HBA Newswatch
March 7, 2008
DEVELOPER PITCHES CONCEPT PLAN IN SOUTH WAYNE
Community responses represent widely held concerns in time of large-scale, mixed-use suburban development
By Sam Strike
The Radnorshire Room of the Radnor Township municipal building was chock full of people Saturday morning for the presentation of a mixed-use development concept plan on South Wayne Avenue.
At times the room broke out in laughter, applause and whispers.
The laughter came when the would-be developers said their 11-story residential building in Clarendon, Va., did not dwarf the adjacent historic post office.
The applause was aimed at comments like, “We don’t need more housing in Wayne… We don’t need a huge project to manage a new library.”
And the whispers were in response to being told that the 100 or so proposed flats, lofts and townhouses would start in the $600,000 range.
Representatives of the Keating Development Company told the crowd that their concept plan for the less-than-three-acre block in South Wayne between Runnymede and West Wayne avenues was just that: a rough draft, a “beginning.”
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DEVELOPER PROPOSES HOUSING AT SPAZ SITE
BEVERAGE DISTRIBUTER WOULD RELOCATE, REDUCE STAFF WHILE APARTMENT BUILDING ARRIVES
By ANNE PICKERING, Staff Writer
WEST GOSHEN — A developer of luxury apartment buildings is planning a new complex near the corner of South Matlack Street and Route 202 where Spaz Beverage Co. has a distribution center and retail store.
JPI, a national real estate company, plans to build a four-story building with 231 apartments on the 11.24-acre site. The company entered into an agreement of sale with Spaz about two years ago to purchase the property.
Beverage company owner Robert Spaziani said Thursday that once the sale is complete and JPI starts construction, he will relocate the retail portion of his store somewhere in the area. But he said he doesn’t expect to move before the first of the year.
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ON THE HOUSE: TACKLING HOUSING WORRIES
By Al Heavens
Inquirer Real Estate Columnist
I promised myself and my loved ones that the inner workings of our family would no longer be fodder for this column.
But for today only, I have to go back on my promise. With the spring real estate season upon us, I think I can offer insights into today's economy using personal history.
First: recessions. We seem to go through these every few years, and we come out of them as well. I've yet to experience unemployment in 42 years in the workforce. My father often did when the economy tanked, however; he was out of work on two occasions for a year.
We lost a house because of it. Fortunately, my father had obtained a real estate broker's license to supplement his income, so we were able to sell the house at a very small profit, supplemented by his commission.
Not a first for my family.
In the Great Depression, my father's parents were living in a house the family had bought in the early 1880s, a few years after arriving from England. They lost it because my grandparents were unable to pay the property taxes. My grandfather had been out of work.
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A SHIFT FOR SUITORS OF THE FLATS
COATESVILLE OFFICIALS SAY NEW POWER PLANT LOCATION COULD SATISFY COMPETING PLANS FOR CITY LAND OFF ROUTE 82
By R. JONATHAN TULEYA, Staff Writer
COATESVILLE — The city may not have to choose between a mixed commercial/residential development at the Flats, an option preferred among many residents, and a financially attractive proposal to construct a power plant.
There is a chance Coatesville could get both, City Manager Harry Walker said during a joint meeting Thursday night with the Coatesville Redevelopment Authority and City Council.
Engineers from the companies have begun considering other sites within the city as potential sites for a power plant, Walker said, but he declined to say specifically what sites are under consideration. “I don’t want to say anything because it is going to cause a lot of speculation,” said Walker.
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HOUSE COMMITTEE QUESTIONS HIGH COMPENSATION FOR CEOS INVOLVED IN MORTGAGE CRISIS
By Jim Abrams, Of The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Lawmakers aimed their sites at three corporate executives Friday as they questioned how the CEOs managed to take home hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation while their companies were taking a financial nosedive due to the subprime mortgage crisis.
"It seems that CEOs hit the lottery when their companies collapse," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at the opening of the hearing. "Any reasonable relation between their compensation and the interests of their shareholders appears to have broken down."
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INDUSTRY GROUP SAYS HOME FORECLOSURES AT RECORD HIGH LAST QUARTER
By Jeannine Aversa, Of The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Home foreclosures soared to an all-time high in the final quarter of last year, underscoring the suffering of distressed homeowners and the growing danger the housing meltdown poses for the economy.
The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a quarterly snapshot of the mortgage market released Thursday, said the proportion of all mortgages nationwide that fell into foreclosure shot up to a record high of 0.83 percent in the October-to-December quarter. That surpassed the previous high of 0.78 percent set in the prior quarter.
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