The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
‘EVERYTHING THEY NEED’ Long-awaited luxury apartments open in Norristown
NORRISTOWN »All memories of construction problems, legal turmoil and financial difficulties seemed to vanish in the time it took to snip a ribbon for the grand opening of the Luxor Lifestyle Apartments on Sandy Street last January.
The $27 million complex was already proving to be a game changer in the local apartment market by the time it opened its doors to luxury living. The modern, fourstory building boasts 157 total units, in a roughly 3-to-1 ratio of one bedroom to two bedroom apartments.
Designed with the millennial consumer in mind, amenities include a lounge bar, a gaming area, a yoga studio and business and fitness centers.
There’s also a dog walking area, a cyber lounge and an outdoor courtyard crowned by a sun deck and infinity pool.
Rents range between $1,100 and $1,700 per month, depending on the size of the unit.
The Norristown apartment complex is the flagship property of the Luxor brand, which Westrum Development Co. intends to replicate at other locations in the future.
Westrum bought the property on which the Luxor now stands at auction in 2012.
“We bought it on a whim but we knew what we wanted to do,” explained the company’s founder, chairman and CEO John Westrum. “It fit the criteria of what we were looking for of the size of the building I had kind of sketched out and designed.”
With sketch in hand, Westrum pitched his vision to municipal administrators, who then got the ball rolling on the project.
Aided by a local economic revitalization tax assistance (LERTA) exemption, Westrum broke ground for the Luxor in July 2015, after nine months of planning and negotiations with the municipality, the Norristown Area School District Board of
School Directors and the Montgomery County commissioners.
The building was completed in December 2016.
In February, Westrum began transforming the formerly trouble-riddled property next door to it at 770 Sandy St. into 38 apartments that will be integrated into the Luxor campus.
Strategically located at the center of the King of Prussia, Conshohocken and Plymouth Meeting employment hubs, the attractive mauve and taupe Luxor rises from the apex of Sandy Hill, providing bird’s-eye views of Norristown and surrounding areas. Philadelphia’s skyscrapers can be seen from the south side of the building on a clear day.
“We scoured the country and pulled everything in here from various buildings I’ve been to around the world,” Westrum said of the Luxor’s design. “The focus here is not to have some of the mass amount of overhead you see at some apartment buildings downtown, but to have the same amenities and provide an incredible user experience.”
“The Luxor brand is designed to be a self-enclosed community where the residents really have everything they need for entertainment value, socialization value, and technology value, inside where they live,” added Westrum’s Corporate Communications Director Rosemary Rhodes.
With a density of around 50 units per acre, Luxor Lifestyle Apartments were designed to optimize space and reduce sprawl while simultaneously delivering a boost to municipal tax bases.
“This is designed to be a boutique hotel, so to speak, without spending $300 a night,” Westrum said. “You live here. The development of this project was truly a group effort by hundreds of people,” he added. “It’s evident that Norristown is ripe for a renaissance, and we’re happy to part of that effort.”