Plans For Major Development At U.S. Steel Site Progress

FALLS TOWNSHIP, PA — The $1.5 billion development plan for the old U.S. Steel site in Falls Township continues to move toward reality.

Last week, the United States Steel Corporation announced that it had sold more than 1,800 acres of land on the site to Northpoint Development. Northpoint plans to develop the location, which has been largely dormant since 2001, into a bulk logistics center with 20 or more industrial warehouses.

Northpoint hopes to attract major companies like Amazon, Walmart, UPS and FedEx to the site. They say it will create 5,000-10,000 jobs in the Levittown area, as well as hundreds of construction jobs while it's being built.

NorthPoint intends to break ground on the first phase of the Keystone Trade Center project, which will total about 3 million square feet of space, this spring, according to a press release about the sale.

NorthPoint presented its plans to members of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors last month. Later in the month, supervisors approved a 15-year tax break for the company, under which they'll pay 110 percent of the taxes due on the property now, but not have its assessed value go up as they improve it.

In addition to the annual payments, NorthPoint would also contribute to local police and fire departments and for road maintenance.

The project, local officials say, will help kickstart a planned upgrade to the region's wastewater treatment plant.

Northpoint has designated Morrisville Municipal Authority as the water and sewer utility provider for the property.

"It was absolutely critical to NorthPoint’s ability to purchase and develop this property to have a wet utility operator," said Morrisville Municipal Authority Executive Director John J. Warenda, Jr. "That made our interest in purchasing property at the site for a sewage treatment plant fortuitous."

As part of the real estate closing, the authority now owns and manages the water and sewer mains on the site. U.S. Steel had owned the site's water and sewer facilities, but neither they nor NorthPoint wanted to do so going forward.

About 54 acres along the riverfront at the property is expected to be transferred to the authority this spring. Within 3-5 years, a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility will be built there, replacing the authority's existing, 60-year-old plant.

Since 2015, the Morrisville Municipal Authority has been meeting with partners in Lower Makefield, Yardley, Falls Township and Morrisville to plan the design and construction of a new wastewater treatment facility.

The authority serves about 40,000 customers in those communities.

Warenda said the proposed 10 million gallon a day facility will be able to serve the region, including future growth, for the next 20-40 years.

Founded in 2012, NorthPoint Development is active in 24 states, with 355 employees and nine office locations. The U.S. Steel site would be the company's biggest project yet.