Can the ultra-rich buy up and reshape a town? Gladwyne’s would-be fairy godparents Janine & Jeffrey Yass and Haldon House plan to remake the historic village in one of the Main Line’s toniest zip codes

Colonial Wiliamsburg had John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Northern Delaware had Pierre du Pont.

And now, it seems, historic Gladwyne has Jeff Yass.

The richest man in Pennsylvania, and his wife, Janine, have partnered with a younger husband-and-wife development/design team to both turn back the clock on Gladwyne village AND propel it into the next century.

The partnership spent millions over the last several months to buy or lease key properties in the heart of historic Gladwyne: the former Gladwyne Market, Gladwyne Village Shoppes (which house the beloved pharmacy and Homeroom luncheonette), Gladwyne Post Office, the former longtime OMG Salon building and, as of Dec. 31, a private home in the Village.

Plans have been hush-hush for months. But finally, Thursday night: daylight.

The designated face of the partnership, Andre Golsorkhi revealed the quartet’s vision to rapt residents in a packed auditorium at Gladwyne Elementary, the school Golsorhki himself attended many moons ago.

At the outset, Golsorkhi (below) emphasized that his investor/development  group is 100-percent local and, believe it or not, was NOT doing this to make money.

“We’re making a significant investment of time and in money in something that is not about economic return,” Golsorkhi told the crowd. “For the folks that are spending that time, spending that money, this is about community impact. This is a place that we grew up [in], that we love, that we care for tremendously, that has been protected for all the right reasons. But it has also not evolved. And it needs … revitalization,” Golsorkhi told the crowd.

Their current plan, in broad strokes:

1. Demolish the “Gladwyne Village Shoppes” buildings that house the Gladwyne Pharmacy, Homeroom luncheonette, the former PNC Bank, etc. they were designed by esteemed architect Walter Durham in the 1950s but are now a bit of a hodgepodge, Golsorkhi said.
2. Build a much larger, stand-alone multi-purpose Homeroom as a café/luncheonette but also a replacement for Gladwyne Market with prepared food and provisions.
3. Construct a new Gladwyne Village Shoppes building and bring in only local tenants to serve the community. On their vision board: a bakery/ice cream/treats shop, a fitness studio, and a barber.
4. Move Gladwyne Pharmacy to a newly restored OMG building now being leased by the partners. The new pharmacy would offer its essential services and streamline merchandise that don’t sell. Extensive interior construction is already underway but Golsorkhi stressed that the pharmacy move was not yet a done deal.
5. Restore the Gladwyne Market building and lease it to a restaurant that would offer “approachable but elevated,” “high quality,” family-friendly fare (pizza, salads, apps) and cocktails (“a place to watch the game”) with prices that the town’s firefighters and teachers can afford.

6. Create a public gathering green between the library and Homeroom/Gladwyne Village Shoppes with picnic tables, grassy lawn and amphitheater seating for community programs like speakers and concerts or simply relaxing alfresco.

7. Potentially turn the post office, whose services have already been slashed, into a shipping hub for USPS, UPS and FedEx.
8. Demolish a private home near the library and shops and convert it to a parking lot.

9. Bury (if possible) the ugly overhead wires that string through town and causes power outages.
   

   Above) Electrical wires cross near the old OMG building and (below) a rendering shows the intersection of Righter’s Mill and Youngs Ford Roads without wires.

   

10. Instill a cohesive sense of place with uniform branding and signage, upgraded landscaping and pedestrian pathways.

Golsorkhi also ran down a list of “commitments” his group was making to the townspeople:

• Historic preservation of all significant buildings.
• Respectful restoration of each building’s character. “The work that we do, we like to believe, is timeless, has the character, the soul, and can last for generations,” Golsorkhi explained. “We do not do trendy work.” Gladwyne Market and OMG buildings will be restored as historically accurately as possible, while new buildings will use materials and styles that blend with existing historic structures.
• Appropriate use. So no shops will become residences and no multi-unit apartments or condos are coming.
• Community tenants will stay, including Gladwyne Pharmacy and Homeroom. Select local retailers and service providers will lease the new retail building. No national chains allowed.
• New outdoor gathering spaces and green spaces with professional landscaping.
• Partnerships and civic collaborations with local entities like the library, schools, businesses, civic groups and historic preservation leaders to create cohesive, ongoing programming, some with a family-friendly focus, and to strategize ongoing improvements.
• Thoughtful parking and pedestrian improvements within the village.

Golsorkhi’s talk was interrupted by brief rounds of applause – sometimes tenative, sometimes robust – five times. It seems folks really want a restaurant to replace the old Guard House.

He then fielded questions, many of them from people who’ve lived in the village for decades.

The first resident who spoke felt blindsided.

Retired tax attorney Ron Weiner (above left), who lives in Youngs Ford Place, a townhome community adjoining the proposed village green, raised concerns about the Gladwyne Square team’s recent surprise purchase of his neighbor’s house and plan to raze it for a parking lot. “What kind of communication can I and my neighbors expect from you before our living areas are ruined?” It wasn’t exactly a pave-paradise-and-put-up-a-parking-lot query, but close enough.

Another speaker feared the conformity of a Gladwyne Square. “It’s going to end up looking like Nantucket, she said. “This presentation makes me even more nervous about what you guys are doing …You’re saying Gladwyne needs branding… it’s gonna be a certain architecture that you think is important when you’re destroying a quirky Walter Durham house… I like communities that are organic and grow up in different ways. We have other buildings in Gladwyne that are just as important for the community that are not owned by Mr. Yass. I just wonder what the end game is. There’s always a price for this.”

