52 luxury condos are proposed for downtown Wayne as Main Line living evolves

Developers are seeking to construct a 52-unit luxury condo complex in downtown Wayne, the latest in the trend of million-dollar units targeted at residents of Main Line communities who want to downsize their homes.

The $78.3 million complex would be at South Bellevue Avenue’s intersection with Lancaster Avenue, according to the Concordia Group, the project’s developers. The Radnor board of commissioners will vote in February whether the development can move to its next planning stage.

Priced around $1 million for smaller units and over $2 million for the larger ones, the project, dubbed 60 West, comes as Main Line developers try to cater to the evolving tastes of high-income buyers shedding large family homes in favor of low-maintenance condos.

“People in the big homes are finally realizing they want to downsize,” said Robin Gordon, a Main Line Realtor who heads the Robin Gordon Real Estate Group. “Until recently, there’s really been no physical options.”

Luxury condominium and apartment complexes have launched up and down Lancaster Avenue over the past decade, from 39 Montgomery, next to Suburban Square, to Haverford’s Athertyn complex and Ardmore’s 77-unit Cricket Flats apartments. All are facing “tremendous demand,” said Gordon.

Gordon’s group is the listing agent for Wayne 427, a new complex near the St. David’s SEPTA station. The suburban town has become a hotbed for development in recent years, she said, so much that developers say several more luxury developments are in planning stages.

But in a community known for its spacious, historical homes, the spate of construction has stirred worries that an influx of new residents could impact parking and traffic congestion.

“There’s development all over the place,” said Wayne resident Lisa Connor Delizia, rattling off several new “Walk to Wayne” projects nearby. “I’m looking for the township to do a more comprehensive look at the impact on traffic with all the developments in question.”

The Concordia Group, a Maryland-based company with offices in Wayne, has proposed that the complex offer one-, two-, and three-bedroom units ranging from 1,100 to 3,100 square feet. To meet mixed-use requirements, a 1,302-square-foot retail space would occupy part of the ground floor along Bellevue Avenue.

Construction would take place overtop a public, township-operated parking lot at the base of the 250-foot AT&T facility that towers over Wayne. The Concordia Group struck a tentative deal to purchase the lot from the telecommunications giant last year.

To preserve the public lot, the developer said AT&T agreed to shift those spaces to the company’s lot on the other side of the tower, along West Avenue.

“The project will bring new consumers to the township who don’t need a car to to access stores and restaurants,” Devin Tuohey, the Concordia Group’s principal, said at an October planning meeting. “They can walk to wherever they need.”

During COVID-19, there was a “huge shift” in residents purchasing properties at the Jersey Shore and in warmer climates such as Florida, according to Karen Strid, a Main Line Realtor who specializes in luxury properties. Some of those buyers also scooped up a Main Line condo to maintain ties to the community, Strid said.

Others saw Philadelphia and its confined spaces as a public health hazard during the pandemic, or were worried over crime, according to Strid. Downsizing demand shifted to walkable suburbs, where some semblance of a metropolitan lifestyle is possible.

“People decided, ‘OK, we’re going to make that city feel in Bryn Mawr and Ardmore and Wayne,’ ” Strid said.

That’s welcome news for Wayne businesspeople such as Ken Kearns, owner of the restaurant and bar 118 North and president of the Wayne Business Association. Kearns, who’s also a partner with the Concordia Group on 60 West, said the development was part of a larger strategy to reinvigorate Wayne’s economy.

Across the Main Line, small businesses have struggled to keep up with high rents and maintenance costs associated with older buildings. In Wayne, around 90,000 square feet of storefronts between King of Prussia and Old Eagle School Roads are currently vacant, or soon will be, according to Kearns.

“Some of these newer suburban developments, like the King of Prussia Town Center, have really significant residential components,” Kearns said, “which feeds the retail.”

While Concordia Group is betting that 60 West residents will prefer to stroll into town, they’ve also proposed building 100 residential parking spaces underneath the complex.

At a public hearing Monday held by Radnor’s board of commissioners, those scores of potential new vehicles were cause for alarm among many of the 25 neighbors in attendance.

“It’s just too much,” said West Avenue resident Carol Burns, citing another nearby development plan for the former estate of a Campbell Soup heiress. “I don’t oppose having some residential area with nice stores underneath, but it’s just a monstrosity. It’s just too big for this area.”

Concordia Group has met with neighborhood associations to hear their concerns and commissioned a traffic study. The developer anticipates the project would have minimal impact.

As residents spoke over three hours, some billed themselves as pro-development. But many took issue with a proposal with construction in their own backyards.

Few details went unscrutinized, from 60 West’s use of green space to its potential impact on an aging sewer system to its modern aesthetic, which some said failed to match Wayne’s historic character.

Several residents suggested that the lot would be better off as a public park or playground. Others held up photos of cars packed along North Wayne Avenue’s single lane in rows of two, illustrating traffic bloat they believe the developer’s traffic study failed to capture.

Residents also took issue with the plan to relocate the municipal parking lot to West Avenue — a space they speculated that AT&T could one day put up for sale, jeopardizing the future of coveted public spaces.

Not all were opposed. Residents like MJ Frumin, who also chairs the township’s planning commission, suggested it was time for Wayne to embrace change.

“It’s hard not to notice the empty storefronts as we go down Lancaster Avenue,” Frumin said, addressing the room. “This development doesn’t add another block of potentially empty retail space. What it does add is the very important part that makes a thriving business district — and that’s people.”