Bristol Twp. Approves Revised Development Plan For Warehouse

Bristol Township Council has approved a revised plan for a warehouse redevelopment project that will grant the developer flexibility to complete the project in phases.

The amended application from Crownwood Condo LLC modifies a previously approved preliminary final land development plan from 2023 for the 25-acre property located within light and heavy manufacturing zones at 805 North Wilson Avenue.

CJ Bach, the project’s engineer, presented the changes to the council last week and explained that the developer sought to phase the project differently than initially planned.

“We’re revisiting the board here, looking for permission to be flexible in the phasing of the project,” Bach said. “The applicant is prepared right now to construct the building over here in the orange area. They want to make a separate later phase to be inclusive of this blue region area.”

The revised plan permits the immediate construction of one warehouse building while postponing the construction of a second building until economic conditions improve. The plan also includes the replacement of an existing temporary office structure with a permanent building addition during the initial phase.

“The existing tenants that are in the building that is in this area here, they wish to replace their existing office space with an actual building addition. Right now it’s like a temporary trailer,” Bach explained.

Mike Callahan, of Benchmark Real Estate, who is representing Crownwood Condo, provided officials with additional context for the requested modifications. He stated that the purchase of the property in October necessitated the establishment of a condominium structure to facilitate financing.

“When the approvals were originally received, everything was a single 25-acre parcel,” Callahan said. “We couldn’t add a second lien on the property in order to develop the 100,000 square foot new build. The condominium that was put in place allows us to do that.”

Callahan also highlighted that the project was recently awarded a $2 million grant through a competitive state economic development program.

The site was one of only 11 selected from 66 applications for Gov. Josh Shapiro’s push to attract businesses to Pennsylvania by preparing “pad ready” sites.

“When Gov. Shapiro took office, one of his big initiatives was to attract more businesses to the state of Pennsylvania. He kind of recognized the difficulties that a commonwealth has on real estate approvals and development and how long it takes,” Callahan explained.

The Pennsylvania Strategic Investments to Enhance Sites Program (PA SITES) aims to shorten development timelines by funding infrastructure improvements at approved locations.

According to Callahan, the program will enable companies to “get their building up in six months versus 12, 18, 24 months.”

“It’s a huge win,” Callahan said of the grant award.

The revised plan maintains the same building size and number of parking spaces as the original approval, with minor configuration adjustments to accommodate specific tenant needs.

“It’s the same size building, same number of parking spaces. It’s fairly identical, but it’s not, it’s slightly different,” Bach noted.

In the ultimate build-out of the site, the existing buildings and the new office addition will eventually be demolished to make way for the larger warehouse building indicated in blue on the site plans. However, Callahan stated that this will occur in a later phase, allowing the current tenant to continue operations in the interim.

Callahan explained that the existing tenant is undergoing a business transition from first-generation to second-generation ownership, which impacts the timeline.

“They’ve been there for a long time. They’re going through a transition right now. The first generation is transitioning the business to his son,” Callahan said. “He needs some time to kind of build some cash up and work through all that.”

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