Non-residential Construction Report

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In addition to the residential housing data collected each year, the Chester County Planning Commission tracks the non-residential construction across the county including total square footage, building type, and location.

In 2019, Chester County saw a total of 36 new non-residential construction projects across the county for a total of 975,849 square feet. While this number is much lower than the previous year’s total of 1,466,203, the average square feet per project went up significantly – from 13,707 to 31,603.

The county compared data over a four-year period (2016-2019) to get a general understanding of the information collected and its overall support of Landscapes3, the county’s comprehensive plan.

Although there was a shift from commercial projects to more institutional projects in 2019, the top overall non-residential development falls under commercial construction – followed by institutional construction, industrial construction, and then agricultural construction.

Honey Brook had the most projects in 2019, completing 5 out of their 8 total projects from the 2016-2019 period. Following that are West Goshen with 19 projects (2 in 2019), West Whiteland with 14 projects (2 in 2019), East Whiteland with 13 projects (0 in 2019), Tredyffrin with 13 projects (2 in 2019), and London Grove with 10 projects (2 in 2019).

The total for Chester County was 228 projects, with 36 of them completed in 2019.

Additionally, municipalities with the top building square feet from 2016-2019 include Tredyffrin for a total of 654,656 square feet (155,204 in 2019), West Goshen with 583,641 square feet (251,085 in 2019), East Whiteland with 577,573 square feet, West Whiteland with 301,476 square feet (10,944 in 2019), Schuylkill with 203,050 square feet, and Kennett with 172,692 square feet.

The total for Chester County was 4,928,283 square feet with 975,849 completed in 2019.

And lastly, the county looked at the top projects in 2019 based on building square footage. These projects include:

  • Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital (250,905 sq/ft)
  • CTDI Sadsbury (137,600 sq/ft)
  • Great Valley Corporate Center (109,800 sq/ft)
  • Longwood Gardens Nursery Greenhouse (80,235 sq/ft)
  • Lester Stoltzfus Proposed Poultry Operation (55,584 sq/ft)
  • Atwater Lot 11A (45,404 sq/ft)
  • Honey Brook Industrial Center (39,800 sq/ft)
  • Fair Share Properties, L.P. (27,786 sq/ft)
  • Hoover Treated Wood Products, Inc. (27,000 sq/ft)
  • Storage First Caln (18,050 sq/ft).

Stay tuned for more information about non-residential construction in Chester County to come!

See an overview of the 2019 Non-residential Construction Report here: https://www.chescoplanning.org/pdf/Nonres082120.pdf.