Condo Project Owner Says Stable 12 Brewery Will Not Be Displaced

PHOENIXVILLE, PA — A Phoenixville parking lot with a Bridge Street address is on the borough's agenda, as approval comes up for a condominium development in fall. But the address is neighbor to a nearby brewery, triggering confusion when people access digital maps, according to the owner of both properties. Neighbors fear businesses will be booted.

Thomas "Skip" Clark said his tenant Stable 12 Brewing Company had employees find other jobs, fearing his development meant their employer would be ousted.

"Stable 12 has a valid lease, I'm not going to walk away from that," insisted Clark, who owns several businesses alongside the parking lot that is slated for the new condominiums. Stable 12 Brewing is one of them, along with Clark's automotive shop and his Appliance Alliance business.

Internet searches of the address of the new development turn up flags at nearby addresses, he said. Some searches "put the flag in the middle of the Stable 12 beer garden," Clark said. Stable 12 Brewing Company is at 368 Bridge St. in downtown Phoenixville.

He said the manager of Stable 12 told him they've has lost staff who thought their jobs were in jeopardy due to Clark's condominium development, Bridge Street Residences East.

Clark said the announcement of the condo development in recent months sparked social media discussion and rumors that the businesses adjoining the development would be closed. Clark said, "These are my businesses. They certainly aren't going anywhere." He said he's been there since 1996.

"Unfortunately last time it exploded on social media into a session of complaints about greedy developers and parking issues. The real harm was to the businesses near the proposed development, Stable 12 and my store Appliance Alliance."

Clark said, "At Appliance Alliance we had customers who didn't buy appliances from us because they thought we would not be there to help support them later."

The East phase of the condominium project in the works has been assigned the address 348 Bridge Street. It will contain 32 residential units, with 17 two bedroom units and 15 one bedroom each with one parking spot per bedroom, as well as 7,600 square feet of commercial space, Clark said. The project is in the final stages of approvals by Phoenixille Borough.

The project will be developed in two phases, East and West. The East building will be done first.

According to James Lolli, former borough council president and now senior project architect with Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc., the project design addressed parking. "With this project the team considered it important to have a precedent setting one parking space per bedroom."

Paul Schmoll, Project Engineer with Barry Isett & Associated, Inc. said, "It was easy enough to raise the building only about two feet on the one corner to keep the entirety out of floodplain."

The Bridge Street condo project includes plans for a rooftop brewery. Joseph Scott McArdle, Associate with Keller Williams Realty and chosen Realtor for the development, reiterated, "With the ever changing world, we decided to pull out all the stops and incorporate all these novel features such as a space where you could have 'a brew with a view.' These niche features will separate our project from all the other spaces in town, not to mention the region."

McArdle added, "One parking spot per bedroom should be the gold standard and I am glad to be a part of a project that has an integral part. The one bedroom units are expected to sell for just under $200,000 and the two bedrooms are expected to be in the upper $200,000."