LIMERICK PA – Spring 2011 is the now-official target date for opening a Costco wholesale store and accompanying gasoline station as the anchor tenant of the Gateway At Sanatoga shopping center on the south side of the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, center developer O’Neill Properties Group announced Tuesday (June 29, 2010).
The company had said earlier Costco would be open sometime during 2010.
An artist's rendering shows a proposed Costco Warehouse store in the O'Neill Properties Group "Gateway At Sanatoga" project.
Beyond confirming that Costco’s construction was still moving ahead, there was little else new in the company’s five-paragraph press release. It noted that:
- Costco had already bought the 14-acre parcel on which it will build;
- The Gateway project is expected to consist of 450,000 square feet of retail space constructed in two phases, of which Costco and 76,000-square-feet of additional retail, restaurant, and bank space would constitute Phase 1; and
- Gateway’s second phase, of another 190,000 square feet of space, was slated to open in Fall 2011 but its “anchors, junior boxes, specialty retail, hotels and restaurants” are still being sought.
The release also re-emphasizes that O’Neill’s project, on mostly vacant fields bounded by Evergreen and Lightcap roads and the eastbound interchange on-ramp to 422 in Limerick (PA) Township, would be the gateway (hence the name) to the 150-store Philadelphia Premium Outlets mall just east on Lightcap.
Promotional material distributed earlier this year to potential tenants by King of Prussia PA-based O’Neill makes the point more bluntly. “ALL traffic to The Outlets must pass through our site first!,” (capitalization and punctuation both are the developer’s usage) it states as a prime selling point for retailers at the top of the second page of a 13-page brochure.
The funnel-like nature of increased traffic on Evergreen Road through Gateway to the outlets has been a continuing source of concern by area residents. O’Neill in December (2009) won approvals from the Limerick Township Board of Supervisors for its Phase 1 plans, which did not contain improvements to Evergreen.
The company reportedly agreed to pay $1 million, in the form of a donation and traffic impact fees, to Limerick as part of its requirements for the approvals. However, it is not yet apparent that amount will be specifically earmarked for Evergreen enhancements or, if so, whether it will be sufficient to pay for them.
Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove Township have a working agreement to coordinate planning, zoning and traffic efforts for properties surrounding the interchange.
Related:
- Developer Sets New Costco Date: Spring 2011
- New Activity Stirs For Gateway At Sanatoga Project
- Costco Approved Without Traffic Improvements (WhatsThe422.com)
- Sanatoga Gateway Endorsed By Limerick Planners (WhatsThe422.com)
- Sanatoga Project Faces Limerick Zoning Decisions
- Sanatoga Shopping Project On Limerick Zoning Agenda
- More Web Searches Seek ‘Sanatoga Springs’
- Board Approves Interchange Mapping Costs
- Sanatoga Springs Promotion In Flux
- Townships Agree To Interchange Planning
- Township Interviews For ‘Bigger Picture’
- Missing Walks Latest Bridge Complaint
- Trying, Trying Again At The Interchange
- Just One Speaker At Sanatoga Springs Hearing
- The Overlooked Users Of Sanatoga Springs
- County Suggests Cooperation On Sanatoga Springs
- Improving The Odds At The Interchange
- More About … Sanatoga Springs (No. 1 In A Series)
- Trial Balloon: An Inter-Municipal Agreement
- Lobbyists Court Lower Pottsgrove
- A New Arrival In “Sanatoga Springs”
Artist’s rendering from O’Neill Properties Group
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Well, when accidents happen, and the Limerick Police, local paramedics and local fire departments cant get to a tragedy due to traffic jams, this page of the Sanatoga Post will be Exhibit Number 1 in the lawsuit.
All traffic comes through one spot? Absolutely irresponsible. And where are our supervisors? Absolutely irresponsible.
Rafferty was out there cutting the ribbon with the outlets. Where is he? Not doing another infomercial in St Petes as his buddy Drauschak went bust.
Gerlach? Where is he? He is assisting getting federal funds for roads and all is nodding his head on this plan?
Where is the Police Chief? Where are the fire chiefs?
Did any of these public safety officials see what happened in Conshohocken.
Read this and if something happens they will be subject of criminal negligence.
What a joke! One road into this area.
As I am very familiar with this area I can tell you now that this is a bad situation waiting to happen.
The 1 million dollars sounds like a payoff more that a road enhancement offer.
I will send my concerns, as well as a copy of this article, to various government officials in positions that are responsible for this idea.
