A shopping center in the shadow of Willow Grove Park Mall will soon undergo a $105-million “transformation” with new apartments and shops, says the developer behind the project.
Starting this summer, about 130,000 square feet of the Willow Grove Shopping Center will be demolished to build a mixed-used complex with 261 residential units and 35,000 square feet of new retail space, said Mark Brennan, vice president of regional development for Federal Realty Investment Trust.
It will mark the latest stage in a multiphase redevelopment of the outdoor center, which is located across the street from the mall.
A rendering of what Federal Realty Investment Trust plans to build at the Willow Grove Shopping Center.
Across the Philadelphia region, similar mixed-use complexes have increasingly been built around thriving shopping destinations, such as King of Prussia, where thousands of new apartments have risen in recent years.
A spokesperson for PREIT, which owns Willow Grove Park Mall, did not return a request for comment. In a 2022 shareholders’ report, PREIT executives called the complex “one of our leading suburban Philadelphia assets,“ with an occupancy rate of more than 96%.
The Willow Grove Park Mall is pictured in 2019.
Across Moreland Road, Brennan is confident his shopping-center redevelopment will be met with high demand.
Since the pandemic, the Montgomery County community has “really come alive,” due in part to its proximity to the city and to suburban employment centers, said Brennan, who is based in Wynnewood. And people who are moving out of the city or looking to downsize are particularly interested in moving to mixed-use developments, he said.
The center’s proximity to SEPTA’s Willow Grove train station, and major highways, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike, will make it particularly appealing, as will its mix of “highly curated” shops, Brennan said.
Across the street from the mall, the Willow Grove Shopping Center is set to undergo a $105-million transformation with apartments and new retail.
The center’s existing tenants, which include Marshalls and Five Below, will remain open during construction, Brennan said.
He expects the project to be complete sometime in 2028.
“These sort of multifaceted, multiphased development projects do take quite a bit of time and planning,” Brennan said. “We’re really excited to get to the next phase of this transformation.”
The company behind P.J. Whelihan’s is officially moving into a shuttered Iron Hill Brewery.
The Haddon Township-based PJW Restaurant Group has signed a lease for Iron Hill’s former location at the Village at Newtown, according to Brian Finnegan, the CEO of Brixmor Property Group, which owns the Bucks County shopping center.
PJW marketing director Kristen Foord confirmed the lease signing, saying in an email that the company was “not in a position to share additional specifics” at this time.
Like more than a dozen other former Iron Hills throughout the region, the nearly 8,000-square-foot space in Newtown has sat empty since the Exton-based brewpub chain closed all locations and filed for liquidation bankruptcy last fall.
As part of the revamp, the developer added new buildings, allowing it to bring in shops and restaurants like Iron Hill, Harvest Seasonal Grill, and Turning Point. The 30-acre complex is anchored by the high-end grocer McCaffrey’s Food Markets.
In Newtown, “we’ve got Free People and Lululemon and Ulta that we added to the shopping center,” Finnegan said Wednesday in an interview. “We’ve got a lot of strong service tenants. We also have Capital Grill and Harvest, so some great food and beverage options.”
And soon, he said, that list will also include P.J. Whelihan’s.
PJW’s most well-known restaurant is P.J. Whelihan’s, which started in the Poconos in 1983 and has expanded to include 25 P.J. locations, the majority of which are in the Philly region.
PJW also owns the Pour House in Exton, North Wales, and Westmont, Haddon Township; the ChopHouse in Gibbsboro; the ChopHouse Grille in Exton; Central Taco & Tequila in Westmont; and Treno, also in Westmont.
Some landlords are actively looking for tenants, with West Chester’s John Barry saying he hopes to have a lease signed by the end of this month.
“We have a number of groups interested in the space and a few [letters of intent] have been submitted,” Barry said in an email last month.
In other places, such as Voorhees, township officials and community members remain in the dark about whether another tenant will move in soon, and landlords can’t be reached.
A few of the closed breweries may be revived under new owners, though details are slim.
When you walk into Koselig Nook, Aracelis Mullin wants you to feel a wave of calm. She intentionally designed the teahouse that way: From its welcoming furniture to its lighting, its green paint, its scents, it is meant to be a relaxing third space, a stopping point between work and home, where people can gather, craft, focus on wellness, or anything between. Don’t forget to take off your shoes. (Really. It’s a rule.)
Koselig Nook, a late-night teahouse, plans to open in Exton, at 333 E. Lincoln Highway, later this month. The business is relocating from Coatesville, where it opened in 2024, to be more central for customers within the county and traveling from Philly.
