A fight over warehouses in South Jersey | Real Estate Newsletter
And disappearing ‘third spaces’
How many warehouses does one town need?
Oldmans Township, with about 1,800 people in South Jersey, has at least 20 of them. Residents are pushing back on plans to add nine more.
Our desire for quick delivery of the stuff we buy online is driving plans for new warehouses from Chester County to Northeast Philly to the Lehigh Valley. Community pushback against the projects has become common.🔑
Read more about the latest fight, see how a new Barnes & Noble store in Center City discourages hanging out, compare Philly rents with prices in other local cities, learn about the “state of the city” in a new report, and peek inside a funky and colorful home in South Philly.
📮 Flower décor features heavily in this week’s home tour. Does your home have a strong theme that ties rooms together? Or do you know of a home that does? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me about it.
If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.
— Michaelle Bond
“No more warehouses” is a message written on signs across Oldmans Township in Salem County.
The planning board there is considering a proposal to build 5.3 million square feet of warehouse space on 574 acres of what is mostly farmland.
The town’s mayor is a farmer whose family has lived there since the 1600s. He said residents “really like the bucolic atmosphere” of the township and “like to see deer and watch crops grow,” which is partly why they’re against the building of more warehouses.
But Oldmans sits between Route 130 to the west and I-295 to the east and has two New Jersey Turnpike exits nearby, making the township an attractive place for a truck-based business. Developers are eyeing South Jersey for warehouses after gobbling up property to the north.
On Monday, the planning board is scheduled to hear more about the nine-warehouse plan.🔑
I went to the Barnes & Noble on Rittenhouse Square for the last time at the end of January, a couple weeks before it closed. A friend told me the store was offering pretty deep discounts, and I had gotten a gift card for Christmas.
The shelves were picked over, and I couldn’t find any of the books I was looking for. (I still left with two.)
But the café was full.
Barnes & Noble’s new, smaller Center City store, which opened on Chestnut Street on yesterday, has no café. The store won’t have public bathrooms either, and there’s less seating.
That’s part of a trend my colleague Jake Blumgart wrote about a few months ago. Philadelphia’s “third spaces” — places that aren’t home or work — are disappearing.
Read on to get a look at the new Barnes & Noble store.
The latest news to pay attention to
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the playwright, actor, and composer behind Hamilton and In the Heights, and his family made a “major gift” to preserve Oscar Hammerstein’s former Doylestown home.
This is how Philadelphia’s local unions are trying to bring more women and people of color into the building trades.
Philadelphia officials plan to independently evaluate the impact, opportunities, and challenges of the Sixers’ plans for a $1.3 billion arena in Center City.
A new report shows that in Center City and other big cities’ downtowns, crime isn’t on the rise.
As a City Council member, Cherelle Parker blocked new rental units and advocated for certain building materials in her district. How would she approach development citywide as mayor?🔑
The owner of the Wells Fargo Center wants the Sixers to stay in South Philly and potentially buy a piece of the arena.
House of the week: For $695,000, a four-bedroom Delaware County home with pond views.
Where Philly rents rank compared to other cities in the region
I bet most people would think Philadelphia has higher rents than Wilmington does. But an analysis of active rental listings in March in the Philadelphia region found that the median price of a one-bedroom apartment is higher in the Delaware city.
Asking rents also grew the fastest in Wilmington compared to this time last year. They’re up more than 35%, according to the rental platform Zumper.
Across Pennsylvania, the median rent last month for one bedroom was $1,187.
Here are the prices of a one-bedroom apartment in some cities in the Philly metro area:
Wilmington: $1,680
Newark, Del.: $1,590
Bethlehem, Pa.: $1,580
Philadelphia: $1,400
Atlantic City: $1,310
What a new Pew report says about housing in Philly
Pew Charitable Trusts released its annual “State of the City” report on Philadelphia and the surrounding region on yesterday. The report gets into data on topics like education, health, the economy, and housing.
We covered the report, which found that Philadelphians are more college-educated than ever before and their household incomes have risen.
Here are some of the report’s takeaways related to housing in the city:
🔌 49% of households spent 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities in 2021. That’s slightly higher than the national average but lower than in cities like Baltimore and Houston.
🏘️ Home sales increased by 33% from 2021 to 2022, and the annual increase in the number of sales was the highest in more than a decade. The nearly 25,000 homes sold was the highest number since 2008.
💲 Home prices rose almost 2% in 2022. Over the last decade, the median home sale price has increased by 88%. Parts of West and North Philadelphia saw the highest price increases.
🏡 About 57% of Philadelphians were homeowners in 2021. Home ownership rates were highest among Asian households — 62% — and lowest among Hispanic households — about 49%.
Read what the report had to say about crime, the economy, and more.
Sue Liedke is an art teacher who’s all about color.
In the kitchen of her South Philly rowhouse, Liedke painted her fridge and trash can yellow — to match the sink she found on Craigslist.
A green petal-shaped light fixture illuminates her foyer. Pink wallpaper with white and green blossoms rests above black-and-white tile paneling on the wall.
You might also have guessed that flower patterns feature prominently in Liedke’s home. In an abstract print. On the bed coverings in her emerald green bedroom and her lavender guest room. On a lampshade.
Peek inside Liedke’s bright home and find out what furnishings she was able to score for free using her neighborhood’s Buy Nothing group.
🧠 Trivia time 🧠
Ornate window shades are now on display at Old City’s Museum for Art in Wood. The shades have been a staple of a certain religion’s architecture since the Middle Ages.
Question: Which religion? This story has the answer.🔑
📷 Photo quiz 📷
Do you recognize where this seasonal pop-up, food-and-drink garden is?
📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.
Do you live somewhere that has an HOA? More than one in four people in the U.S. live in a community with a homeowners or condo association. In 2021, I wrote about a Bucks County couple who got into trouble with their HOA over the solar panels on their house.🔑
The associations are meant to protect property values and the look and feel of communities. But they also limit personal choice and require property owners give up some of their rights. This week, John Oliver tackled HOAs on his show Last Week Tonight.
If you want to both laugh and be infuriated, check it out. Enjoy the rest of your week.