200 Luxury Apartments Proposed At Doylestown Shopping Center

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Developers presented plans for 200 upscale apartments and a parking garage in the Doylestown Shopping Center during a meeting of the Doylestown Borough Zoning and Planning Committee Monday night.

The Robbins Companies, a property management company, submitted site plan documents for a five-story multi-family apartment complex in the northwest corner of the North Main Street shopping plaza.

Committee members declined to make any decisions on the project without consulting with staff, though some expressed caution and asked if the developer had exhausted all retail possibilities for the space.

Chris Robbins, owner of the real estate company that manages the 250,000 square foot property, told borough planners that the market for large scale retail has shrunk in the past five years.

"The internet has dramatically changed retail and COVID has only accelerated the change," Robbins said. "In 2018, we lost Bon-Ton, even though that store was successful. Many tenants continue to do extremely well. We have very few large scale tenants left...the property is no longer serving the community the way it was."

After a change of hands, the empty Bon-Ton became an empty Fox & Holly store, which closed during the pandemic. The space is now occupied by a sprawling artisans' market dubbed "The Mercantile at Doylestown," which held its grand opening on Nov. 7.

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Michael Markman, of BET investments, the Philadelphia-based real estate investment group backing the project, said the developers looked at every possibility and "apartments made the most sense."

Markman said tenants will likely be young professionals and retirees, with each unit costing about $2,000/month to rent.

The project documents can be viewed here.

Correction: A previously version of this article misstated the price tag of the project, as well as the monthly property tax revenue estimates.