Shuman Development Group

More progress on the long vacant Elks Club/Trexler Mansion restoration project.

Elks Club/Trexler Mansion progressing. It has taken years to get all the behind the scenes repairs done correctly, now that is all done the finishing work is much more visible.

WFMZ did a story this past week on the city considering raising the false fire alarm fees, which probably needs to be done, but with some thought behind it. Currently, there is a fee after the first false alarm PER PROPERTY, but there is a big difference between a single family rental house having five false alarms per year and a 100 unit apartment building having five false alarms. The tenants in the larger buildings get hammered with a huge fine, now proposed to be $400 or more per call. It seems like there should be a once per year legal residential unit allowance and not per property. Your thoughts?

Berks County Orthopedics expands into a new location at the former Community General Hospital Doctor's Office building, now the Reading Medical Campus. Note the skybridge to the parking garage we had painted last year to Reading High School colors. This building was vacated during covid and is now about 70% re-occupied with some great downtown businesses.

Ongoing restoration work at the Elks Club. The plans for a 1928 addition on the top of the building, that were scrapped by the Great Depression, have been updated for current codes and is finally going up after waiting nearly 100 years.

Restored windows continue to be installed at the Elks Club building. The rear addition housing the new fireproof stair tower and elevator, to make the building compliant with current fire and accessibility codes, is nearly completed. Back in the 1920's plans were drawn up to build another floor on the roof of the existing building, but then the great depression hit and the plans were cancelled. We found those plans and have updated them to current code requirements, and have the planned rooftop conservatory starting to be installed.

With temperatures soaring this week it reminds me of when City Councilman John Slifko came to see me back in 1997. He wanted to get as many trees planted in the city and asked if I could help. The issue was/is that many homeowners and almost all real estate investors, don't want trees due to the expenses of trimming, cleaning up leaves, etc... Many homeowners cannot afford it and most investors, especially those from other states, just want to make as much money as possible and while trees are nice, you don't get higher rents for having them, and your costs are higher maintaining them.
John said the city put aside money every year, which sometime came from federal or state funds, to buy trees and if I could find locations and paid for the planting the city would provide the trees. Over the past 25 years we have planted 254 trees in the city, many at properties we developed, lots at properties we developed and are now owned by other people, and some planted at neighboring properties where we planted the whole block. Since we do many projects in the most densely populated areas of the city, sometimes the trees around our projects are the only trees in the neighborhood.
Anyway, it is ironic that the city Shade Tree Commission has now taken the position that they will no longer provide trees to anyone but homeowners. That cuts out trees for the over 50% of the city that is renter occupied, and cuts out the neighborhoods that are mostly poorer, where people cannot afford to run AC units all the time to offset the heat island effect.
Does the Shade Tree Commission really want to have fewer trees in the neighborhoods that need them the most? Your thoughts?

Since it is 101 degrees out today it seems appropriate for us to say that the Great American Creamery space at 645 Penn Street is available as I think they are just doing wholesale and not retail anymore. This is about 2,000 square feet right across from the Arena and next to the DoubleTree Hotel. It does not have a hood system but would be great for sandwiches, salads, etc... type of business. Email us directly at [email protected]

It is rare to get a nice first floor space available in the downtown.

Remembering Reading's South Reading Market. We were in the building about a month before it was destroyed by fire so these are probably the last set of photos of that amazing property.