Philadelphia Business Journal article
Looking out at a parking lot, an apartment building under construction and Johnsontown Park just beyond Brandywine Creek in Downingtown, Neal Fisher saw a burgeoning community he believed could be transformative for the Chester County borough.
While standing inside one of three apartment buildings that are part of the $80 million first phase of Hankin Group’s River Station project, the vice president of development shared why.
“It’s focused on community,” Fisher said during a recent tour of the site. “That’s the type of development we like to build. It’s less focused on vehicles and more focused on people.”
The first phase of River Station is nearing completion and residents could move in as soon as late January or early February. The opening marks a new beginning for the once-maligned property.
Situated on the site of the former Sonoco Products Co. paperboard mill, which sat empty for years, the project is just west of the Boot Road and Brandywine Avenue intersection, near the Downingtown train station and next to trails that traverse the adjacent woods. Hankin Group believes the project has what it takes not only to be successful, but to impact the entire borough of about 8,000 people.
While a train station is already within walking distance via a pedestrian bridge connecting the development to Johnsontown Park, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plans to move it even closer on Brandywine Avenue.
Fisher called the project a “true transit-oriented development.”
Once complete, the three buildings comprising the first phase will have 203 total apartments with 9,300 square feet of retail space. The first building has 64 apartments and 5,100 square feet of retail, while the second has 72 apartments and 4,200 square feet of retail. The third building has 67 apartments.
Of those apartments, 91 will be one-bedroom units with a starting price of $1,920 per month; 107 will be two-bedroom units starting at $2,475 per month; and there will be just five three-bedroom apartments starting at $3,500 per month.
The next phase of River Station is planned to consist of 60 apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail on the east side of Brandywine Avenue. Timing of construction will be based on market conditions.
An additional phase, on the site of a current parking lot next to the first three apartment buildings on the west side of Brandywine Avenue, will consist of a fourth apartment building with 154 units.
In the middle of the buildings is a boulevard that will eventually have pedestrian-friendly space and trees. Fisher said Hankin Group plans to make such space accessible for public events by closing the street to cars. The the goal is to make it an amenity for all of Downingtown, not just the residents who live in the new buildings.
“We want outdoor space as beautiful as indoor space,” Fisher said.
This isn’t Hankin Group’s first foray at such a community. In nearby Exton, the firm developed Eagleview, an 800-acre mixed-use community with more than 1,200 residences, 2.8 million square feet of office space, and 50,000 square feet of retail.