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Housing & Community | Real Life Stories « Community Lending Program »
Community Lending Program Success Stories
Franklin Commons – An Uncommon Facility in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
About four years ago, David and Marian Moskowitz decided to purchase a 100-year-old vacant and decaying industrial building located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania and convert it into an educational, corporate and recreational facility called Franklin Commons. The Moskowitzs, owners of Palma, L.P., the real estate management company of Franklin Commons, learned during several months of research that their renovation project was kind of “uncommon” – that is, no private developer in the United States had ever transformed a brownfield site into an “educational mall.”
Franklin Commons, located 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, is home to:
- A day care, which accepts children as young as three months old;
- A pre-school;
- A K-12 charter school established nine years ago with approximately 1,000 students;
- A two-year college;
- And a four-year college and a graduate school offering both master's and doctorate degrees.
According to David Moskowitz, “This is the only building we know of in the United States where you can start at three months old and stay in the same building throughout your entire educational career, and end up with a doctor's degree.”
FHLBank member Malvern Federal Savings Bank used a $3,000,000 Community Lending Program (CLP) loan from FHLBank Pittsburgh to support the project. CLP is an $825 million revolving loan pool from which FHLBank members can obtain long-term, lower-cost financing for development initiatives designed to enhance the local economy.
“The $3 million CLP funding, and the balance of the funding provided by Malvern Federal Savings Bank, was necessary for this project to happen...This entire project has been built with private financing, and, without this financing, there would not have been a project,” said Moskowitz. He added, “The total redevelopment cost will be in excess of $20,000,000. This includes improvements made by tenants to their space and the improvements to be made by Renaissance Academy, which purchased 104,000 square feet of the building to build the K-12 charter school.”
After one year of environmental remediation and renovation, tenants began moving in, restoring new life to the former brownfield site that once housed a silk mill, carpet mill and, most recently, a plastics company that made pump parts for wastewater treatment plants. It is a bright spot for the Phoenixville area – the old building is restored to an eye-pleasing, useful facility that provides a gamut of educational offerings, business opportunities and jobs for local residents.
Half of the tenants, who utilize 80 percent of the finished space, are educational or quasi-educational – Neumann College, Lansdale School of Business, Phoenixville Area Children’s Learning Center, Phoenixville Area Positive Alternatives, Facetime Performing Arts Center, Renaissance Academy, Stepping Stone Education Center and Rock & Roll After School. The remaining tenants consist of small businesses – from caterers to a graphics design firm, from a nutrition consultant to the leading educational security consultant in the United States. In addition, the facility offers bistro dining and has a spacious banquet hall and conference room available for rental. It is also the site of community events such as fundraisers, a holiday candlelight tour and a Friday night concert series. Approximately ten percent of the building still requires renovation.
The icing on the cake for the Moskowitz’s Franklin Commons project was a first-place award for “Best Mixed Use,” bestowed recently by the Philadelphia Business Journal, recognizing the top 2009 building sales, leases and real estate developments in the Delaware Valley.
FHLBank Pittsburgh is proud to sponsor CLP projects such as Franklin Commons throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
More Success Stories…
Former Meadville School Closes the Book on Sitting Empty – Transformed into Affordable Housing and Commercial Office Space
After sitting empty nearly ten years, the former Meadville Area Junior High School closed the book on vacancy for good in the fall of 2007. The 90-year-old building received new life when it was transformed into a 56-unit residential apartment complex for low- to moderate-income families as well as a commercial office facility.
IMAX Opens in Reading, a Marquee CLP-Funded Project
On August 8, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Reading Mayor Tom McMahon unveiled a new state-of-the-art 11-screen cinema complex in Reading, PA that provides residents the ultimate moviegoing experience.
Three Municipalities Upgrade Their
Infrastructure; Local Bank
Commits $8 Million with the Help of CLP
How
does one community bank meet the needs of three municipal
authorities, save local taxpayers money and enhance
its own reputation for excellent customer service?
Creative Refinancing Clears
Way for Senior Housing Renovation
At a ceremony at One West Penn Apartments in Carlisle,
PA, this July, U.S. Rep. Todd Platts and Christopher
Gulotta, executive director of the Cumberland County
Housing and Redevelopment Authority (CCHRA), announced
$6.7 million in Community Lending Program (CLP) funding
that has resulted in the innovative refinancing of
the complex's existing mortgage and a lowered interest
rate.
Updated Fire Company Facility Improves Equipment,
Service for Community
Mercer County State Bank, Sandy Lake, PA, led the way
in Community Lending Program funding in one local community.
Mercer County State Bank used a $600,000 CLP loan to
help the Stoneboro Fire Department replace an existing
fire company building in 2003. The loan enabled the
fire department to benefit from updated facilities,
as well as add two new bays for the firefighting equipment.
Comprehensive Plans Redevelop Reading's Downtown District
For 20 years, developers had tried to revitalize the
former Wyomissing Club, a historic building in downtown
Reading, PA, to no avail. Finally, in 1999, Phoebe Ministries
— a not-for-profit organization specializing in
health care, housing and support services for older
persons throughout eastern and central Pennsylvania
— completed a major renovation of the vacant building
into 58 affordable apartments for lower-income senior
citizens.
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