Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Borough courts businesses
Whiskey, ice cream and putty lead a beginning boom as administration seeks to create friendlier environment
NORRISTOWN» What do top-shelf whiskey, carrot cake ice cream and a modern day putty that is anything but silly all have in common?
Together they’re helping to stamp out the stigma that Norristown is too crime-ridden, too blighted and too economically debilitated to do business in.
The current business boom that is starting to recall the quaint Norristown mercantile scene of decades ago is being led by Five Saints Distilling, 129 E. Main St., makers of handcrafted spirits, which is looking to expand its distillery into a restaurant; Scoopz Ices & Ice Cream, 502 W. Main St.; and Crazy Aaron’s Puttyworld, which makes “thinking putty” in more than 40 colors and will soon take over the old Gretz Beer place on East Main Street.
During a conversation a little more than a year ago, Norristown Municipal Administrator Crandall Jones recalled the longstanding urban saga he inherited when he came on board at municipal hall in 2013.
“From the day I came, I was hearing, ‘It’s Norristown.’ So I think overcoming those stigmas has been difficult. The stigma about crime is big and we need to address it,” Jones said at the time.
Now, eyeing the confidence that
new businesses are instilling in their futures here, he sees definite signs that the moldy aroma of the Norristown stigma is smelling a little more like roses these days.
“The whole stigma, about crime, when you look at it, is that crime is down by one third since 2014,” Jones said. “I’ll say it and tout it: Nobody in the state is doing policing like we’re doing policing. Nobody is more transparent or more engaging with the public about policing.”
That “other myth,” that Norristown is tough to do business with, is also being sent packing as the town rebuilds its economic profile.
Now that the new beefed up website, www.NorristownNow. org, is in gear the environment is friendlier than ever toward enterprise, Jones noted.
“With the new microsite we wanted to create a kind of onestop shop place for the business community on how to access economic development in Norristown,” he explained.
“One of the challenges is always being able to respond quickly to prospects who are interested in coming to Norristown for economic development, and what happens a lot of times is there is this scramble for ‘can you get us this information?’ so that a potential developer can even consider the community. By the time we even become aware of it, you might be pushed off their list or knocked down on their list. And so we created the microsite so that when a developer is doing their initial investigation about potentially looking at our community as a place, they can find everything they need, from soup to nuts, on the site. The site is another tool to provide effective engagement, service delivery and access to municipal government, and I think it makes our community a bit more competitive to attract both large and small scale development in the community. “
All the pertinent information has been collected in one place, from tax incentives to demographics and transportation, Jones added.
“If we get a call now and somebody says they’re thinking of coming to Norristown but asks ‘why should I?,’ they can go to NorristownNow.org and find out. Typically a developer is looking at several places at one time. If they want to do some groundwork, the first place they’re going to go is your website. Now they have all of the information at their fingertips.
“Any serious developer will go to the site and say ‘wow, this is everything I need to know.’ A lot of them will want to reach out to other businesses in the community: ‘How are they treating you. What was your development process like?’ By the time they pick up the phone and want to schedule a meeting they know all about us. I think that’s the beauty of having a site like this.”
As final land development proposals for Royal Farms convenience store await approval next month, Norristown Centre, at the intersection of Markley Street and Johnson Highway, is on the cusp of fulfilling the completion of a long-held developer’s vision.
“The project is a go, and we’re excited about it,” Jones said. “We tabled the final land development approval until September to give everyone a chance to be there and participate in a public hearing about it if they want to.”
In its quest to make conducting business with Norristown easier, borough administrators met with a group of developers recently, Jones allowed.
“We had a sit-down with a group of developers almost a year ago to ask them, what makes it difficult to do business with Norristown,” he said. “Some said our permit fees were a bit high compared to other communities and that we need to look at that. We looked at it, and as a result of doing some research, we actually lowered our fees. We wanted to make sure that we speed developers through the process, within the bounds of the law.
“A lot of people will say it’s easier to get things done in Philly. No it’s not. It’s much easier to get things done in Norristown, and in most small communities. Where else can you get access to the planning director, the town manager, and also city council, in terms of facilitating partnering and development with the municipality?”
Also recently occupying warehouse space in Norristown are Atlantis Tile and Marble, at 312 W. Main St., and The Ceramic Shop, which recently relocated from Philadelphia to 1200 Markley St.
Jones credited local economic revitalization tax assistance, or LERTA, which was established in the 1970s to allow local taxing authorities to exempt improvements to a business property if the property is located in a deteriorated area, with helping many projects reach completion, including the Luxor Luxury Apartments in the Sandy Hill section of Norristown.
“Though a really collaborative process with the county and the school district, we make it all happen,” he explained. “That’s how Westrum Development got the Luxor project done.”
Working with the Norristown staff has been a pleasure since Jones came to town, noted John Westrum, CEO of Westrum Development Co.
“Crandall is very astute in understanding the importance of additional investment in Norristown. He is accessible and also pragmatic in an approach to try to get things done, where other municipalities may take a more obstructionist approach,” Westrum said.
“Working with council was long, but predominantly fair. Our millennial-based luxury apartment concept was somewhat new when first presented. Once they understood that our investment was going to be a catalyst for future investment, they were very supportive.”
Located on the corner of Sandy Hill Road and Kelly Drive on the east side of the municipality, Luxor is a $35 million commitment to Norristown, Westrum pointed out.
“Our 195-unit project there also includes the total reconstruction of the 770 Sandy St. project that had been vacant for several years under a bed of controversy and litigation.”
Much of Jones’ and council’s energy is directed into combining residential and commercial development to regenerate Norristown.
“A lot people said we couldn’t get market rate housing development in Norristown and now Sarah Peck (Progressive Housing Ventures LLC) has done two very successful projects, Arbor Mews and Arbor Heights,” Jones said. “Both sold out at market rate, and now she’s starting on her third, single-family housing at the old tennis club building on DeKalb. We’ve been partners with Sarah from the beginning on first time home buyer incentives. I have no reason to believe that this third project will not be as successful.”
For the first time, the municipality will be hiring a retail recruiter, Jones allowed.
“This person’s job will be to get those vacant stores and buildings downtown and in other commercial places filled with viable businesses that want to be in Norristown and will contribute to the economic base.”
Part of the goal, he explained, is to establish residences on the upper levels and commercial retail on the lower levels of some buildings, much like what is being done with the former PNC Bank building at the corner of Main and Swede streets.
Condos are expected to be constructed in the building by the end of the year, now that the $850,000 Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant helping to subsidize the project has been released, Jones explained.
Sixteen condo units are set to be constructed on the fourth and fifth floors of the five-story building to be developed by Mike Alhadad of Ambler and Sam Madi of New Orleans. The building was purchased for $2 million by Alhadad in 2012 and One West Main Street LLC will invest an additional $1 million for renovation costs.
“Now that we’re getting this turnpike at Lafayette Street, and all this development is getting ready to happen in Norristown, millennials and other folks will be looking for mobility, so what we want to see downtown is density,” Jones noted. “Part of it will be answering to what millennials want. They’re not looking for home buying, they’re looking for mobility downtown, with quick access and movement. We’re looking to put condos and apartments in our downtown and what we want to do is put all this commercial stuff around them so that they can live, work and play right where they are.”