Redevelopment of Publicker site eyed
LIMERICK » The potential for redevelopment of the long-abandoned Publicker industrial site along the Schuylkill River was brought before the township supervisors.
Developer Tim Hendricks has floated a proposal to build 1,100 homes and a mixed-use facility with stores and offices, which he described as being similar to the new Town Center in King of Prussia.
The primary difference, he said, is that the homes in his project, a mix of single-family and townhomes, would be owner-occupied and not rentals.
The 200-acre site off Linfield Road has been
abandoned since it closed in 1986, and was home to the 125-acre Linfield Industrial Park that served multiple purposes including the repackaging and distribution of antifreeze and ammonia- ba sed cleaners. Kinsey Distillery used the facility as both a warehouse and whiskey distillery.
The abandoned site is home to more than 17 buildings — ranging in size up to 500,000 square feet and many of which are now in the process of collapsing.
It has been dangerous nuisance, attracting vandals and frequent visits by the fire company, Hendricks, said. The property’s owner lives in Belgium, Hendricks said.
The project Hendricks is exploring would not come cheaply given the cost of demolishing those buildings and the more than $10 million in infrastructure and traffic improvements needed to handle the 2,500 vehicles it would add to the area’s traffic flow.
Hendr icks said the state is open to swapping some acres there with adjacent gamelands.
Supervisors Chairman Thomas Neafcy said the township has been looking to build a trail along its side of the Schuylkill River up to Royersford.
Hendr icks fur ther said the right-of-way for the old Pennhurst Road could be used to give the site alternate access, thus sparing Linfield village the burden of all the traffic.
“I’m not looking forward to 2,500 more cars,” said “Supervisor Patrick Morroney. “Obviously, traffic will be an issue,” said Hendricks.
Supervisor Kenneth Sperring asked about the large expenses of demolition and road improvements and Hendricks replied that is why he is proposing mult i - unit housing. It is necessary to make enough of a profit to cover those expenses, he said.
He also noted that multi-family units are known statistically to generate fewer school children than single family homes. He said calculations done by the Montgomery County Planning “Commission indicate the project could generate as many as 300 additional school children.
Morroney was concerned the project could drive Spring-Ford Schools to have to build a new elementary school. Supervisor Kara Shuler said “the school district would need to know this is coming in advance.”
Supervisor Michael McCloskey, who most recently served on the township planning commission, said “this is an important piece of ground in Linfield due to the waterfront lots, I want to make this as special as possible.”
He told Hendricks, “I think you’re following the right path. We can let this marinate and talk with staff.”
It is not the first time the site has been targeted for redevelopment over the last 20 years.
In 2001, a sketch plan presentation was made to Limerick’s planning commission that highlighted dividing the large property into roughly 20 separate tracts and zoning variances were sought for the site, but the project never came to fruition.
In 2007, a $1 billion plant to convert municipal trash to ethanol plant was being explored and its chief booster, David Kane, was then the chairman of the board of supervisors.
However that deal fell apart and four years later, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison for tax evasion and mail fraud.
Also in 2007 Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection imposed a $482,471.85 fine against the owners of the Publicker site, for the owners’ failure to reimburse DEP for its response to a 2005 fire there and for being over a year late on issuing environmental reports.
Among the documented pollutants in the soil at Linfield’s industrial park were: PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), lead, arsenic, cadmium, trichlorobenzene and cyanide. and the site is classified by the state as a Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act location.
However, Hendricks told the supervisors at the Oct. 6 meeting that the site has been cleaned up.