 2021. Those three tenants account for 50 percent of the building’s occupancy.
Five Tower was constructed by Oliver Tyrone Pulver in 2001 as part of the company’s Tower Bridge complex that has developed over the years in West Conshohocken and Conshohocken. It is the 10th property the MIM-Hayden fund has closed on in the past 11 months. Of the $100 million, 45 percent of the fund has been deployed on a range of office, industrial and other property acquisitions."
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/6nal7yg
http://www.omegare.com/
"Five Tower Bridge, one of the crown jewels of the suburban office market, has sold less than two months after coming on the market. It traded for an estimated $70 million to MIM-Hayden Real Estate Fund I, which is a partnership comprised of Hayden Real Estate Investments, Miller Investment Management, both of Conshohocken, and the Davis Cos. of Boston bought the building.
The last time Five Tower sold was in October 2008 when KBS Realty Advisors of Newport Beach, Calif., bought it for $73 million, or around $327 a square foot.
The eight-story, 222,058-square-foot building at 300 Barr Harbor Drive in West Conshohocken is one of the few premier office buildings to trade in recent years as investor appetites have gotten picky about which commercial property buildings, particularly office, they will invest in. When it comes to office structures, many want to buy well-leased, Class A buildings in prime locations.
“It was actively sought after this time as well as previous times for simple reasons, It’s the best of the best. If you’re in the office building investment business, West Conshohocken is undoubtedly the center of the universe.” The building commands $35 a square foot in rent, which is the highest in the suburbs with just a couple of other office properties managing to attain that level.
The MIM-Hayden fund is no different from those selective buyers seeking high-quality office buildings.
“This is a core property in a core market,” said J. Anthony Hayden, chairman of Hayden Real Estate Investments.
The MIM-Hayden fund, which totals a little more than $100 million, had been seeking to buy in the Conshohocken area for the last three years without much success. It decided to take a run at Five Tower in early December and KBS wanted to close by mid-January. The transaction was a “little complicated,” Hayden said.
A mortgage had to be assumed and typically the MIM-Hayden fund doesn’t like to put in more than 10 percent of the fund into a deal; it decided to put in a little more but was still short.
“We had to scramble,” Hayden said.
It sought out extra money from James J. Maguire Sr., founder of Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp. who is also an investor of the MIM-Hayden fund, and other undisclosed high-net-worth individuals to help close the funding gap. The transaction was finalized Jan. 23.
“We bought it right,” Hayden said.
The building is fully occupied and many of the tenants are in the space for the long term. Keystone Foods leases 50,000 square feet through 2019, Oracle America Inc. is in 49,000 square feet until 2020 and Hirtle Callaghan & Co. occupies nearly 30,000 square feet through 2021. Those three tenants account for 50 percent of the building’s occupancy.
Five Tower was constructed by Oliver Tyrone Pulver in 2001 as part of the company’s Tower Bridge complex that has developed over the years in West Conshohocken and Conshohocken. It is the 10th property the MIM-Hayden fund has closed on in the past 11 months. Of the $100 million, 45 percent of the fund has been deployed on a range of office, industrial and other property acquisitions."
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/6nal7yg
http://www.omegare.com/
Villanova expanding
by Natalie Kostelni
"Villanova University is proposing a more than $200 million expansion to its campus that would significantly re-shape an area along Lancaster Avenue that is now a series of barren surface parking lots.
Early plans call for constructing four, four- to five-story residence halls, a performing arts center, retail space and an 1,800-vehicle parking garage on the main parking lots. The retail space would be oriented toward the students and mean relocating the school’s bookstore, a bistro and some other uses on the campus.
The main objective of the development would be more on-campus housing and therefore pull the students who live in nearby neighborhoods back to the main campus, according to information about the project on the school’s website. The new residence halls would have 1,160 beds and provide housing for 85 percent of the school’s students. The school doesn’t intend to increase its enrollment.
The development would also help ease town-and-gown tensions that have flared up, particularly when partying students get out of hand or when student vehicles clog up neighborhood streets. It would also create a new gateway for the school on U.S. 30 and provide several “traffic calming” designs that would enhance that area of Lancaster Avenue.
As more students prefer to live on campus, the work will also go a long way in improving a pocket of Route 30. A two-year study of an 11-mile stretch of the corridor starting from its borders in Philadelphia to Old Eagle School Road in Strafford was completed last month by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
The study makes a series of recommendations, priorities, plans and strategies that would build on the existing infrastructure but make it more walkable, less congested and connected by bicycling paths. Essentially, the plan makes it more attractive and user-friendly.
