BUILDING EXPANSION
Project sets stage for changes on West Point campus
UPPER GWYNEDD » One of the region’s biggest businesses has gotten the go-ahead for an expansion.
Officials from Merck secured approval Monday night for an expansion of Building 45 within their West Point complex, a project they say could lead to further changes on the same site.
“What this will do is, it will set us up to remove some things to the north of that, as the future moves along. We have to get this one done first,” said Merck spokesman Greg Landis.
The addition project would expand Merck’s current Building 45, located at the center of their West Point complex on Sumneytown Pike, which was built in 1984 and last expanded in 1999 as a research facility for safety assessment, Landis and a team of consultants told the commissioners. The addition would add 40,408 square feet in the form of three stories, two for a total of 21 labs plus office space and the top f loor for mechanical equipment, on a footprint of roughly 14,500 square feet.
The addition will provide “new state-of-the-art research laboratories for our scientists in addition to providing mod
“What this will do is, it will set us up to remove some things to the north of that, as the future moves along. We have to get this one done first.” — Merck spokesman Greg Landis.
ern, f lexible offices and meeting rooms,” said Merck in a company statement afterward, adding that construction is scheduled to start in December 2020 and end in November 2022. The company declined a request to provide information about the cost of the building, saying that information was proprietary.
No new environmental permits are needed for disturbing impervious surface, the building would connect to utility lines already serving the site, and the building would be below the 65-foot building height limit for that area, and over 1,000 feet from West Point Pike, “tucked in behind additional buildings,” Landis told the board.
The plans have been vetted and approved by the township’s planning commission, the township engineer — which Landis said gave nearly 100 review let
ter comments, all of which have been satisfied — the township f ire marshal, sewer engineer, and Montgomery County planning commission, all of whose comments have been addressed.
Due to the nature of the project, the Merck team asked for four waivers from the board: one combining preliminary and final land development approval, and a second to waive requirements to mark utilities near the site, since the company already knows where those are.
“These features, while listed in the community and it would make sense, on our property we already track that and have them, and it will not affect anything outside our boundary,” Landis said.
A third waiver would set aside rules to maintain public improvements “because we don’t have any” needed for the expansion, Landis said. The fourth would waive a stormwater maintenance requirement because Merck and the town
ship are formalizing an updated site-wide agreement, likely to be done by the end of 2020.
As he spoke, Landis showed overhead site plans and a rendering of the building, as seen from ground level from the adjacent Building 46, with the new expansion featuring a brick exterior, glass windows on the second floor, and a brick-clad third floor surrounding the HVAC equipment at the top.
“Our local ground landscaping will be limited to what we can put around the building, which will not leave room for trees, but we have about 2,700 of them around the property so we feel we have plenty of trees in place,” he said.
Township Solicitor Lauren Gallagher said her firm reviewed and found no issues or problems with the related documents, including review letters from staff, the township’s sewer engineering firm EEMA, and various other consultants, and those review letters are included in the
board’s meeting materials packet for Oct. 19. Township engineer Isaac Kessler said his only note was that stormwater from this building site would go to a basin already existing on the site, which will be spelled out in the sitewide plan.
“All of the letters are in place, from EEMA, from our fire marshal, from the county planning commission, from our planning commission, from our engineer, from our attorney, from everybody. So it looks like everything seems to be in order,” said commissioner Denise Hull.
“And they asked us to ‘Please approve it.’ They even asked us ‘Please,’” commissioner Liz McNaney added, and Hull joked “that’s what is sending us over the edge.”
The board unanimously approved the resolution with the four waivers, with thanks from the board to the Merck team and viceversa. Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on Nov. 9; for more information visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.