RGS Wins a Premier Project Award

The Dauphin County Commissioners and Dauphin County Planning Commission presented the 7th Annual Premier Project Awards on Thursday, January 10, 2019, at the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg. The Premier Project Awards program acknowledges and encourages planning excellence in Dauphin County, recognizing projects that meet the community, environmental, and economic goals of Dauphin County’s Comprehensive Plan.

RGS Associates and 2nd Street Realty Associates, LP were announced as the 2018 Premier Project Award Winner in the “Growing our Communities” category for the multi-family housing project “VERDE Apartments”. The goal of the VERDE Apartments project was to create a housing development in Hummelstown Borough that would replace blighted former Verdelli Farms buildings and revitalize a portion of the neighborhood that was otherwise deteriorating and vacant.

The VERDE project, owned and developed by 2nd Street Realty Associates, LP, and constructed by Lawson Development & Construction Corp., redeveloped one of the few remaining development opportunities in the Borough and creates a unified and attractive streetscape along both East 2nd Street and Laurel Avenue. The site is home to six residential buildings with 135 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The project also includes associated parking, a fitness center, maintenance building, four multi-car garage buildings, sidewalk improvements, open space improvements (including an outdoor bocce court) and related infrastructure upgrades. You can learn more about VERDE by visiting www.LiveatVERDE.com.

VERDE serves as an excellent example of how private development can successfully revitalize a portion of an existing borough which was otherwise deteriorating and vacant. 2nd Street Realty Associates, LP worked closely with the Borough of Hummelstown, RGS Associates, TONO Architects, and Douglas Charles Phillips Architects to create a redevelopment plan that would fit into the existing fabric of the Borough of Hummelstown. The plan needed to fit the context of the neighborhood, meet local ordinance and stormwater regulations, as well as comply with all applicable environmental requirements that would ultimately impact the removal of the formerly blighted processing buildings.

As part of the private development, 2nd Street Realty Associates, LP worked with Hummelstown Borough to obtain a Keystone Communities Program – Public Improvement Grant in the amount of $500,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development to support the cost burden associated with public infrastructure improvements necessary to implement the project. The Dauphin County Commissioners supported the project with grant dollars as well. Lastly, the Borough of Hummelstown, Dauphin County, and Lower Dauphin School District also supported the project with augmenting increases in property taxes via a temporary delay to help offset some of the extraordinary up-front costs associated with the redevelopment of the existing property.

This annual Premier Awards program acknowledges and encourages planning excellence in Dauphin County, recognizing projects that meet the community, environmental and economic goals of the county’s comprehensive plan. RGS, along with 2nd Street Realty Associates, LP and its other partners are thankful to the Dauphin County Commissioners and Dauphin County Planning Commission for this honor and for being recognized as an award-winning project in the “Growing Our Communities” category.

Founded in 1993, RGS specializes in the thoughtful design of senior living communities, commercial centers, urban centers, open spaces, and residential neighborhoods located throughout south central Pennsylvania. As an award-winning consulting firm of registered landscape architects and civil engineers, we provide our clients with creative site design and entitlement services beginning with initial feasibility investigations and continuing through project construction.

Our talented team drives our culture, which grows from the roots of impassioned creativity, collaboration, and honest hard work.