“The whole idea and the purpose is to bring the people out of their houses and to enjoy another place where they can network or just spend some time or talk,” Mullin said.
Named for the Norwegian term encompassing contentment and coziness, Koselig Nook’s seating is meant to be secure and comfortable — with plush, downy pillow seating and blankets, oils, and low lighting, inviting people to lounge.
So much of today’s gathering culture revolves around bars and drinking, Mullin said. Though sober options are opening in metropolitan areas, like Philadelphia, people in the county have fewer places — especially places open later, she said.
That’s the gap Koselig Nook seeks to fill, she said.
“I think there’s a big need for third places that are more calm; for introverted people, they can come and network, too, little by little, but they don’t have the pressure of society saying, ‘Hey, do you want to drink?’” she said.
Instead, customers can sit and study or work from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $25 on Tuesdays through Fridays. Students spent a lot of time holed up in the Nook’s Coatesville location during finals week in December, Mullin said.
In the evenings, from 7 to 11 p.m. for $35 on Friday and Saturday, people can go somewhere that is not about drinking.
During various events offered week to week, people can come to workshops where they junk journal, cutting up pictures and pasting them into notebooks, or take a meditative break surrounded by gongs and chimes and singing bowls in a sound bath session, or spend time with a medium. You can pick up letters from a pen pal in another country or pen your own, facilitated through Koselig Nook. You can silently read your own book and then, in a formal discussion, chat about it with other readers, trading recommendations.
Some make events out of it. For one 24-year-old’s birthday, she and her friends journaled together, sipping their tea, and had a sound bath.
Others come alone and leave with connections: During a full moon ceremony, only two of the 15 women who came knew each other. By the end, “they all shared their phone numbers. … It was amazing,” Mullin said.
The business traces its lineage to when Mullin’s daughter, Victoria, was living in California in 2020. She frequented a teahouse where customers could reserve time and sit and enjoy themselves during the evening hours. After Mullin visited herself, she felt compelled to bring something similar to the East Coast. She picked the brains of the owners.
With her background — she ran a traveling tea party business for young girls and a birthday party business in Thorndale — Mullin embraced their model; her teahouse is reservation-only. There is unlimited tea, and a selection of premade snacks. Everything is provided without extra charge once you are in the Nook. Socks only.
“I wanted to have that community place where the people come and gather, regardless of what your politics and your religion, so we did it. I was scared to death,” she said.
She expected to have to go a bit more slowly in Chester County, for people to understand the business. But she was met with a lot of enthusiasm.
“The people are so in need of this that they love it,” she said.
Michael Chain Jr.oncehad to exit the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Downingtown and drive a zigzag pattern on State Routes 100, 113, 401, and 29 to reach his hotel.
So did his customers.
But thenthe turnpike built Exit 320, an all E-ZPass interchange thatconnects to Route 29 and brings traffic right to the family-owned Hotel Desmond Malvern, a DoubleTree by Hilton.
“It would easily take 20 minutes,” said Chain, general manager of the property. “Now you cut that in half, if not more.”
When it opened in December 2012, the interchange helped spur billions in new commercial and residential development in Chester County’s Great Valley.
Michael Chain, general manager at a hotel in Great Valley, says the Route 29 ramp has transformed his business.
Corporate office parks expanded and new ones sprouted. Vanguard relentlessly expanded its campus for its 12,000 workers. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies moved there. Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Teva, and other pharmaceutical companies planted offices and research laboratories there.
Thousands of people moved in to take advantage of the new jobs or a suddenly more convenient commute to Philadelphia and its inner-ring suburbs, Berks County, Lancaster, or even Harrisburg.
More than 10 years later, the effects of the turnpike’s project are evident, but the real estate market is evolving to meet a lower post-pandemic demand for traditional office space and a higher demand for more housing.
Through American history, transportation and development have been yoked. Towns and cities have grown around navigable rivers, post roads, national highways, railroads, interstates, turnpikes, and public transit.
“This new interchange was explosive in terms of the economic impact in that particular region in a way I’m not even sure we had anticipated,” said Craig R. Shuey, chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The key to success
Experts caution it would be a mistake to attribute too much of the growth in the Great Valley solely to the turnpike exit.
The area’s transition from agricultural and industrial to commercial mixed-use was already well underway when it opened. Real estate developersRouse & Associates acquired land in 1974 and began building the Great Valley Corporate Center, a 700-acre business park.
