More Than 89 Acres Sold At Berks Park 78

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Reno, Nev.-based real estate development company has purchased 89.22 acres in Berks Park 78 for $7.5 million, the Berks County Industrial Development Authority announced Tuesday.

Gene Preston, partner for the eastern region with Dermody Properties, said the company does not have a prospective tenant for Berks Park 78.

“That’s not atypical for us,” he said. “We are investors in real estate. We like to buy good land sites. This is an outstanding site, we are going to aggressively market the site and we feel fairly confident.”

Pennsylvania and the Berks Park location, in particular, provides strategic infrastructure to be able to move goods to the population base in the northeastern part of the country, Preston explained.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=470238

A Tip Of The Hat To Berks Park 78

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Equipment from area construction companies pointed to the reason Gov. Tom Corbett was standing Friday in an open field in Bethel Township.

PetSmart Inc. was about to begin work on a new 870,000-square-foot distribution center in the Berks Park 78 industrial center.

The $50 million project is expected to be completed by early 2014 and eventually create 500 permanent jobs in the region by 2016.

The site off Interstate 78 and Route 501 is ideal because it’s within one long day’s ride of 60 percent of the eastern United States, Corbett said.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=420375

East Penn Plans Multimillion-Dollar Manufacturing Plant

East Penn Manufacturing Co. Inc. announced plans Tuesday for a $80 million to $100 million manufacturing plant on the battery maker’s campus near Lyons.

The proposed plant would create more than 300 jobs when fully functional and at capacity, according to Graham G. Anderson, vice president of facilities, engineering and maintenance at East Penn.

East Penn expects to produce industrial and automotive batteries there. The industrial batteries are material-handling vehicles used in warehouses, such as forklifts, said Anderson, who is in charge of the project.

Daniel R. Langdon, president of East Penn, said, “It will be a multifaceted facility and flexible enough to be able to support growth in all segments of lead acid batteries.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=419767

Reading OKs Program To Sell Off Blighted Houses

Needing a way for the city to sell off the blighted houses it has begun taking from property owners, City Council on Monday approved an agreement to use a special program by the Reading-Berks Association of Realtors.

Part of a statewide effort, the Realtors’ Community Reinvestment – or CORE – program will try to match the homes with buyers and mortgage companies and rehab contractors.

There are several advantages to the buyers, top among them a 10-year graduated property tax abatement – no taxes the first year, scaling up to 90 percent in the 10th.

But there’s also potential help with closing and rehab costs and even the price of the home, as well as cutting in half the 5 percent real estate transfer tax and discount permit fees.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=416724

Boyertown Cuts Ribbon On New Streetscape

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even when dirt from Boyertown‘s downtown makeover project seemed to be keeping customers away from her Joe Paws Dog Bakery, Linda Flederbach kept a happy ending for the streetscape project in sight.

That end arrived Saturday morning with a traffic-stopping ribbon-cutting on Philadelphia Avenue.

The celebration was around the corner from Flederbach’s business on Reading Avenue but the project itself went past her front door. With it came quaint streetlights, new trees and brick ribbons – all adding to the downtown’s Victorian aesthetic.

“I feel it’s well worth it at this point, what we had to go through,” she said ahead of the ceremony.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=411392

Kenhorst Has Plans For Thoroughfare

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kenhorst‘s main thoroughfare, New Holland Road, is the land-use equivalent of a scrapbook page.

There’s a bit of everything peppered along the 1.2-mile stretch: a lot of homes, a shopping plaza, a few empty fields, a convenience store and even a couple of offices, beauty parlors and bars.

Kenhorst officials say they like having some variety. And, as they update the township’s zoning ordinance, they’re hoping to develop a new vision for New Holland Road.

They want the stretch to transform from a mostly residential area to become Kenhorst’s business center.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=404704

Dollar General To Build Distribution Center In Bethel Township, Berks County

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dollar General Corp., a national retailer with more than 10,000 stores, will locate its new distribution center in northwest Berks County, creating more than 500 new jobs and an additional 75 indirect trucking jobs, Gov. Tom Corbett announced today.

Dollar General will build a $100 million, 900,000-square-foot distribution center in Berks Park 78, a new industrial park in Bethel Township.   

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=394409

Nonprofit Group Refurbishes Reading’s Skyline Drive Overlooks

Reading’s Pagoda seen from Skyline Drive (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: AWESOME!

Drivers will get a better view of the city and a safer parking spot at the three overlooks along Skyline Drive because of the work of Pagoda-Skyline Inc.

The nonprofit group got volunteers from the Blue Mountain Region of the Sports Car Club of America to clear several trees near the overlooks, in part for the view and in part to create safety zones from the brush fires that occasionally plague Mount Penn, and then contracted Morgan Rail of Ontelaunee Township to install 438 feet of new guide rail at the overlooks.

Replacing old and often rotten wooden rails, the new weathered-look steel guide rails were installed Friday and Monday. They cost nearly $13,000, Pagoda-Skyline Chairwoman Corrie Crupi said.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=384822

Kutztown’s Main Street Continues Retail Renaissance

View of Kutztown heading East (towards Allentown) on W Main Street. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: Two Roy’s Rants thumbs to Kutztown‘s leadership!

It’s been awhile since Retail Watch ventured to Kutztown, so let’s go there today.

The Berks County borough has been a day-cation spot for some in the Lehigh Valley, and with recent retail additions and storefront facade improvements, may become even more popular.

First, Breinigsville vintner Vynecrest recently opened a retail shop at the former Made Shop storefront at 227 W. Main St. This marks the first owned retail space for Vynecrest, which, of course, offers samples and sells vino at its Breinigsville vineyard.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/retailwatch/mc-kutztown-main-street-20120414,0,2061702.column

Crossroads Beverage Group To Fill Muhlenberg Plant

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The owners of a Florida bottled water company will open a bottling and manufacturing plant in Muhlenberg Township, creating more than 110 jobs.

Silver Springs Bottled Water Co., Oscala, will open the plant under the name Crossroads Beverage Group LLC in an existing 324,000-square-foot leased facility on Crossroads Boulevard.

The building was vacated by Power Packaging in 2009.

Silver Springs, owned by the Richmond family since 1991, has an an option to purchase the building.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=368578