The major land parcel needed to launch the Smithfield Gateway mixed-use development project near Route 447 and Seven Bridge Road has been acquired by developer James DePetris.
DePetris completed acquisition Monday of the 81-acre former Mosier’s Farm property from Charles Kirkwood for $8 million.
The three-phase Gateway project will include a 77, 000-square-foot supermarket, 30 retail stores or restaurants, upscale multifamily housing units with a community center, a hotel, medical offices and a new connector road for the congested 447-Seven Bridge Road corridor.
“I call it a game-changer for the local economy,” said DePetris, who is CEO of Plymouth Meeting-based Legend Properties Inc. “It’s going to be the largest retail center in Monroe County.”
The project near the Marshalls Creek interchange of Interstate 80 will generate more than $100 million worth of construction and 1,000 jobs, he said.
The Smithfield Gateway project was launched a little more than a year ago when Kirkwood asked DePetris if he would like to buy and develop it, DePetris said. Kirkwood sought a mixed-use, coordinated development that would improve the quality of life in Smithfield Township.
”Charlie Kirkwood could have chopped this into five or six different sites,” DePetris said. “It would have been a mish-mash development.”
Kirkwood is encouraged by Legend Properties‘ plans for a supermarket, connector road and natural buffers throughout the development.
“We think it makes a lot of sense,” Kirkwood said.
He said the project dovetails with Shawnee Ridge, a senior citizen housing project adjacent to Smithfield Gateway that Kirkwood owns, and a medical office project Kirkwood plans nearby.
DePetris initially submitted a proposed mixed-use zoning overlay
https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20151027/NEWS/151029520