{"id":13637,"date":"2017-11-20T09:21:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T14:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=13637"},"modified":"2017-11-20T09:21:55","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T14:21:55","slug":"dinniman-lauds-start-of-sonoco-site-redevelopment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=13637","title":{"rendered":"Dinniman lauds start of Sonoco site redevelopment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Neal Fisher, Vice President of Development for the Hankin Group; Senator Dinniman; Mike Malloy, General Counsel for the Hankin Group; and Don Vymazal, Senator Dinniman\u2019s Government Relations Director; tour the site of the former Sonoco Paper Mill in Downingtown.<\/p><\/div>\n

DOWNINGTOWN \u2014 State Senator Andy Dinniman recently joined officials from the Hankin Group to tour the site of the former Sonoco paper mill plant where demolition is now underway in preparation for a development project that will transform Downingtown.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, Downingtown Borough Council approved Hankin Group\u2019s conditional use request for the development of Brandywine Station, a mixed-use transit oriented development at the site of what hopefully will be the new Downingtown AMTRAK\/SEPTA Train Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come a long way already,\u201d Neal Fisher, Vice President of Development for the Hankin Group, said. \u201cThis project is unique to Downingtown and together we\u2019ve worked through some challenges. We\u2019re thankful for Senator Dinniman\u2019s support; he has been instrumental in moving this development forward since the beginning.\u00a0 We truly appreciate his ongoing support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hankin Group has acquired 68 total acres (40 in Downingtown and 28 in East Caln) located at the intersection of Boot Road and Route 322 (Brandywine Ave) with plans to build 442 residential units atop 14,200 square feet of retail space \u2013 a project that will create a new gateway to Downingtown. In addition, the development will feature\u00a0a pedestrian bridge connecting Downingtown\u2019s Johnsontown Park to the east bank of the Brandywine Creek and a trail system that links to the proposed extension of the Chester-Valley Trail system. It will also include over 100,000 square-feet of commercial office space.<\/p>\n

According to the Hankin Group, asbestos abatement work is currently underway on a several severely dilapidated rowhomes and demolition work will begin next week.<\/p>\n

Dinniman, who has been a strong supporter and advocate for the site\u2019s reuse since the beginning, was thrilled to see work underway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old paper mill and these blighted properties have held us back for far too long,\u201d Dinniman said. \u201cNow, thanks to the vision and hard work of the Hankin Group, Downingtown Borough and many others, we\u2019re moving full-steam ahead to reimagine this space and turn it into an entranceway to Downingtown that we can all be proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that this represents a sea change for the borough. It will be transformative economically, residentially, and from a transportation perspective. We\u2019re talking about an unprecedented investment here \u2013 one with job and career opportunities, new stores and restaurants, top-notch housing accommodations, a multimodal transportation hub, and upgraded rail infrastructure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, the Hankin Group has worked extensively with borough and PennDOT officials on the project, including acquiring 21 different parcels that comprise the property.<\/p>\n

Prior to the Hankin Group\u2019s involvement, Dinniman noted that the abandoned paper mill property and its buildings were not only an eyesore, they were downright unsafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buildings have deteriorated significantly and are highly unstable. When young people would venture back here it was a recipe for trouble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sadly, a young man lost his life due to a fall at the property several years ago.<\/p>\n

Dinniman said he has introduced Senate Bill 962, to help ensure that brownfields and blighted properties are properly secured. It calls for enacting a series of fines and criminal penalties on owners of blighted properties who received state funds for their redevelopment, but fail to secure them. The fines begin at $5,000 and rise to $20,000 with repeated violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that revitalization projects can take time. There are a lot of moving parts,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when developers receive state funds to clean up a blighted property, they have a responsibility to the community to secure the site rather than let it sit open. The bill makes sure that this responsibility is enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOWNINGTOWN \u2014 State Senator Andy Dinniman recently joined officials from the Hankin Group to tour the site of the former Sonoco paper mill plant where demolition is now underway in preparation for a development project that will transform Downingtown. On Wednesday evening, Downingtown Borough Council approved Hankin Group\u2019s conditional use request for the development of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[941,51,5970,6435],"class_list":["post-13637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-andy-dinniman","tag-downingtown","tag-redevelopment","tag-sonoco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13638,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions\/13638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}