With a new name and developer, it’s go time for ‘The Piazza at Ardmore,’ the area’s most ambitious redevelopment since Suburban Square

When Toll Bros. pulled out in 2024, the future of the long-stalled “Piazza Project” seemed cloudy.

With climbing costs forcing Main Line developers to press pause, some wondered if the mammoth mixed-used project – the largest of its kind in Ardmore history – would be put on ice indefinitely. If a behemoth like Toll Bros. could be blown off course by stiff economic headwinds, would anyone step up?

Well, wonder no more.

The project is now firmly in local hands, albeit ones with fingers spanning the Eastern Seaboard.

Villanova-based developer Radnor Property Group (RPG) has inked a deal with the site owner, Piazza Development Group, made significant tweaks to the Toll Bros. plan, and begins demolition in early December. Headquartered in Malvern, RPG’s building partner, IMC Construction, is local, too.

IMC’s bulldozers and earth movers will reduce two Piazza-family car dealerships, a shuttered IHOP and a weedy lot to rubble.

Rising in their place over the next two+ years will be a five-story apartment/retail complex that will dwarf its three competitors: One Ardmore (110 units), Cricket Flats (77 units) and Coulter Place (131 units), now under construction in Suburban Square.

The Piazza at Ardmore will have 270 apartments – more than double Coulter Place but nine fewer than once planned.

Apartments will primarily be one-bedroom although two- and three-bedroom units will be available.

Pricing will be in line with Coulter Place, which is currently listing units from $2,300 to $4700/month.

The building’s sizable footprint (below) and five-story height, approved in 2021, remain unchanged. (The township has since amended zoning code to limit most Ardmore buildings to three stories.)

RPG President and CEO Dave Yeager (below) introduced himself – and his revised blueprints – to the community at a well-attended township meeting in later September.

Yeager explained that he’s a 35-year Radnor resident and former head of the township’s planning commission. SAVVY readers may recall that Radnor Property Group in 2022 floated a plan  to build 54 “Waynewood” apartments in a portion of the lot between Wayne Presbyterian Church and the Wayne train station. That plan derailed quickly.

For this venture, RPG has rejiggered the Toll Bros. plan to make the dollars work.

The new project nixes the proposed supermarket and the parking that would have supported it, effectively cutting ground-floor retail space by more than half, from near 70,000 sq. ft  to just under 30,000 sq. ft.  The market would have required a second level of parking and 138 extra parking spaces.

“Parking is tremendously expensive when you have to go underground – anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000,” Yeager explained.

The Piazza will have 108 retail parking spots, all covered, all for use by the general public via the ParkMobile app that’s currently used at metered spaces around town.

As for the retail mix, it’s TBD but Yeager hopes a “community coffee shop” will “activate” a new, sunny corner of Greenfield and W. Athens Ave., which will be extended to span from Ardmore to Greenfield Aves.

“We are reaching out to IHOP,” Yeager shared, prompting applause from community members who’ve bemoaned the loss of the affordable Ardmore mainstay. “We can’t guarantee we’ll be successful.,” he cautioned.

The Piazza’s leasing agent, Jim Creed at CBRE, tells SAVVY it’s too early to announce tenant signings but looks forward to Yeager “sharing wonderful news” in future.

A restaurant is targeted for the corner of Lancaster and Ardmore Ave. but community leader Adrian Seltzer asked Yeager to be mindful that “there are other restaurants already in Ardmore that are struggling.”

Another request: please don’t put in yet another nail salon. “I hear you loud and clear,” Yeager responded.

Other changes targeted neighbors’ longstanding concerns about traffic tie-ups and tight parking. Indeed, the entire project will have “softer edges” and be more walkable, Yeager insisted. A port cochere, aka a covered entry plaza, was added to keep apartment residents’ Ubers  from backing up cars on Lancaster Ave., he said.

A public pedestrian way will connect South Ardmore neighbors to Lancaster Avenue.

Timed, signalized crosswalks at Greenfield and Ardmore Aves. will make Lancaster Ave. crossings less precarious.

A newly generous sidewalk along Lancaster Ave. will be complemented by “lush, tree-lined landscaping, seating areas, umbrellas, and places to congregate,” Yeager revealed.

 

 

A mural, to be created in consultation with Lower Merion Historical Society’s Ted Goldsborough, will pay tribute to the site’s origins as an Autocars factory.

To avoid clogging area roads and taking precious parking, IMC construction crews and contractors will park remotely and walk or shuttle to the worksite.

“Job creation is very important,” Yeager said. IMC will hire local – “working with local businesses, whether it’s cleaning services, hardware, lighting supplies. IMC really helps promote local and local vitality.”

The construction timetable: Demolition and site clearing will take about three months. The retail shell will go up first and take 17 months. Final completion is targeted for April 2028.

In the meantime, Yeager pledged to keep talking to the township, Ardmore Initiative, local churches and civic groups about their priorities.

“Candidly, we’ll be neighbors and we’ll be good neighbors.”