As the Pennsylvania 29 interchange was under construction, the U.S. 202 widening project occurred, helping ease the flow of traffic, although it stillgets congested at peak hours.
The Route 29 electronic toll interchange.
The exit “plays well with an improved Route 202,” said Tim Phelps, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Chester County.
It’s also served by SEPTA Regional Rail Service and Amtrak, and there’s a connection to the 18.6-mile Chester Valley trail for biking, running, and walking.
“The key isall the multimodal access to the area from different points,” Phelps said. “You move goods and freight along corridors and people to jobs; transportation is economic development.”
New rise in residences
Growth hasn’t been linear.
”Since COVID the office market has been struggling everywhere, and a couple of years ago the funding for biotech became harder to get,“ said John McGee, a commercial real estate broker and developer. ”Both of these events had a negative impact on demand for [office] space in Great Valley.”
Other signs of a softer market in commercial space:
Malvern Green, a 111-acre office park owned by Oracle, is up for sale, marketed as a redevelopment opportunity. It has 759,000 square feet in four buildings on Valley Stream Parkway, off Route 29.
A 10.3-acre office property on Swedesford Road is slated to be demolished and turned into a mixed-use campus, with 250 apartments and about 6,700 square feet of retail and dining.
With the pandemic rewriting the rules of work beginning five years ago, residential development has picked up, driven by housing scarcity and lack of affordability.
Deb Abel, president of Abel Brothers Towing & Automotive, has seen the area evolve from her position as chair of the East Whiteland Planning Commission and as a member of the Chamber of Business & Industry.
Deb Abel, chair of the East Whitefield Planning Commission, says workforce development is key to the area’s growth.
“We talk all the time about workforce development,” Abel said. “People don’t want to come to work where they can’t afford to live.”
More — and more affordable — housing is key both for current and future staffing needs. Workers shouldn’t have to commute from other areas with more housing options, Abel said.
‘A tangible asset’
To Chain, the hotelier, travel time saved by the interchange is a tangible asset.
“It improves the quality of life on a personal level, and [in business] I’m a beneficiary of people staying on the turnpike,” he said.
As corporate travel budgets waxed and waned in the Great Recession and pandemic years, the Hotel Desmond beefed up other lines of business. An events space at the resort-like hotel now provides about half the revenues, Chain said.
The interchange has helped him draw conference business from statewide associations, most of them in Harrisburg.
And in recent years, youth sports travel teams from New York and New Jersey attending weekend tournaments in the region have filled rooms while using the interchange for easy access. Hockey teams are big.
‘A natural progression’
A new multifamily project for Greystar Real Estate Partners is rising next to Route 29 on undeveloped land.
IMC Construction is building a five-story, 267-unit apartment building featuring a rooftop lounge, fitness center, coworking space, pool courtyard, grilling stations, and more.
IMC Construction signs and traffic markers along North Morehall Road in Malvern.
A 133-unit “active adult” apartment building for people who are 55 and older is also under construction.
Project manager Bob Liberato grew up in the area when Route 29 was a country road with one traffic light between Phoenixville and Route 30.
It seems ironic now, but he remembers a petition circulating among fellow students at Great Valley High School to oppose the turnpike’s interchange proposal. Pretty much everybody signed.
“We wanted to stop the turnpike because we liked our life,” Liberato said. “It was open, mostly fields and trees. Being able to go outside, have parties in the woods — all of that was great.”
So what he’s doing now is, in a way, part of the circle of life.
“We’re seeing a shift toward more residential projects, and there is a runway for more in the Great Valley,” said Liberato. With a scarcity of new development, ”it’s a natural progression in a lot of Philly suburbs.”
Four months after the chain closed nearly 20 locations and filed for bankruptcy, a federal judge has approved the acquisition of Iron Hill’s trademark and intellectual property in conjunction with the transfer of five restaurant leases, including one in Philadelphia, according to court documents filed over the weekend.
The shuttered brewpubs in Center City, Huntingdon Valley, Hershey, Lancaster, and Wilmington are set to be taken over by new tenants, each of which is referred to as “IHB” in the documents. Earlier this month, these tenants registered as business corporations under “IHB” and the name of each location, according to state records in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Judge Jerrold N. Poslusny Jr. also approved a written agreement that allowed for “Rightlane LLC” to assume Iron Hill Brewery’s trademark and intellectual property, according to the same filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey.
A view from the outside looking in on a closed Iron Hill Brewery.
