Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The Keystone Trade Center project will allow a local water and sewer authority to construct a long-awaited regional treatment plant.
The Morrisville Municipal Authority made the announcement Friday that the sale of the U.S. Steel site to NorthPoint Development last month will let the water and sewer service provider to expand their capacity and jumpstart their plan to construct a new wastewater treatment plant.
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The Morrisville Municipal Authority serves about 40,000 customers in Morrisville Borough and Yardley Borough along with portions of Falls Township and Lower Makefield Township.
The sale of more than 1,800 acres in Falls Township included designating the Morrisville Municipal Authority as the provider for water and sewer-related utilities at the large property. Previously, U.S. Steel operated or contracted out their utilities.
“As part of the NorthPoint-U.S. Steel real estate closing, which occurred in late December, MMA now owns and manages the water and sewer mains, including most pump stations and related equipment which comprise the four key wet utility functions: delivery of potable water, delivery of raw service water, treatment of sanitary sewer and treatment of industrial wastewater,” according to a statement from the Morrisville Municipal Authority.
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“It was absolutely critical to NorthPoint’s ability to purchase and develop this property to have a wet utility operator,” said Morrisville Municipal Authority Executive Director John J. Warenda Jr. “That made our interest in purchasing property at the site for a sewage treatment plant fortuitous.”
As part of the deal for the Morrisville Municipal Authority to take over the existing water and sewer infrastructure at the site, the authority struck an agreement with NorthPoint Development, which plans to convert the site into one of the largest e-commerce warehouse sites on the East Coast, to buy 54 acres of land at the property along the Delaware River.
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The plan from the Morrisville Municipal Authority is to build a new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility to replace the existing 60-year-old plant along River Road in Morrisville. The goal, according to a press release, is to build a 10 million gallon a day facility that can handle growth expected over the next 20 to 40 years.
The Morrisville Municipal Authority has agreed to pay $4 million for the 54 acres.
Warenda said the overall larger NorthPoint Development plan could make it easier to obtain grants for the Morrisville Municipal Authority new projects.
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The authority has been seeking to build a new wastewater treatment plant for years as they’ve outgrown the current 13-acre site.
NorthPoint Development has said during recent public meetings that they plan to construct new warehouses ranging in size from 200,000 square feet to up to 2 million square feet on open space at the property. Some buildings could be as high as 100 feet, and tenants would be found on a speculative basis. The investment in the site could be as high as $1.5 billion and bring 5,000 to 10,000 jobs.
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Previous reporting on the project:
- Large U.S. Steel Site In Falls Twp. Sold For $160 Million
- County Commissioners Approve Tax Break For Massive Keystone Trade Center Plan
- Tax Breaks Could Help Development At Proposed Keystone Trade Center
- Keystone Trade Center Project Moves Forward
- Ground On Billion-Dollar Keystone Trade Center Could Be Broken By Spring
- Falls Twp. Holding Special Meeting On Proposed U.S. Steel Site Redevelopment
- Plans For U.S. Steel Site Show New Billion-Dollar Development, Potential For Thousands Of Jobs
- EXCLUSIVE: Large U.S. Steel Site To Be Sold To Developer
- U.S. Steel Seeking To Sell Fairless Works Site
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