Town by Town: Not just mushrooms
One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in the region's communities. On one January Sunday, Kennett Square basked in bright sunshine and, according to the National Weather Service, a record-setting 65 degrees.
One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in the region's communities.
On one January Sunday, Kennett Square basked in bright sunshine and, according to the National Weather Service, a record-setting 65 degrees.
It was a picture-perfect day for a visit to what is still considered "the Mushroom Capital of the World," even though there has been a lot of industry consolidation in recent years.
Nursing- and rehabilitation-center giant Genesis HealthCare, with $4.4 billion in annual revenue and 90,000 employees, made 101 E. State St. its corporate headquarters in the late 1990s and has contributed to Kennett Square's growth and prosperity since.
Add hundreds of Chatham Financial employees, and this Chester County borough has a lot going for it.
That said, at midnight Dec. 31 it's still a lighted stainless-steel mushroom that drops down an 8-foot pole to mark the start of the New Year in Kennett Square.
The diversity here - U.S. Census data show that nearly 50 percent of the estimated 2014 population of 6,151 was of "Hispanic or Latino origin" - means that the annual Mushroom Festival in September shares equal billing with Cinco de Mayo festivities.
The population has been increasing, too - a 15.2 percent bump between 2000 and 2010, 1.3 percent between 2010 and 2014, the Census data show.
Kennett Square's evolution puts it on the growing list of reemerging Pennsylvania boroughs with Phoenixville, Ambler, Media and West Chester.
"It is the western Media," says Barbara M. Mastronardo of Weichert Realtors.
The residential real estate market here is evolving, as well.
Two years ago, Kennett Realty Group, owned by the mushroom- and compost-producing Pia family, began building Magnolia Place on a vacant lot between South Washington Street and Mill Road in the borough's southeastern section.
Seventy-nine for-purchase twin homes and townhouses, ranging from two to five bedrooms, were part of the project.
As of January, 55 of the townhouses were built and had been sold at prices ranging from $300,000 to $700,000, says Michael Pia Jr., who heads Kennett Realty Group.
"The prices of the townhouses took us by surprise," says Mary Hutchins, since 2001 executive director of Historic Kennett Square, which, with a staff of resident-volunteers, keeps the business district vibrant and the list of festivals and events growing ever longer.
"The impact that these townhouses have had on the price of housing in the borough has been tremendous," says Rory Burkhart of Keller Williams Real Estate, who adds that the buyers are both young professionals and empty nesters from surrounding towns.
Those prices have boosted home-resale prices in Kennett Square as well, he says, with the average over the last 12 months at $287,000 on sales of 82 homes new and old.
Just three houses have changed hands in the last three months, with the median price at $273,000, data from Trend Multiple Listing Service show.
There are 43 active listings, ranging from $158,500 for a rowhouse to $649,900 for a three-bedroom, single detached house, Mastronardo says.
The highest sale prices tend to come from the northern and western parts of the borough, Burkhart says, adding that in the last five months, a north-side home sold for $535,000 in three weeks.
The success of the Magnolia Place townhouses has prompted others to seriously consider putting down stakes here, Burkhart says.
Notes Hutchins: "The pace of those sales generated a lot of interest among developers," leading to an economic study funded by the Chester County Planning Commission and due in June, "so we can react to these proposals quickly."
Across from Magnolia Place on State Street, StanAb Real Estate Development plans 175 loft apartments above ground-floor retail, Burkhart says.
The commercial side of Kennett Square, with its locally owned businesses, is thriving, to say the least.
"There is not a single vacant storefront," Hutchins says with pride.
There is, she adds, a very long waiting list for businesses hoping to snag one of the rare vacancies.
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