On Monday, Crivello confirmed that the assets of his five remaining Iron Hills, along with the brand’s trademark and intellectual property, had been acquired by a buyer called Right Lane.
There are several companies that go by the name Rightlane or Right Lane. Attempts to reach representatives of the Right Lane that was involved in the Iron Hill deal were unsuccessful.
Iron Hill Brewery, which was founded in Newark, Del., developed a loyal following over its nearly 30 years in business. Fellow business owners and brewers considered it a pioneer in the local craft beer scene and a restaurant that helped put suburban downtowns like West Chester and Media on the map. Customers said they loved its family-friendly atmosphere.
Since then, massive shells of former breweries have sat vacant throughout the region. As the case made its way through bankruptcy court, landlords were delayed in their searches for new tenants.
Many locations still remain empty, with no word on what might fill the spaces. But in some spots, there are signs of life.
The company that owns P.J. Whelihan’s may be moving into the former Iron Hill in Newtown, Bucks County.
Last month, PJW Opco LLC, which is registered at the headquarters of PJW Restaurant Group, was approved to take over a lease for an 8,000-square-foot closed Iron Hill in the Village at Newtown shopping center.
Changes are coming to several interchanges in Chester County that could affect commuters in roughly a decade, under projects aimed at improving a 7.5-mile stretch of U.S. Route 30.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation is nearing the end of the conceptual design period for proposed changes to interchanges affecting Caln, East Brandywine, Easttown, West Brandywine, Uwchlan, and Downingtown in a project that seeks to reduce traffic congestion and collisions.
PennDot presented the alternatives for the eastern section of the bypass during an online session last week. An in-person poster session is scheduled for Tuesday evening at Pope John Paul II Regional Catholic Elementary School in West Brandywine. But breaking ground remains years out: Construction is expected to start in spring 2034, costing roughly $874 million. The federal government is slated to pick up the bulk of the cost, with the state taking a sliver, officials said last week.
“The purpose is to provide a safe and efficient transportation system by improving safety, reducing future congestion, accommodating planned growth, and improving deficiencies,” said Bruce Masi, consultant project manager with GFT, an engineering consulting firm.
The eastern section of the Coatesville-Downingtown bypass corridor runs from just west of the Reeceville Road interchange, east to the Quarry Road interchange, where it becomes the Exton Bypass, heading toward U.S. Route 202.
Changes to U.S. 30
Under the plan, PennDot would widen the road by up to 35 feet. It would also introduce flexible-use lanes on the left sides to function as needed during high traffic volume.
A regional transportation center, based in King of Prussia, would monitor the flexible lane through cameras along the route. The flexible lane would likely be used eastbound during the morning commutes, and westbound in the evenings. But it could also be used to facilitate traffic flow after crashes or incidents, Masi said.
Heading west, the flexible lane would begin around the Quarry Road interchange and taper back to a median as you approach State Route 82. Heading east, it would return to a median around the Exton Bypass.
Changes to access points
When it comes to actually getting on U.S. 30, changes are coming at different junction points: Reeceville Road, Pennsylvania Routes 340, 322, and 133, and Norwood Road.
Masi presented a slew of options for Norwood Road and Route 113’s interchange, which PennDot is accepting public comment on.
One alternative would leave the existing location for westbound and eastbound on- and off-ramps, updated to meet current standards. It would also create two new “movements” that do not currently exist: Drivers headed west would exit onto a bridge that crosses over U.S. 30, and then tie back in with State Route 113; another ramp would run drivers eastbound. This model has the fewest predicted crashes, and wiggle room for cars to weave, but would potentially have a higher environmental impact.
“What that does is creates a full interchange — all movements at 113, but in this alternative, we retain the Norwood Road ramps as well,” Masi said.
Other alternatives would remove the existing ramps at Norwood Road for the public, and traffic using those ramps would redistribute through the region, Masi said.
Removing the ramps on Norwood Road would also go against the wishes of the public, emergency services, and the municipalities. PennDot was looking to mitigate those effects, Masi said.
In another alternative, Norwood House Road would be relocated north of an existing apartment complex, into the side of a hill.
The last alternative would tweak the configuration of Norwood House Road to use it as a direct connection between Norwood Road and State Route 113.
While PennDot awaits public review and input on Norwood Road, its selected alternatives would affect several other interchanges.
Near Caln, at Reeceville Road, PennDot would replace the current structure and add traffic lights for westbound and eastbound drivers on Reeceville Road.
