‘Lansdale Luxor’ plans coming back for approvals
Plan for 200-unit apartment building began with talks in fall
LANSDALE >> A project to build hundreds of apartments behind Lansdale’s freight station could come back off the drawing board and before borough officials soon.
Borough Manager John Ernst gave an update last week on the planned “Luxor Lansdale” apartment project, which was discussed last fall and looks likely to be coming back for further approvals soon.
“This is a project for approximately 200 apartments. It will be parking on the surface, along with under the buildings, and I believe it’s five stories tall,” said Ernst.
In September 2018, Westrum Development Company showed the borough’s planning commission their concepts for what they termed “Luxor Lansdale,” a five-story apartment building of roughly 180 units, to be built on a roughly fouracre parcel just east of Broad Street and south of the freight station.
During that presentation, the developer said final figures and dimensions were still being worked out, but the project would likely feature an apartment building on the southern end of the property, with parking north and east of the building itself.
Access would be gained from what is currently a paper street entitled “Williams Place” that runs parallel to Broad and behind the businesses with frontage there,
accessed via two-way driveways at the freight station and at the southern end of the property near Blaine Street.
At that time, representatives from the developer said the new building would cost roughly $35 million to $40 million to build, and features for residents would include a pool, lobby bar, courtyard, lounge, fitness center, yoga studio and dog park.
During discussions last fall, the developer added that units would be built with Westrum’s “Luxor” styling, and range from 575-squarefoot apartments, with monthly rents of $1,360 to $1,400 to one-bedroom units of 600 to 950 square feet for $1,585 to $1,700 monthly, and roughly 10 percent of the units would be two-bedrooms, of 990 to 1,035 square feet, with rents of $1,950 to $2,100 monthly.
At that time, residents raised concerns about drainage, emergency vehicle access, buffering from the nearby neighborhood, and the building’s height, and staff said the plans may also require some zoning relief since parts of the property are located within the town’s industrial zone and others in commercial.
Since last fall, work has continued on refining those plans, Ernst told council’s Code Enforcement committee on June 5, and earlier that day the developer formally took the next step toward securing further approvals.
“They just submitted, today, their formal land development application, so they will be on the planning commission agenda for July. They did not make it in time for June,” Ernst said.
Staff are still evaluating whether the planning commission’s scheduled meeting will still be needed, but regardless of whether that meeting happens, Ernst said, the Luxor plans will be discussed again during the next month.
“July looks to be when that project will start to come through the review process,” Ernst said. Lansdale’s planning commission next meets at 7:30 p.m. on June 17 and July 15, and borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on June 19, all at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www. Lansdale.org.