A proposed “multi-generational” residential development along a section of North Broad Street that includes both Doylestown Township and Doylestown Borough recently took an initial step forward.
While still in preliminary planning, Doylestown Township Supervisors agreed to prepare an ordinance to change three acres — the township’s portion of the site — from light industrial to residential zoning.
Developers want to build 60 one-bedroom apartments for seniors with rents, including utilities, not to exceed $1,186. Seniors who are veterans will be a key part of the development’s marketing, according to an attorney from Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, a law firm in the tri-state area.
Three additional one-bedroom apartments, which wouldn’t be marketed just to seniors, and 13 to 15 “market-rate” townhouses are also proposed in the new development.
Earlier this year, conceptual plans for a housing development along the borough’s North Broad Street corridor were proposed, as well.
At the time, Jason Duckworth, owner of Arcadia Land Company, discussed the concept at a borough planning commission meeting. Rather than some 200 luxury apartments, a plan the firm considered a few years ago, this one featured eight, three-story twin townhouses with porches, two of which would face the road on the one acre of the four-acre property that’s in the borough. The homes would be marketed for about $600,000, Duckworth said, then.
During that May presentation, the township portion in the rear of the site included 10 townhouses and 60 “affordable” homes for seniors. Arcadia said it had partnered with Pennrose Brick and Mortar, a development company that focuses on senior housing, to build and manage that portion of the project.
Further discussion is expected on Arcadia’s concept over the coming months. Arcadia also developed The Martin, a 59-apartment complex on North Main Street. Those units are now being leased.
The North Broad Street end of the small borough has seen dramatic changes since the 2021 redevelopment of the former PennDOT site. A public park replaced the transportation agency’s maintenance yard and the borough repurposed the Depression-era offices and garage into its administrative offices and police headquarters.
At 333 N. Broad St., work is underway for a 233-apartment complex across three buildings. Two of the buildings will be four stories, while the third will be seven stories. The taller structure is going up in the far corner of the site, near Center Square Towers, a neighboring apartment complex.
Besides the apartments, approximately 10,000-square-feet of retail and/or office space is included on the lower level of the project, as is a parking garage.
Doylestown’s housing boom is growing in the town’s center, too. 50 North Main, with its six, $1M+ condos, retail space and wine bar, is nearing completion.
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