Fisherville Road would be relocated north, to sit between the CVS and Wawa, but a remnant of the road would connect to the existing properties.
On State Route 340 between Caln and Downingtown, PennDot would scale up the current interchange for longer ramps, and add a single-lane roundabout to eliminate the traffic signal at the U.S. 30 westbound intersection.
West Bondsville Road would be moved north to maintain access to residences.
Continuing east, State Route 322 around Downingtown would create a new traffic flow with traffic lights at either end of the interchange, to prevent left-turning cars from crossing paths with approaching vehicles. The change would affect drivers stopping for coffee or gas at the Royal Farms or heading to PennDot’s park-and-ride, however. It would become a right-turn-in and right-turn-out only traffic flow.
Lloyd Avenue would also be relocated.
What comes next
Electronic comments are being taken through Feb. 6. Paper comment forms are available at Tuesday’s open house.
Property impacts are not yet known, officials said. If a property is needed for the project, PennDot will reach out.
Once PennDot closes out its conceptual design, it will start preliminary engineering and environmental evaluation. The public will be able to weigh in again between that period and the final design period, before the plans go out for construction bids.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
The group helping to revitalize Kennett Square’s Birch Street has two new projects in the works, including a restaurant and cocktail lounge. Also this week, a vacant office building in Exton has been converted to a new use, a Coatesville native is appearing on the new season of a reality TV show alongside Donna Kelce, plus why The Inquirer’s Craig LaBan says this West Chester restaurant is one to watch.
A rendering depicts the proposed exterior of Opus, a new restaurant and cocktail lounge slated to open in the summer.
A new restaurant and cocktail lounge is coming to Kennett Square this summer. Opus will take over the two-story space at 201 Birch St., which is adjoined to 14-room boutique hotel Artelo. The restaurant space was most recently occupied by Hank’s Place while the Chadds Ford institution rebuilt its longtime home, which was flooded by Hurricane Ida in 2021.
The 6,000-square-foot building will have a two-story terrace with outdoor dining and serve New American cuisine.
Opus is the latest development from Square Roots Collective, which has been helping to revitalize Birch Street for the past decade, including through projects like The Creamery, the former dairy turned family-friendly beer garden.Another of its nearby projects, The Francis, is set to open this year. The boutique hotel at 205 S. Union St., also in Kennett Square, will have eight rooms in a reimagined 18th-century home.
Scores of demonstrators protesting the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer gathered across the region over the weekend, including a rally in West Chester on Sunday that drew about 1,000 attendees. (Daily Local News)
County officials are reviewing findings from an investigation into an error that excluded independent voters from poll books during the November election. Officials said they will develop a plan following their review so that similar errors don’t happen again. The county will present findings and its response at the Board of Elections meeting on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.
PennDot is hosting two public meetings in the next week regarding plans for what it’s dubbed the U.S. 30 Eastern Project Area, which includes alternative routes for the Route 30 mainline and the Reeceville Road, Route 340, and Route 322 interchanges, as well as revised alternatives for the Norwood Road and Route 113 interchanges. The construction is part of a larger project to upgrade 14.5 miles of the Coatesville-Downingtown Bypass to reduce traffic congestion, improve safety, and accommodate future development. The first meeting will be held virtually tomorrow at 6 p.m. There’s a second in-person meeting on Tuesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Pope John Paul II Regional Catholic Elementary School in West Brandywine Township.
Four police officers were injured last week when responding to a call on the 400 block of Main Street in Atglen Borough. The officers detained Jon Marcos Muniz, who allegedly fired a handgun into two occupied apartments and barricaded his front door. No other injuries were reported. Muniz is facing a number of felony and misdemeanor charges.
M. Patricia Muller was selected as chair of Kennett Township’s Board of Supervisors last week, making her the first woman in the township’s history to hold the role.
Heads up for drivers: Newark Road in West Marlborough Township will be closed Monday through Friday next week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for tree removal. Norwood Road in EastCaln Township will be operating as a single lane with flaggers next Monday through Friday for sewer line work. Peco will be doing electrical work along Happy Creek Lane and Copeland School Road in West Bradford Township as part of a $450,000 infrastructure project to improve reliability and reduce outages, including from storms. Work is scheduled to take place January through April and will impact both roads and some residential yards.
A vacant office building at 319 N. Pottstown Pike in Exton has been transformed into “hotel-apartments” with 24 studio and eight one-bedroom units. The group behind it plans to market The Flats On 100 to consultants and visitors of nearby employers, such as Vanguard and QVC, and sees it as a potential model for the region’s empty office buildings.
