Granor Price Homes gets taste of New Urbanism

Granor Price Homes, a developer of mostly conventional suburban projects since the early 1970s, got a taste of the New Urbanism with Lantern Hill in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, an infill development of 117 townhouses and 60,000 square feet of office buildings within walking distance of downtown. “We really got sold on the idea as we went through the process … What we have is probably the happiest group of homeowners we have ever seen,” says Marshal Granor, a partner with Joseph Price, both sons of the firm’s founders. Price lives in Lantern Hill, an 18.5-acre brownfield project designed by Carter van Dyke Associates. New urbanist planner Thomas Comitta drafted the TND ordinance allowing Lantern Hill to get approved. Lantern Hill won a Commonwealth Design Award for Smart Growth from 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania. After the borough manager of Royersford, Pennsylvania, saw a presentation on Granor Price’s work, he contacted the firm about redeveloping the former site of the Anchor Glass mill on the Schuylkill River. “We were never invited by a town to do a project before,” says Granor. Royersford Riverfront is a 312-unit project designed by Barton & Associates with townhouses, lofts, apartments, a small commercial space, and a reused 1931 train station, which will include a Starbucks café. The demolition was scheduled to begin in June for the largest development in the history of Royersford, which has a total population of 4,200. Granor Price received conceptual advice from Looney Ricks Kiss on the project.