Wilbur Chocolate Building Redevelopment

The Wilbur Redevelopment Warwick Township, Lancaster County, PA

The Wilbur is a three-phase, mixed-use development that began with the adaptive reuse of a 100-year-old chocolate manufacturing building. This was followed by the addition of new market-rate apartment buildings and age-restricted apartments, all on an 11-acre property in the heart of Lititz Borough.

Phased Approach for Mixed-Use Space
During phase one of the Wilbur chocolate building redevelopment, RGS designed the renovation of the historic factory building and a new 5-story building addition with multiple adaptive reuses. The addition included the Hilton Tapestry 74-room hotel, 26 high-end residential condo units, and a 2,800 sq. ft. marketplace and restaurant. This phase also included a connected parking deck to provide parking for hotel guests and residents.

Successfully integrating the parking deck with the building renovations required RGS to develop a detailed site design. The site design included a reconfiguration of the floodplain and vehicular and pedestrian connections to existing streets to ensure the upper and lower deck elevations of the parking deck worked with the proposed deck entrances.

Phase two and three of the Wilbur chocolate building redevelopment included the Lofts at Lititz Springs, Pleasant View Communities’ 32-unit age-restricted apartment building, and two 5-story market-rate apartment buildings with a total of 169 units.

Collaboration Accelerates Zoning Approvals
Existing zoning and development codes did not allow for the development as envisioned by Oak Tree. So, to realize the project vision, RGS led a collaborative process that included Lititz Borough and Oak Tree Development. To achieve the most efficient use of the land, RGS secured a special exception to modify the floodplain limit and a variance to allow a more efficient layout of the parking deck. The result was a new zoning district that will expand the revitalization of downtown Lititz.

AWARDS

10,000 Friends of PA – Commonwealth Awards – Large Scale Adaptive Reuse