Also in Exton, retailer Nordstrom Rack plans to open a 30,000-square-foot shop at Main Street at Exton this fall.
Could popular HBO series Mare of Easttown return for a second season? Kate Winslet seems to be ready for the Delaware County-set show, created by Berwyn native Brad Ingelsby, to return, and recently indicated filming could start as early as 2027. While the award-winning actor is on board, nothing official has been announced yet.
Coatesville native and figure skating icon Johnny Weir made his debut on the fourth season of Peacock reality TV show The Traitors last week. Weir is joined on this season of challenge-meets-eliminations-style show — hosted by Alan Cumming at his castle in Scotland — by Donna Kelce, Tara Lipinski, and a slew of reality TV personalities. The first three episodes dropped last week. Catch up on what happened here. (Warning: Spoilers!)
The GameStop at 1115 West Chester Pike in West Chester shuttered last week as part of a mass closure by the gaming retailer.
🏫 Schools Briefing
Reminder for families: There are no classes Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Avon Grove School District is considering adopting a new textbook, myPerspectives, from Savvas Learning Company for sixth through eighth grade English Language Arts students next school year. The public can review the textbook, which was put to the school’s education committee for consideration earlier this month, and provide feedback during a 30-day period through early February. The proposed change comes as part of the district’s regular curriculum review cycle, said Jason Kotch, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.
Tredyffrin/Easttown School District has released its 2026-27 preliminary budget proposal, which includes a $14.9 million operational deficit. The district’s board and administration say they plan to close the gap through “a combination of increases in the property tax rate, expenditure reductions, or the use of existing reserves.” It will host budget workshops on March 9 and April 13, with plans to adopt the budget in June. The board will not vote on a tax rate before June 8. See the preliminary budget here. The district is also hosting a special school board meeting tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Conestoga High School to discuss the school board director vacancy. And from Jan. 20 to 26, there will be an open registration period for all new kindergarten and first grade students planning to start school in September.
Octorara Area School District is hosting a “kindergarten readiness” event tomorrow from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Octorara Primary Learning Center in Atglen for families with children eligible for kindergarten next school year.
West Chester Area School Districtstudent registration for the 2026-27 school year is open.
The Boardroom Restaurant & Bottle Shop in Phoenixville recently underwent an update and reopened Monday after a more than weeklong closure.
🎳 Things to Do
👭 Steel Magnolias: Tickets are going fast for this adaptation of the popular 1989 film taking center stage for its monthlong run at People’s Light. ⏰ Wednesday, Jan. 14-Sunday, Feb. 15, days and times vary 💵 Prices vary 📍 People’s Light, Malvern
🍔 Taste of Phoenixville: Now in its 24th year, the annual fundraiser will bring together over 20 food and drink vendors. There will also be live music and a silent auction. ⏰ Thursday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m. 💵 $150 📍 Franklin Commons, Phoenixville
🌿 Winter Wonder: While Christmas may get most of the attention, Longwood Gardens’ conservatories will be filled with colorful plants throughout the remainder of winter. The gardens are open daily except Tuesdays. ⏰ Friday, Jan. 16-Sunday, March 22 💵 $17-$32 for non-members, free to members 📍 Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square
🎭 Broadway at the Colonial Theatre: Several Broadway stars, including area native Amanda Jane Cooper, who played Glinda in the North American tour of Wicked, will perform. ⏰ Sunday, Jan. 18, 7 p.m. 💵 $30-$65 📍 The Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville
Situated in a wooded stretch of East Goshen, this Colonial, along with several others in its cul-de-sac, has a unique access point: Locksley Covered Bridge, which was erected in the 1960s. The four-bedroom, two-and-half-bath home features a family room, living room, dining room, and eat-in kitchen, which has granite countertops and a wood-burning fireplace. There’s a screened-in porch off the dining room, with skylights and brick flooring, which leads to the backyard, where there’s a patio and play set.
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This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
They’re equipped with kitchens, bathrooms, and washer/dryers, and they’re being marketed as monthslong hotel accommodations for consultants and visitors to nearby employers.
The owners, a group led by Main Line real estate lawyer David McFadden, broker John McGee, and investment partner Chiu Bai, hope the building, which they’re calling the Flats on 100, will be a model for reusing orphan buildings that stud theGreat Valley and other suburban office, industry, and retail zones.
David McFadden of Chester Springs (left) and John McGee of Wayne are co-partners and owners of the Flats on 100 in Exton.
