The Shanti House project, a property and plans for a 50-unit apartment building, is up for sale on Stroudsburg's Main Street with an extended land development approval.
The property at 625 Main St. is advertised as a fully approved project with plans and permits included for a six-story, more than 75,000-square-foot building, consisting of 50 apartments, two commercial spaces and 17 underground parking spaces. The price tag is $3.5 million.
REALTOR Jane Hartin of Iron Valley Real Estate Pocono confirmed it came on the market in mid-December and is being sold as "a shovel-ready project, with property, plans, permits and approvals all included."
Hartin described the property as "one-of a kind, right on Main Street in downtown Stroudsburg, which is landlocked as we're running out of properties. It'll add 50 luxurious and unique apartments to the area, which is right off of I-80 in a prime location."
According to Hartin and the design plan, the majority of the 50 apartments are two-bedroom/two-bath units. Half of them have balconies. Some are one floor and some are two. There are a few studios. There are two commercial storefronts on the ground floor, a laundry facility in the building, two elevators and a common area for mail.
On Feb. 6, Stroudsburg Borough Council voted unanimously to extend the final land development approval for the project for an additional six months.
During the council meeting, Solicitor Christopher Brown said he "believes" there is an interested buyer, "a developer that is funded and ready to do it, willing and able to build what's on paper, but not willing to sign a contract until they had assurance from us that they're not going to have to start at the very beginning with land development."
The land development plan is basically the approval of a building's footprint and the use of the land around the building, including utilities, connections and such.
Stroudsburg Borough Council President Matt Abell said this project has been in the works for over 16 years, at different stages with a developer group from New York City.
"Early on they fought the borough's ordinance because they wanted higher building heights than were allowed, so we underwent a four to five year revision of our zoning codes, which basically traded additional building height in exchange for more architectural appointments that would make it fit better with other historic properties around it," Abell said.
According to Abell, even after all the revising of ordinances, the developer submitted a plan that violated the terms of an overlay district. A few more years of back-and-forth between borough officials and the developers dragged on until they finally submitted a different design that did comply with the criteria set forth in the overlay ordinance. It was then just a matter of time before they got all the approvals to get the final land development plan.
"They've been sitting on this final approval for about three years now," said Abell. "During that time, Borough Council has been trying to get the school board to pass a LERTA ordinance, which is a tax abatement program. The county is on board with the borough, we just need the school board to get on board."
Daniel Luzon is one of the owners of the Shanti House project and property. He said he is one of four friends that worked together for over 40 years doing construction and development in New York and the Poconos and they own two other apartment buildings on Main Street.
Luzon admitted that it took a long time to get to this point. "It took us over six years to get approval for these buildings and we exhausted our resources, spending too much money on getting things approved. When we bought it, we could only get 28 apartments, which would not make it profitable and then we tried to change the zoning. Then we got the 60-foot clearances, but then there were limits on the number of apartments. It was a long process for everything and a lot of resources to get to this point. And now we are older and considering retirement."
Luzon compared the "beautiful and very big apartments" on the second and fourth floors to duplexes. "The top floor has two bedrooms and one bathroom and the bottom floor has a kitchen, bathroom, living room and dining hall. Each apartment is a little different and varies between 1,600-2,000 square foot each. The single-floor two-bedroom apartments will range between 850-1,150 square foot each."
Hartin said once done, the project will be good for the borough, in that it'll bring in more tax dollars, new residents who will be shopping local and supporting local businesses, and more commercial spaces. She added that it would be great for new residents too as it is in a very walkable and convenient downtown location.
Maria Francis covers K-12 education and real estate, housing and development for the Pocono Record. Reach her at mfrancis@poconorecord.com.
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