“It’s a blueprint for action,” said David Anderson of the regional planning commission. “We found at public meetings that the public in large part were supportive in the recommendations we had. In general, we are all singing from the same hymn books. It’s so obvious what needs to be done but the challenge looking forward is to make it happen in these economic times.”
Villanova is in the early stages of the project and in designing its overall concept, but it has detailed the plans on its website. It hired Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York and Voith & Mactavish Architects of Philadelphia. The school was set to begin presentations to the community and Radnor officials on Jan. 23 but canceled. No new date has been scheduled, according to the township.
Villanova officials declined comment until it goes before the Radnor Township Board of Commissioners, said Villanova spokesman Jonathan Gust.
The school has held two meetings with neighbors who have some general concerns, said Kathy Bogosian, who sits on the Radnor Planning Commission but hasn’t gotten to see the full proposal yet.
“My personal opinion at this point, since I haven’t reviewed the plans, is the buildings look attractive but a major concern is parking and whether there is enough,” Bogosian said.
The neighbors, especially, the businesses in the nearby Garrett Hill commercial area are worried the new retail will unfairly compete with them and might be able to forego paying some taxes since the university is tax exempt.
A tentative timeline for starting construction of the garage in May 2013 and completing it within a year and then begin building the residence halls between May 2014 and August 2016. The performing arts center could get under way once funding was secured."
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/6qfkcmf
http://www.omegare.com/
"Villanova University is proposing a more than $200 million expansion to its campus that would significantly re-shape an area along Lancaster Avenue that is now a series of barren surface parking lots.
Early plans call for constructing four, four- to five-story residence halls, a performing arts center, retail space and an 1,800-vehicle parking garage on the main parking lots. The retail space would be oriented toward the students and mean relocating the school’s bookstore, a bistro and some other uses on the campus.
The main objective of the development would be more on-campus housing and therefore pull the students who live in nearby neighborhoods back to the main campus, according to information about the project on the school’s website. The new residence halls would have 1,160 beds and provide housing for 85 percent of the school’s students. The school doesn’t intend to increase its enrollment.
The development would also help ease town-and-gown tensions that have flared up, particularly when partying students get out of hand or when student vehicles clog up neighborhood streets. It would also create a new gateway for the school on U.S. 30 and provide several “traffic calming” designs that would enhance that area of Lancaster Avenue.
As more students prefer to live on campus, the work will also go a long way in improving a pocket of Route 30. A two-year study of an 11-mile stretch of the corridor starting from its borders in Philadelphia to Old Eagle School Road in Strafford was completed last month by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
The study makes a series of recommendations, priorities, plans and strategies that would build on the existing infrastructure but make it more walkable, less congested and connected by bicycling paths. Essentially, the plan makes it more attractive and user-friendly.
“It’s a blueprint for action,” said David Anderson of the regional planning commission. “We found at public meetings that the public in large part were supportive in the recommendations we had. In general, we are all singing from the same hymn books. It’s so obvious what needs to be done but the challenge looking forward is to make it happen in these economic times.”
Villanova is in the early stages of the project and in designing its overall concept, but it has detailed the plans on its website. It hired Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York and Voith & Mactavish Architects of Philadelphia. The school was set to begin presentations to the community and Radnor officials on Jan. 23 but canceled. No new date has been scheduled, according to the township.
Villanova officials declined comment until it goes before the Radnor Township Board of Commissioners, said Villanova spokesman Jonathan Gust.
The school has held two meetings with neighbors who have some general concerns, said Kathy Bogosian, who sits on the Radnor Planning Commission but hasn’t gotten to see the full proposal yet.
“My personal opinion at this point, since I haven’t reviewed the plans, is the buildings look attractive but a major concern is parking and whether there is enough,” Bogosian said.
The neighbors, especially, the businesses in the nearby Garrett Hill commercial area are worried the new retail will unfairly compete with them and might be able to forego paying some taxes since the university is tax exempt.
A tentative timeline for starting construction of the garage in May 2013 and completing it within a year and then begin building the residence halls between May 2014 and August 2016. The performing arts center could get under way once funding was secured."
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/6qfkcmf
http://www.omegare.com/
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