SANATOGA PA – “Another shopping center? Another mall? Haven’t we got enough already?”
An artist's rendering of a portion of the Gateway At Sanatoga.
Those questions, occasionally posed by residents in townships and boroughs across western Montgomery County PA, haunt local municipal officials.
Elected representatives acknowledge that sprawl is eating up what many of their constituents cherish about where they live. They understand the potentially negative effects increased traffic and surrounding development may have on property values. They recognize fears over the loss of open space, quiet neighborhoods, and other quality-of-life factors.
Although community leaders often share similar concerns, they generally also know this: the surprising answer to “haven’t we got enough?” – at least from the perspective of developers and retailers – probably is “not yet.”
The cover for marketing materials distributed by O'Neill about the Gateway At Sanatoga project.
Statistics now being distributed by the O’Neill Properties Group, as it continues to seek tenants for its Gateway At Sanatoga shopping and residential complex, hint at why. We’re a target that’s just too appealing.
Developer O’Neill is marketing its project, on the southeast side of the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422 in Limerick PA, with a variety of promotional materials aimed at sellers of goods and services that it hopes will want to be part of Gateway. Here’s what it tells them about us:
- There’s plenty of consumers here. The “high-growth corridor in the suburban Philadelphia market” that envelopes 422 is packed with potential buyers of all stripes, O’Neill writes. The trading area from which it says Gateway tenants can expect to attract customers currently is home to 720,000 people, and more are on the way. Another 10,000 residential units are either under development or have been proposed within a 10-mile radius of the project. That includes 300 units O’Neill itself wants to build in Gateway, tentatively labeled as the “Lofts At Sanatoga apartment community.”
- We’ve got money to spend. Across Gateway’s primary trading area, consisting of about a dozen zip codes, O’Neill shows the annual income inside a majority of households there ranges from $65,000 to $100,000 or more. The number of $100,000-and-higher households rises substantially when including another 30 or so zip codes in Gateway’s total trading area, O’Neill maps demonstrate. The only places that don’t fit the most desirable demographic profile are Pottstown, Sanatoga, and Stowe – the 19464 zip code – where O’Neill shows the average household income amounts to between only $50,000 and $65,000.
- Success breeds success. The area boasts other nearby projects already completed. In the total trading area O’Neill maps pinpoint 19 neighborhood shopping centers, nine community shopping centers, one lifestyle shopping center, and one outlet center. Its implied message: we’re not the only one who thinks this is a good place for business.
- Build it, and they will come. About 5.4 million people live within a 60-minute drive from Gateway, an O’Neill headline proclaims. Perhaps more important to retailers is an appended note; it describes their average household income as $95,000.
- The bandwagon is rolling. Retailers hate to eat competitors’ dust, so O’Neill makes a point of telling them their competition may already be nearby. Gateway is being built next to the Philadelphia Premium Outlets, which the developer says contains more than 150 stores and is fully leased. O’Neill describes the adjacent center, owned by the Simon Property Group, as that firm’s “most successful new outlet in the U.S.”
O’Neill thinks its statistics – its compiled, selective facts about us – make a compelling case for Gateway’s success. It’s hoping retail tenants will think so too.
Related (to the Gateway At Sanatoga project):
- What Gateway At Sanatoga Marketing Says About Us
- Before Demise, Limerick Homes Get Firefighters’ Farewell
- Ground Clearing Begins At Sanatoga “Gateway”
- 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”
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A word of caution here: Not long ago, a shopping center sat unused and unoccupied on High Street. In Sanatoga, an empty Rite Aid and an empty video store. A struggling Kmart may yet get the axe. At North Charlotte St the empty Rickels sat a long while. All these shops and marts met their demise in our “wonderful expanding economy.”
We have to police these places. Crime follows money, and 422 provides a highway right to our doorsteps for venturesome criminality from the city.
Shops next to the Turkey Hill mart, competing with other High Street business down towards the village. Another grocery store and Thriftway will struggle.
Growth and tax base is good, but we need to recognize the quality of life around here shifting from semi-rural to suburban sprawl land.
EJ, I think sleep deprivation is marring your judgment.
The phila premium outlet is one of the top malls in the country per square foot.
The next phase of the project includes Bloomingdales, Lord and Taylor and Saks…
Their marketing folk are a little wiser than pacos pizza or a drug store chain that chooses to place a store within 3 miles of 7 other drug stores and a store that was very difficult for seniors to access.
So, the O Neill plan is on track and jobs will follow and crime will be a non factor.