Developer seeks extension for project

COVID delays, construction costs slow apartment plan

LANSDALE >> A long-discussed project could be back up for another approval from Lansdale’s borough council soon.

“We had a request for a 12-month extension, for the land development and conditional use approval for the project at 43 W.

Third Street,” said councilman Rich DiGregorio.

Since late 2015 developer Ross Ziegler has proposed a sixstory apartment building to be built on the block surrounding the corner of Third and Walnut streets, where several homes once stood and one of the oldest churches in the borough still remains. A smaller version received conditional use approval in late 2017, before the developer added two more properties next to the first, and in early 2019 presented an expanded version with 204 apartment units, energy-efficient fixtures and utilities, and an automated parking system below the building.

That expanded building was vetted throughout 2020 and secured approvals from council in

October of that year, after lengthy talks on code changes needed to allow the underground automated parking system, the impact of the project on street parking, fire safety features, and the density allowed there under the borough’s downtown overlay, which was expanded in 2016 to allow for the larger building.

The developer has now come back to the code committee to ask for more time, DiGregorio told council Wednesday.

“The request was made due to COVID delays over the past year, along with construction material costs. The committee approved, and recommends moving the request to full council at the next business meeting,” he said.

For now, the three-story stone building still stands on the site, which once housed the first church built within Lansdale’s borders, constructed as the Lansdale Episcopal Methodist Church around 1880, according to the Lansdale Historical Society. Around 1920, that congregation moved close to Broad Street and the building was repurposed into a Loyal Order of Moose lodge, then more recently as the Third and Walnut Bar until that establishment had its liquor license revoked in 2014 following reported assaults, a stabbing, a brawl that injured a Lansdale police officer, and numerous citations there.

“Mr. Ziegler does assure us that there will be no safety issues during this extended period of time, at the vacant lots,” DiGregorio said.

DAN SOKIL — MEDIANEWS GROUP Cars are parked next to the former church building at Third and Walnut Streets in Lansdale as seen in October.

SUBMITTED IMAGE Rendering of a proposed six-story apartment building, then called “Walnut Crossing,” to be built at the corner of Third and Walnut streets in Lansdale. Rendering developed by BSB Design.