PHILADELPHIA-CAMDEN-WILMINGTON-ATLANTIC CITY-READING | Metro Development Thread

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A construction boom in Chester County: 700 people compete for 142 units

Despite COVID-19, restrictions on in-person visits, and competition from at least eight other new residential projects nearby, the interest in Lochiel Farm, a townhouse development just east of the Exton Square Mall in Chester County, stunned its builder and local officials.

When potential buyers were asked last year to book a time to view the site’s models, there were five times more applicants than homes. The models hadn’t even gone up yet.

“They had like 700 people lined up for 142 units,” said John Weller, West Whiteland Township’s director of planning and zoning. “And it’s not just there. It’s been crazy at all these new developments.”

Throughout Chester County, the wealthiest, healthiest and best-educated of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, residential development is exploding. Nowhere is that more evident than in West Whiteland, where the area around its crossroads hub of Exton has been growing as fast and plentifully as the corn that used to wave in the community’s dwindling farmland.

In West Whiteland, more than 2,000 new apartments, townhouses and single dwellings have been built or approved in recent years in a relatively small area of the township that flanks the busy intersection of Routes 30 and 100. The boom there was ignited by the 2016 sale of the Waterloo Gardens’ property.

“Once those 86 townhouses at Waterloo got approved, six more projects followed quickly,” Weller said.

Within a mile of Ashbridge’s 410 units are J Creekside’s 291 apartments and the 242 at Keva Flats. To the north, Hanover Exton Square’s 331 units just debuted, and there’s a proposal for another 354-unit building nearby. Work is set to start at Exton Knoll, with 318 residences, to the east.

Most of these apartments are marketed as “luxury.” One-bedroom units can go for up to $2,000 a month.

In addition, nearly 500 townhouses and carriage houses — with price tags in the $500,000 range — and 100 or so more expensive single-family residences are going up in the township.

Read/view more here:
https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/hou...uction-housing-coronavirus-20201202.html