Newtown Woods Condo Complex Sales Office Opens

By Andrew Gorosko

Toll Brothers, Inc, a major Pennsylvania-based residential builder, is scheduled to open the sales office for its planned Newtown Woods condominium complex on Friday, June 1, at 176 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6) in Hawleyville.

The firm plans to construct a 178-unit age-restricted complex on a 50-acre site that will have vehicle access from Mt Pleasant Road via the private road known as Splendid Place. That private road now serves Maplewood at Newtown, a 100-unit assisted-living apartment building at 166 Mt Pleasant Road.

The Newtown Woods sales office is located immediately east of the entrance to Liberty at Newtown, a 96-unit age-restricted condo complex off Mt Pleasant Road.

On April 20, Toll CT III LP of Horsham, Penn, purchased the 50.7-acre Newtown Woods site from The Woods at Newtown, LLC, of Montebello, N.Y., for $8 million.

The 178-unit Newtown Woods project is planned to contain 67 dwellings within 19 multiple-unit two-story, townhouse-style buildings; 111 single-level dwellings within six large multistory buildings; a community clubhouse; a swimming pool; and bocce courts. All residential units will be offered for sale to people over age 55.

The 19 townhouse-style buildings would include two-, three-, and four-unit structures. Three of the large multistory buildings would have 17 units each, with the other three large buildings containing 20 units each.

Including the clubhouse, the site would hold 26 buildings that would enclose 202,800 square feet of floor space overall. All of the planned dwellings will have private attached garages.

Dan Walton, an assistant vice president for Toll Brothers, said that site work at the Newtown Woods property will begin soon. Foundation work for the model dwellings on the site will start in August, he said.

Prices for the units will range from the low $300,000’s to the high $300,000’s, he said. Initial occupancy for the dwellings is expected by April/May 2013, he said.

Toll Brothers does not construct its complexes on speculation, but instead builds its projects based on commitments to purchase dwellings, he said.

“I think we’ll do very well,” Mr Walton said of the planned Newtown Woods project.

It is expected that the people who will move to Newtown Woods will relocate from within a 20-mile radius of the site, he said.

The Toll Brothers’ project represents the fourth time since 1998 that various firms have sought to develop the former sand-and-gravel mine with a large-scale, high-density multifamily housing project for people over age 55. Three previous projects failed to materialize.

In December 2010 at Toll Brothers’ request, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members modified the zoning regulations on high-density elderly housing complexes, thus setting the stage for Toll’s application to construct the condo complex.

The various rule changes generally allow taller buildings than previously permitted, allow the placement of a bedroom on the upper level of two-story townhouse-style condo units, and add a new category of age-restricted multifamily housing termed “apartments.”