A plan to sell the Exeter Promenade property to build apartments and a hotel on the former shopping center site has fallen through.
In November, Exeter Township officials announced that the Berks County Redevelopment Authority was engaged in negotiations with a national developer and global hotel chain interested in buying the property.
According to township solicitor J. Chadwick Schnee, the authority was hoping to close the deal by mid-December.
That did not happen, Schnee announced at a township supervisors meeting Monday night, as negotiations have ended without a sale agreement.
“Things were looking very optimistic,” Schnee said about the potential buyer.
Schnee said negotiations hit a snag over requirements included in redevelopment authority law that could not be waived. He did not specify what those requirements were.
The Redevelopment Authority is continuing to aggressively search for a buyer for the property, Schnee said.
The township bought the property at Perkiomen Avenue and East Neversink Road in 2019 with an eye on creating a $50 million municipal center there that would have housed the township’s office, as well as its police, fire and public works departments.
That plan was officially scrapped in 2022, and the township entered a deal to have the authority sell the property in March 2024. The authority bought an option to market the property for $100,000.
The property is expected to sell for more than $3 million, with the township and authority splitting any sale price over $3.3 million.
According to information provided by township officials, the township has spent a little over $2.7 million to buy the property and demolish the buildings that were there.
Source: Berkshire mont