Shuman Development Group

Lets keep going here with the City of Reading owned buildings on Penn Square that they have been trying to sell for seven years. The roof collapse is apparent as well as the rubber roof pulling away from the building on the right (also owned by the city).

And while i am on a role here lets take a look at 600 south 9th street that had the roof collapse recently so the owner slapped some 'for sale' signs up around the building. Commercial buildings are suppose to get an annual city inspection and i know every one of my buildings get inspected. Are these buildings really getting inspected every year?

The American House on Penn Square had its roof blow off in the big wind storm over a year ago and nothing has been done to save this historic structure from deteriorating. Not only is the building deteriorating, but the huge sheets of metal roofing still flapping around can blow off at anytime and easily injure someone. Hopefully this post will get the city to take some action.

The city announced a few months ago that the owners of Reading Outlet Station were looking at doing a 500 unit residential development. They have the experience and capabilities to do such a development. Looks like the site demolition has started but the hard part will be getting approvals to do residential in an M-C zone. The old Reading Hardware buildings on Canal Street should have been converted to residential twenty years ago and the prior owner spent a decade trying to get approvals for the residential conversion but it was an M-C zone. The Reading Hardware building is the big seven story building you can see from the 422 bypass on the south side of the city right at the river.

Reading has some really great trees. My children call the trees on north 9th street 'snow trees' because it looks like it is snowing when they are in bloom. SDG has planted 234 trees in the city over the last 25 years.

Looks like the devastation from the state restrictions continues with Pauline's Soups now closing. We have had seven of our business tenants close permanently, most due to the early mandated complete business closures. Pauline's even had plenty of space for outdoor seating but still could not make it.

We are open again for weddings at the Baer Chapel at 45 South 6th Street in downtown Reading, with receptions held either on site or at the Abraham Lincoln Ballroom. This is the church that was going to collapse due to structural problems that we saved. A true gem of a historic property here in Berks County, and plenty of room for social distancing.

See the before and after photos of the Corbit Building at 147 North 5th Street.

Corbit Building at 147 North 5th street. Scaffolding is coming down and we are finishing up another great historic building restoration in Reading's Central Business District. One 5300 sf office space left on the first floor, rest of building is already leased. The county's best indoor parking in the heated parking garage for 50 cars that will also be used for the Medical Arts Building apartment project on the next block to be completed in 2022. Some really good local contractors did a fabulous job restoring this facade.

Tonight we move forward with the zoning application to convert Reading's finest Art Deco high-rise into upscale residential apartments. This historic building is known for its very thin facade facing 5th Street which will allow for the finest apartments to have windows on three sides!! Most people don't realize this building also had some fireplaces in the offices and we plan on having Art Deco gas fireplaces in most of the finer units. The largest, 1800 square foot two bedroom, two bathroom unit will have a walk-out deck overlooking the Centre Park Historic District. Residences should be available fall of 2022. And cannot forget parking, one space for each apartment on site and one space in the indoor and climate controlled Corbit Building parking garage on the adjacent block.