The trio picked up the 53-year-old, 30,000-square-foot building and grounds at 319 N. Pottstown Pike (State Route 100) in 2023 for $1.5 million from family-owned Kelsch Disability Services.
“Fifty bucks a [square] foot” seemed like a bargain, even though the partners didn’t have specific plans for it, McFadden said.
“Office buildings are being given away these days. What do we do with them when there’s no demand for office space?” he said. “At the right discount, developers can afford to turn them into something sustainable that people want.”
As offices, the building was broker-rated Class C, the least desirable. The partners paid cash, figuring they could borrow millions for capital improvements if they could show lenders a credible plan to turn it into something more profitable.
“We got lucky with the zoning,” McFadden said. West Whiteland’s “town center” designation allows a wide range of uses.
The partners chose what McFadden calls “hotel-apartments.” He compared it to projects built by Level Hotels & Furnished Suites, with locations in Chicago and the West Coast, and by family-owned, locally based Korman Communities’ AVE Living, with its furnished apartments at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard and other local sites.
McFadden says the model offers “a place that feels like home, with the amenities of larger buildings but a boutique feel.” The units arefully furnished, including appliances, dishes, and linens, as well as cleaning and other services as requested.
Lender Trupert Ortlieb from TruMark Financial, one of the area credit unions bulking up with business loans, arranged $5.7 million in financing for capital improvements.
The outside of the Flats on 100 apartments, a redevelopment of a commercial building.
Contractors demolished and replaced interior walls; added sprinklers, triple-glazed windows, and insulation; and replaced heating and air-conditioning. The reclad of the interior with aluminum finished like pine was picked up by Chiu in China for $30,000 (half that for the materials, $4,000 for shipping, and $11,000 to cover tariffs).
Because the project qualifies as a hotel, it could add a liquor license without the higher cost of a tavern license. A first-floor retail space has been leased to a dentist.
The partners expect interest from nearby employers such as Vanguard Group, QVC, West Pharmaceutical Services, and Accenture.
The Fairfield shopping center, with a Giant supermarket, fast-casual restaurants, and retail stores, is within walking distance. The Exton SEPTA Regional Rail station is two miles down Pottstown Pike.
Seeking light in what had been gloomy space, the developers brought in architect Martin Kimmel from Blue Bell. He persuaded them to replace half “gun-slit” windows with 5-foot-wide glass sheets, which turned out to be more work than expected, trimming 12-inch blocks topped by 4-inch bricks.
Other amenities include a barbecue pit, an outdoor dog walk, a pet-washing room, basement fitness center, conference room, bar, pool table, and walk-on services like massage and physical therapy.
This space in the studio apartment can be used as a sitting area or a bedroom. The Ori bed lowers from the ceiling for sleeping.
Kimmel and the partners looked at New York apartment plans to see how many one-person units they could fit into the three stories. Beds could be stowed for work-at-home hours, but “we didn’t want those old fold-out Murphy beds,” McFadden said.
They bought canopy beds from Hasier Larrea’s Ori flexible-furniture-systems firm. The beds lower from the ceiling onto couch bases, plus facing rows of shelves can open as a walk-in closet. The bed controls, like the digital room locks, are remote-accessible and have manual overrides in case of power failure.
The narrow building admits more light for that suburban feel.
“Not every office building converts well to apartments,” McGee said. “This was perfect — 65 feet deep, you have a central corridor with apartments. If it were 200 feet deep, you’d have very narrow apartments with one window at the end.”
The company that owns P.J. Whelihan’s may be moving into a former Iron Hill Brewery in Bucks County.
PJW Opco LLC, which is registered at the headquarters of PJW Restaurant Group, was approved to take over a lease for the shuttered Iron Hill in Newtown, effective Dec. 31, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey.
PJW marketing director Kristen Foord declined to comment.
The nearly 8,000-square-foot brewpub in the Village at Newtown shopping center has sat empty since September, when Iron Hill abruptly closed all its locations and filed for liquidation bankruptcy. The Newtown Iron Hill had been among the chain’s newest locations, having opened in 2020.
A view from the outside looking in on the closed Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester in October.
Brixmor Property Group, which owns the Village at Newtown, is “excited about what’s in the works” for the former Iron Hill space, spokesperson Maria Pace said in a statement, but she declined to share details.
The court documents did not indicate PJW’s plans for the Newtown site.
