Opportunity
The Property which had been owned by a single family for nearly 100 years had become functionally obsolete. Originally serving as an Ice House in the early part of the 20th century, the Property had recently been operating as a beer distributor and a C-class office building and was in a serious state of decay posing real safety concerns for both the occupants and the community at large.
The Property, located in Ardmore did enjoy an excellent location adjacent to one of the Country’s first suburban shopping malls known as Suburban Square. Suburban Square boasts many of the top fashion retailers in the country with such names as Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, GAP, J. Crew, Lilly Pulitzer and many more.
Resolution
Strategic realized that the Property’s location adjacent to high-end shopping and nearby transit would be an ideal location for upscale luxury residential. While residential was permitted under current zoning the property was split zoned with approximately fifty (50%) of the site zoned in such a manner that it severely impacted allowable density.
Realizing this challenge, Strategic petitioned the Lower Merion Zoning Hearing Board requesting that the site be re-zoned allowing the more favorable zoning district be applied to the entire site. Successful in our petition, Strategic increased density allowing for 28 luxury condominiums plus enclosed parking under the building for 64 cars on a parcel that was roughly ¾ of an acre or approximately 42 units to the acre. This increased density created the necessary value to allow Strategic the opportunity to remove another in-fill blighted property from the community to make room for an exciting architecturally significant new condominium development.
Benefit
Strategic was able to assist a family wanting to diversify an estate and help liquidate a significant asset.
In acquiring the Property Strategic will transform a deteriorating blighted property from the community and create an exciting transit oriented luxury residential condominium. Through our continued focus on in-fill suburban properties, Strategic is helping preserve the limited open space that exists by adding new homes without destroying the precious little remaining green space.