Bristol Twp. School Board Extends Due Diligence Period For Manufacturing Facility Plan

Plans to transform a shuttered middle school property into a window manufacturing plant continue to move forward, according to the Bristol Township School Board.

The Bristol Township School Board voted Tuesday evening to give New York-based Crystal Windows and Door Systems three additional days for its due diligence period before the planned purchase of the former Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School site at 1001 Veterans Highway.

The district struck an agreement in spring 2024 to sell the 31.7-acre property for $18.3 million.

While the sale received county court approval in October 2024, the closing process of the property has not yet taken place.

David Truelove, the school district’s solicitor, said the sale has not moved as quickly as expected, but he added that the timeline is about to accelerate.

“Based upon some discussions recently, it will be moving much more quickly,” Truelove said.

The project could bring as many as 300 jobs to Bristol Township.

In preliminary proposals presented last year, Alexander Zhang, property manager for Crystal Windows and Door Systems, said the facility will focus primarily on window fabrication. The site would include minor storage and logistics, but the company’s primary distribution hub is located in Benton Township in Columbia County.

Crystal Windows previously presented two potential designs for the site: a 425,000-square-foot manufacturing building and a smaller manufacturing facility paired with separate retail pad sites along Veterans Highway.

The company considered adding housing to a portion of the property at first, but representatives said they backed away from that plan following opposition from local residents.

The middle school closed in March 2023 after the renovated Benjamin Franklin Middle School on Mill Creek Road opened to students.

Before closing in 2023, the district considered shuttering the aging Veterans Highway building. The district heard interest from a company that wanted to turn the site into a shopping center about a decade ago, but the district wasn’t ready to close the building at the time.