PJW’s most well-known franchise is P.J. Whelihan’s, the regional bar-restaurant chain that started in the Poconos in 1983. There are now 25 P.J. Whelihan’s locations from Harrisburg to Washington Township, with the vast majority in the Philadelphia area.
Haddon Township-based PJW also owns the Pour House, which has locations in Exton, North Wales, and Westmont, Haddon Township; the ChopHouse in Gibbsboro; the ChopHouse Grille in Exton; Central Taco & Tequila in Westmont; and Treno, also in Westmont.
The P.J. Whelihan’s on Route 70 in Cherry Hill.
As 2026 gets underway, Iron Hill’s bankruptcy case continues to make its way through the courts. In recent weeks, Iron Hill’s leases in Exton, Maple Shade, and North Wales were formally rejected, according to court documents. That means these empty breweries are getting closer to finding new tenants.
“Any out-of-town brewery with plans to leverage existing brewery infrastructure and scale its operations in the region would be a good fit, as it would save significant tenant improvement costs,” Kagithapu said in a statement. “I also believe a grocery store would serve the community very well.”
The Iron Hill Brewery TapHouse in Exton is pictured in 2020. After Iron Hill’s bankruptcy, the Exton landlord is seeking a new tenant for the massive space.
On Christmas Eve, Barry, a Massachusetts-based real estate investor, inked a deal to buy the liquor license and all interior assets of the location at the borough’s central corner of High and Gay Streets.
“It will not be reopening as Iron Hill Brewery,” Barry said in a recent interview. “My goal would be to find something similar,” though not necessarily a brewery.
Barry purchased the assets from Jeff Crivello, the former CEO of Famous Dave’s BBQ, who in November was approved by a bankruptcy judge to revive 10 Iron Hills under the same name or as a new concept. Barry and Crivello declined to disclose the financial details of the West Chester deal.
Pedestrians walk by the closed Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester in October.
The Newtown location was originally among the locations of which Crivello was approved to buy the assets, pending negotiations with landlords. Court documents indicate the asset sale was put on hold amid a landlord objection.
Founded in Newark, Del., Iron Hill Brewery operated for nearly 30 years, earning a reputation as a local craft-brewing pioneer and a family-friendly mainstay in the Philadelphia suburbs. In recent years, the chain had expanded into South Carolina and Georgia and had announced plans to open a Temple University location that never materialized.
When brewery executives filed for bankruptcy, they reported that they owed $20 million to creditors and had about $125,000 in the bank.
In filing for bankruptcy again, Rite Aid announced that it would be closing or selling all locations. At the time, it had about 1,000 stores nationwide, including about 100 in the Philadelphia region.
The closures further exacerbate pharmacy access issues, especially for lower-income Philadelphians who don’t have cars. People in more isolated rural areas are also impacted: The 46,000 residents of Perry County, west of Harrisburg, lost half their pharmacies when their three Rite Aids closed.
Adieu to Iron Hill Brewery
A view from the outside looking in of a shuttered Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester in October.
On a Thursday morning in late September, the nearly 30-year-old company, considered by many to be a pioneer of the local craft-brewing scene, announced that its brewpubs had closed their doors for the last time.
The closed Iron Hill Brewery in Maple Shade in September.
Bankruptcy filings shed more light on the Exton-based company’s financial straits: Iron Hill owed more than $20 million to creditors and had about $125,000 in the bank.
In November, a bankruptcy judge approved an offer by Jeff Crivello, the former CEO of Famous Dave’s BBQ, to resurrect 10 Iron Hills, including in Center City and West Chester, pending landlord negotiations. The restaurants could be reopened as Iron Hills or as other brands.
Crivello said he plans to reopen the Rehoboth Beach brewpub — as well as the Iron Hill restaurants in Columbia and Greenville, S.C. — as locations of Virginia-based Three Notch’d Brewing Co.
The fates of the other ex-Iron Hills will be determined in the bankruptcy process. Brewing equipment, furniture, and other items from the closed restaurants were auctioned off earlier this month.
Mainstays say goodbye in the Philly burbs
Gladwyne Market as pictured in October.
Local chains weren’t the only business casualties of 2025.
In South Jersey, the Bistro at Cherry Hill, a beloved restaurant that operated in a 1,200-square-foot mall kiosk for 27 years, closed abruptly in July.
At the time, the restaurant’s president, Andy Cosenza, said the closure was due to a communication “breakdown” that had resulted in his voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition being converted to a Chapter 7, or liquidation, without his knowledge. Since then, however, Cosenza has been indicted on charges of tax fraud. The Bistro has remained closed.