Dermatologist and longtime resident Eric Bernstein was a believer. “Everyone’s afraid to change. I, for one, am very excited. I was thinking about downsizing. I’m not moving. This is great.”

A Gladwyne accountant focused on the financing. After applauding the design and landscaping, Patricia Hare added: “Who’s paying for this and what happens if, in the middle of this, you declare bankruptcy?”

Golsorhki replied that her fears were unwarranted. “The partnership between Janine, Jeff, my wife and I in Haldon House has sufficient capital to invest in this and assure its completion. There’s no outside financing, no outside capital or any grants needed to see this through.”

Some murmured to each other that Hare might not be aware that chief financial backer Jeff Yass is the wealthiest man in the Commonwealth.

Architect Ed Lewis (below), a 60-year Gladwyne resident told Golsorkhi that he “started the historic district in my living room with a meeting of neighbors concerned about overdevelopment.”

He worried about parking encroaching on residential property and zoning changes to the historic district he helped create. He also offered his services as a consultant on the Gladwyne Square project.

Fifty-year resident and longtime Gladwyne Montessori teacher Ann Schwartz feared change and worried about the parking and reduced selection at a smaller, relocated Gladwyne Pharmacy. “My biggest concern … is the pharmacy. Because when Perry [Koffer] goes, I go. I get my drugs at Perry’s and my gas at Joe’s … It’s hard to think of our village changing.”

Hare, the accountant, and a few other questioners, said the quiet part out loud, in so many words: “You say you aren’t in this for the money. Why ARE you doing this?’

Golsorkhi’s abridged response: “This is a community impact project … I recognize that’s a challenging thing to, you know, believe … I get it. But it’s the truth. And if you look at the plan and you see … There’s not high-density residential. There’s not an expansion of square footage. There are not floors being added on. You can just do the math. Even if you get the market rate on a per-square-foot basis or elevated market rate … it doesn’t add up. It’s not going to drive a financial yield. This is not being approached in that way.“

One commercial real estate attorney left the meeting skeptical. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when Yass wants something and the township says, ‘Well, you can’t do that.’ When you come in with that kind of money – invest that kind of money in a town – you expect something. It could be that there’s no profit motive but that just means there’s some other motive. The question is: ‘What is it?'”

So who are the power players behind the proposed Gladwyne Square?

The big money man is Jeff Yass, richest man in PA and 25^th richest in the world, who brings his $65.7 billion net worth to the table. A onetime professional gambler and co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a Bala Cynwyd-based financial trading and tech firm, Yass of late is best known for backing mostly conservative politicians and PACs that favor school choice. He’s also a major investor in TikTok.

His wife, Janine Coslett Yass, has a background in urban planning and has led philanthropic arts-and-culture efforts and educational initiatives, including the annual $1 million Yass Prize that rewards educational heroes. The couple has lived in Haverford for more than 40 years and sent their four children to Gladwyne Montessori. Janine Yass worked closely with Autumn Oser (Golsorkhi’s wife) on the design concept for Gladwyne Square, Golsorkhi said.

“[Janine and Jeff] havp built a deep relationship with this community and wanted to make a significant impact here, where they raised their family, where they’ve lived, and where their family is currently raising their grandchildren,” Golsorhki shared at the meeting.

The other couple in this quartet – Andre Golsorkhi and wife Autumn Oser – lead the project’s design, development and implementation.

The front man, Andre Golsorkhi, stressed his own local roots. He attended Gladwyne Montessori, Gladwyne Elementary (“I’ve stood on this stage [before}} I tried out for the talent show twice and was denied twice.”), Welsh Valley Middle School and Harriton High School (Class of ’97)  His first job was stocking shelves in the basement of Gladwyne Pharmacy. He called himself a “serial entrepreneur from the tech space” who founded healthcare, design, and media and advertising companies.

Autumn Oser was a top designer at Google, leading “all of the development” of “real-world expressions” of the Google brand.

The couple left their jobs to start Haldon House, a bespoke residential design and development firm that invests, renovates and resells properties. High-end house flippers, if you will. We’ve been told they designed the Yass home on one of Haverford’s most desirable streets, plus a Horace Trumbauer-designed Georgian mansion in Haverford featured in Architectural Digest, and the ground-up rebuild of their own home on Rock Creek Road in Bryn Mawr, featured in the New York Times. 

Backing up the four principals will be “more than 100” folks of various “capabilities.” inside and outside Haldon House. Among them, architects, landscape designers, engineers and construction managers.

What’s next?

According to Golsorkhi, his group will continue speaking with stakeholders including Gladwyne Civic Association, the owners of Gladwyne Pharmacy, Homeroom, the OMG building, historic preservation folks (i.e. HARB, Lower Merion Historical Society), township commissioners, the Gladwyne Library folks and more.

As it becomes available, more information will be shared via the Gladwyne Civic Association’s Facebook page and a new Gladwyne Square website.

More community meetings will be held as architects and designers and the Gladwyne Square partners further refine blueprints for the village.

At some point, their plans will go before HARB (Lower Merion’s Historic Architecture Review Board) and eventually through the township’s multi-step land development, zoning and approval process and finally, be presented to Lower Merion Commissioners.

Golsorkhi said the team aims to avoid as much disruption to neighbors during construction as possible. The first newcomer, he said, will be the still unnamed restaurant at the old Gladwyne Market where renovations are already underway.

Like a certain eternal city in Italy, Gladwyne Village Reimagined won’t be built in a day.