Apartments and a hotel could be coming to the former Shawnee Resort property along Oregon Pike in Manheim Township, Lancaster County.
Property owners Surender Singh and Manjeet Kaur, doing business as Kirpa Estates LP, envision a mixed-use development on the 26-acre site incorporating apartment buildings, a hotel and other retail buildings, according to Matt Creme, their attorney, who is with law firm Nikolaus & Hohenadel.
The planning is in the early stages, with the developers currently seeking to rezone about two-thirds of the property for residential use, Creme said. It is currently zoned entirely for commercial and business use.
The developers also are looking for an increase in permissible building heights, Creme said.
The initial plans call for about five apartment buildings with a total of 256 units, Creme said.
The commercial portion includes the hotel, as well as pads for a bank, restaurant and house of worship/community building, Creme said.
The background: The property was originally part of a proposed mixed-use development called Oregon Village pitched by members of the Hurst family who own Oregon Dairy.
But the roughly 76-acre project was called off after a lengthy legal battle spurred by pushback from some neighbors.
The opposition to Oregon Village was focused more on the land around Oregon Dairy, Creme said.
The former Shawnee Resort site at 3001 Oregon pike is not contiguous with the dairy property, which is at 2900 Oregon Pike.
“There’s a lot of good reasons not to object to this,” Creme said. “But you never know.”
Kirpa Estates paid $3.2 million for the property, which has been vacant since the resort was torn down more than 15 years ago.
The Hursts sold the remainder of the land for Oregon Village to Manheim Township-based Vanguard Development Group. The price has not yet been disclosed.
What’s next: The township and county planning commissions are expected to consider Kirpa Estates’ rezoning and height request in the next couple of months.
A land development plan could follow by next year, Creme said, noting that any construction is still at least two or three years away.
