Reflections
Here is last week’s REFLECTIONS photo and caption. Congratulations to Dolores Sweet and Ray Krasinski, of Phoenixville, Harry Meitzler, of Royersford, William A. White, of Chester Springs, Steve Nagy and Ivan Yale, of Linfield, and Carol Bauer, of East Vincent, for correctly identifying the photo! Here is the new REFLECTIONS photo for this week. Send your guesses to edevlin@21st-centurymedia.com with ‘Reflections’ in the subject line or call 610-8500278. Be sure to include your name as well as the town you live in. Guesses must be received by Wednesdays at noon. for live music on weekends, afterwork happy hours, and computerized water features for kids to play in.
“We’ll also have a wall of fire in the town square at night, whichwill be thefirst of its kind in any project of its kind in the country,” Sebastian said, adding that up to 40 businesses will ultimately open in the center.
“We currently have 20 leases, with a first class collection of full-service and fast casual restaurants. We’ve avoided signing leases with chains that you commonly find in strip malls and places like that because we wanted to create a unique collection of restaurants.”
On the heels of such noteworthy eateries as Fogo de Chao, known for its tableside service and all-youcan-eat meats like filet mignon; City Works Restaurant & Pour House, which offers 100 craft brews on tap; and all-natural fast casual b.good, which focuses on grass-fed beef and locally sourced ingredients, coming in the spring is the trailblazing upscale casual Founding Farmers, a growing chain owned by 40,000 farming families, “American dishes made primarily with pure ingredients honoring the farmers and their hard-earned bounty.”
Still in the design stage, Founding Farmers will be the largest restaurant tenant and the last restaurant to open at the center, Sebastian said.
“All of these tenants will have a significant economic impact, creating thousands of new jobs in themarket. A typical restaurant like Fogo will need to have about 100 to 120 people, and we’ll have six full-service restaurants like them, to give you an idea of how many jobs will be created. What the Town Center has already done and will continue to do, is be a catalyst for economic activity.”
King of Prussia Town Center occupies 20 acres within the 125-acre Village at Valley Forge master plan, which has been five years in the making on the site of the former Valley Forge Golf Course and will include apartments, townhouses and offices.
Master developer Realen Properties’ site, which is nicely situated at the convergence of fourmajor thoroughfares in King of Prussia, had prevailed over numerous construction setbacks by the timeWegmans made its sparkling debut in the spring of 2012.
The announcement around the same time that Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia would be building a facility on the property was the added tonic that kept the project humming along in tip-top form.
“There is up to a million square feet of commercial space with offices and hotels, in addition to retail space,” Sebastian said. “Eight different development projects are now in various stages of completion and there are five residential projects under construction. We’ve created an environment where people will want to rent apartments and own townhouses and so other developers have purchased property adjacent to the Town Center andare constructing the first residential buildings in 20 years in King of Prussia.
“Tome,” Sebastian added, “that is key to what we are doing. This will be the nicest place to live, work, shop and dine in the area.”