Kingdom Place begins construction; parent company looks to buy Rite Aid building

Construction of The Kingdom Place has begun in Hickory Township, while its parent company is looking to acquire the former Rite Aid building in New Castle for its Preeminence proposal.

Metrovitalization President Ricky Trinidad said construction at The Kingdom Place in Hickory Township began Monday after the company received state Department of Environmental Protection permitting. The 25-home housing development at 1680 Harlansburg Road is the first proposed housing development in the Laurel School District in more than a decade. The company is advertising sales of homes with construction expected to last until 2025.

“A new section of the Kingdom Place website explains in four short videos the process for buyers to purchase a home at Kingdom Place,” Trinidad said.

Metrovitalization had filed a lawsuit against the township for reported intentional delays in the approval process for the project, which reportedly cost the developer more than $2.4 million in interest, legal fees and loss of purchase agreements. Township Solicitor Jason Medure denied those charges and said the delays were because of permitting from the township and PennDOT. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Trinidad said Metrovitalization is in the final stages of acquiring the former Rite Aid building in New Castle at 119 E. Washington St. from Dean & Ditmore.

“We have the property under contract and scheduled to close soon. We haven’t set the closing date yet,” Trinidad said. “We’re going forward with building one of our Preeminence projects.”

Trinidad presented his Preeminence proposal at a March 4 New Castle City Council meeting. The full plan would see Metrovitalization take over the land where the former FirstMerit Bank Building stood after demolition, the city parking garage and the Rite Aid building to build a two-building campus of some 200 apartments and 20 retail spaces connected to the refurbished garage.

However, all three plots of land are owned by different entities — the FirstMerit land is owned by the Lawrence County Redevelopment Authority, while the city owns the garage and Dean & Ditmore owns the Rite Aid building.

Council was skeptical of Trinidad’s plan, which didn’t include him purchasing the FirstMerit land or garage, while the Rite Aid building is privately owned.

Trinidad said by owning the Rite Aid building, one of his buildings could move forward and preliminary designs should be completed soon.

After demolishing the Rite Aid building, his proposed building there would include a first floor of commercial space and four floors of deluxe residential apartments with amenities like a rooftop garden deck and indoor gym.

“We intend to develop this project by right, with no zoning changes, conditional uses or special exceptions required,” Trinidad said. “We anticipate the city working with us to obtain our permits quickly and to start construction in the summer. The timeframe for completion will be about 14 months from the start date.”

The building, in the central commercial business district, was purchased by Dean & Ditmore on June 21, 2022, for $8,790. It is currently valued at $101,800, with a commercial market value between $100,000 to $299,000, according to the county assessment office.

Several council members and Citywide Development Corporation Executive Director Brian Burick previously encouraged Trinidad to purchase buildings downtown, such as the Rite Aid building, to show his commitment to the city.

A previous CDC plan had that entity purchasing the building to become a small business incubator, but a grant wasn’t received. Other plans were to refurbish the building and to pair it with the neighboring Zambelli Park.

Trinidad said his Union Township developments have been redesigned.

Royalty Place, at 412 Old Youngstown Road, needed adjustments to allow for additional retention ponds. That development is to include 200 new homes in a mixture of single-family and duplexes. Updated permit requests will be submitted.

At RV campground Royalty Camping at 400 Dworman Way, a civil design is in progress with permitting requests to be submitted in May.

Construction for both is expected to begin this year once permitting is received and last into 2025.

The single-family do not need conditional uses, but the duplexes do. Royalty Camping was given a conditional use permit by the supervisors in 2023.

nvercilla@ncnewsonline.com