Site plan showing the “Movie lots” owned by North Penn School District, and the adjacent “Beach property” just to the north, located off of Welsh Road, at bottom, in Hatfield Township. (Image courtesy of North Penn School District)
Adjacent parcel has been discussed since spring
A deal approved on Thursday night could reshape a corner of the North Penn School District, and give the district a big boost to its bottom line.
School board members voted unanimously to approve a $15 million sale agreement with developer Pulte Homes for the so-called “movie lots” near Welsh Road in Hatfield Township.
“We’ve been sitting on this property now since, I believe we started acquiring movie lots back in the ’80s and ’90s. So once we determined we weren’t going to use it , and there wasn’t the proper zoning to use it for a transportation depot, we started to pursue the sale,” said Superintendent Todd Bauer.
Back in March, the district took up talks on the lots, which total about 56 acres and are located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Welsh and Forty Foot Roads, after passing references to the lots in prior years.
Bauer and district CFO Steve Skrocki explained how the parcels were often divided in strips roughly 100 feet by 20 feet, and given away by movie theaters as far back as the 1920s, as prizes for those attending movies. In the subsequent years, those properties remained undeveloped due to a lack of roadways or survey markers, and over time the private owners would stop paying taxes, then the district would acquire them via tax or sheriff sales, compiling well over 100 parcels over the years.
In the mid-1990s the then-leaders of the district looked into using the movie lots as a site for a new school, but the idea was abandoned, officials said earlier this year, and the district has since leased roughly 38 acres to a farmer under an annual contract to till the land. For much of the past two-plus years, staff and the board have focused on finalizing plans for high school renovations, while also tackling smaller projects on a long-term capital list of equipment replacements and repairs needed across the district.
During the school board meeting on Thursday night, board President Tina Stoll read a statement outlining that history, up through and then after the talks in March when the board directed staff into looking to sell the properties, then describing what happened since.
“The district has thoroughly reviewed the movie lots, and determined that the property is not suitable for the district to use for its own educational or administrative needs in the future,” Stoll said.
After the March presentation, and subsequent vote by the board to direct staff to look into ways to selling, several more steps happened over the summer, the board president described.
“Between March and July of 2024, the chief financial officer solicited proposals from multiple reputable developers who are active in this area. The district received a total of six proposals, from four different developers,” she said.
“After reviewing the proposals with a subset of the board, in agreement with the district staff, it was determined that the offer from Pulte Homes of PA was the most desirable,” Stoll said.
The purchase price of just over $15 million is “contingent on the buyer receiving final approval to build 85 homes in the development,” the board president said, adding that the subset of the board determined that plan and offer was “the best value and the least disruptive to the neighboring community.”
In the 29-page agreement posted by the board, a sketch plan dated January 2024 shows one concept developed by Pulte, with the parcels labeled “NPSD property” listed on the plan as containing a total of 87 dwelling units, and the adjacent “Beach property” containing a total of 76.
Pulte’s “Del Webb North Penn” development that Hatfield Township officials approved in 2019-20 of roughly 325 homes just west of those two sites is now largely complete, Hatfield Township Manager Aaron Bibro said this week, and the township has held several public meetings to field feedback since Pulte submitted a conditional use application in March proposing to build 78 single-family homes on roughly 42 acres of the “Beach property.”
“There have since been three public hearings and a fourth is scheduled for next week, on Sept 25th at 7:30 p.m. The majority of the concerns from the neighbors has been that the proposed development only has one access point, which is right through an existing neighborhood,” Bibro said.
Stoll referenced the adjacent project in her statement: “It is noteworthy that Pulte Homes is currently undertaking a similar project on a neighboring property,” and the plan posted by the district shows the “Beach property” sites along a private road with access via Leon Drive, and a possible link to new roads running through the movie lot properties south to a new driveway onto Welsh Road.
Stoll added that the district had done two appraisals of the value of the movie lots, and “the purchase price is well above” the values found by those two appraisals
After the board approval on Thursday night, the board president added, next steps would include court approval per school code, and the buyer would need to complete due diligence and secure approvals for the construction of the homes before any closing would occur. The board's meeting memo for the action item adds that Pulte will have an estimated 90 days for due diligence, or until the district secures court approval, that closing would occur 30 days after Pulte receives approvals to build the houses, and says the farmer lease can be renewed for 2025, but then cancelled in October of that year for the district to convey the property.
The agreement itself specifies terms and timelines for the payments, says the purchase price was calculated as 85 times a per-property price of $177,470, and says any final plans are subject to township approval.
"All terms of the contract are industry standard for a transaction of this size and scope between a land owner and developer, and have been reviewed by our special counsel," Stoll said.
Bauer then noted that no real estate broker was used to develop the deal, and joked that Skrocki had offered to waive a broker's commission on the transaction.
"I wanted to pass along some kudos to Mr. Skrocki: he did the bulk of the work with this transaction. He advertised it, he met with all of the potential buyers, and brought about all of those offers to the school district," Bauer said.
Board member Cathy McMurtrie, chair of the facilities and operations committee, then asked the superintendent to clarify why the sale was being pursued now, and Bauer referenced the March presentation outlining how the parcels were acquired, and why they've gone unused.
"One of the primary reasons we were actually holding onto it, was to put our transportation depot. We explored that option, it was not a suitable use, given that zoning," Bauer said.
"We do not see the need for an additional school, given enrollment projections. Perhaps some boundary changes in the future, but certainly not a new building necessary. We're really sitting on this 56 acres. And when we look at that capital project list that totals $190 million, outside of the high school renovation, the board did say at a meeting 'Are there other ways to generate some revenue?'" he said.
North Penn's school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8 and the district's facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30; for more information visit www.NPenn.org. Hatfield's township commissioners next meet at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 at that township's administration building, 1950 School Road; for more information visit www.Hatfield.org.