To the Sanatoga Post, please provide an address so I can send you a copy of the signed certified receipts from the officials so it can be proved later that they knew all about this horrible plan.
I was told by someone in the Township Administration that the delay was due to the fact Costco wanted their building and business on their own land.
Maybe the O Neill Citizen Bank Lawsuit concerned them. None-the-less, smart move.
The changes in redrafting the deal and redesigning the tracts is what stalled the build out.
However, the last time there was building up there the unions picketed the area. If that happens again then that will slow the process way down.
Also, is O Neill the developer on the Costco Job? Are they doing the work? Why wouldn’t Costco bring in a developer that has built Costcos?
That is who should be stating when the place will open.
Costco did indeed publicly state, months ago during 2009, that its corporate policy was to own its land and store. It made clear a similar arrangement would be created for its Gateway at Sanatoga location. There’s nothing unusual about that. It’s unreasonable to assume it caused much, if any, delay in the center’s progress. It also seems to pre-date the O’Neill-Citizens Bank litigation; it’s possible, but unlikely, the two are somehow linked.
Any union picketing of the site remains to be seen. However, it can be shown that with union pickets of other local sites – recent renovations of Pottstown Memorial Medical Center are an example – protesters are relegated to positions in the public view but relatively distant from the work in progress. Fester’s suggestion that union demonstrations, if they occur for whatever reason, “will slow the process way down” is misleading and unsupported by fact.
Finally, O’Neill clearly is the “developer” for the project. It is not yet known who the “contractor,” the entity that will actually build the structure, will be. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. A business like Costco would either demand to approve, or be asked to approve, statements mentioning it or its plans in press releases issued by O’Neill. It’s a safe bet that Costco knew in advance what the release would say, including the reference to its stated opening date, before its distribution.
One other thing about Sanatoga.
The tax records for that area now shows Boyd Gaming Corporation has a second parcel of land up there.
Interesting….
It would be unsurprising to find Boyd still owned and was paying taxes on parcels in the area; it planned a pretty big project, and it is possible not all holdings could readily be sold … or even were desired to be sold. There’s also little significance to be attached – so far, at least – to its ownership of anything there. If it recently purchased additional holdings, that might be interesting. However, a review of Montgomery County property records for Lightcap Road doesn’t reflect any recent sales activity.
OK.
The taxes Boyd Pays are insignificant. Maybe a couple thousand dollars a year. The tax maps were redesigned several times over the last few months around this area. If you dispute that then you are not accurate.
Boyd has two tax parcels. 37-00-03480-40-7 is the parcel representing the 126 acres they bought from Providence Properites for 31 million. They pay less than 2000 a year on that one. The other parcel represented with a map on the county site is 37-00-03480-41-6. That was not there originally as part of the deal. Those are facts. If you chose to dispute them then simply call the county and they will tell you are wrong.
Fester, my previous post didn’t dispute the tax maps or your reference to them. I noted it would be “unsurprising” that Boyd still owned property and was paying taxes on it. I am unaware if tax maps for the area were recently re-designed, as you put it, but I have no reason to doubt you.
My point, which may have been missed, is this: I find nothing sinister in Boyd owning two or even more parcels. It bought or held options to buy lots of property … we know that. It may not yet have sold all of its holdings, and is waiting for a better market. What I would consider interesting (ie. newsworthy) is if Boyd purchased property recently (ie. well after it announced its decision to abandon its casino plans). THAT might mean something else is in the wind, and would be worth knowing.
Fester, I’ll go you one better.
You mention IDs for two parcels owned by Boyd: 370003480416 (I’ll call it “16″ for short) and 370003480407 (I’ll similarly label it “07.”) County property records (find them at http://propertyrecords.montcopa.org) show that “16″ was subdivided or split from “07″ during 2009, probably in January. That’s why two parcels appear where only one existed before.
Parcel “16″ consists only of 595 linear feet of frontage on Possum Hollow Road and, according to county records, has no appraised value, no assessed value, and consists of zero acres. Why did Boyd split it from the main parcel? I don’t know, but I might guess it has something to do with access or right-of-way issues.
Base parcel 07, the one that existed first, naturally also is located on Possum Hollow Road, has an appraised value of $1.9 million, an assessed value of $50,970, consists of 121.36 acres, and on it Boyd pays an estimated $1,375 annually in total property taxes. It bought the property from Providence for $31.3 million on Nov. 30, 2005, and, according to the county, has been sitting on it since.