Kahn updates Malvern on E. King progress

By Alan Thomas athomas@mainlinemedianews.com

While Eli Kahn talked, the demolition equipment was already at work on East King Street. Malvern is moving forward that rapidly.

Kahn is a local developer with a plan to transform Malvern Boroughs tired post-industrial east side into a vibrant residential and retail swath that he calls a walkable environment [and] a better environment to work in. On Wednesday morning he told a packed borough hall all about it at a Malvern Business and Professional Association meeting.

Kahn, who said he had gotten the idea 12 years ago, called East King the largest construction project ever in the borough, a five-year venture that in 18 months will produce 25,000 sq. feet of retail space with quality residential space planned above it along with expanded parking under and outside.

Kahns announcement that the Whip Tavern, a traditional English pub located in Unionville, is planning to open its second location on East King seemed to draw the interest of the crowd as much as any other detail. Kahn said he was close with a few other spots, which he could not yet name, but that one would be a spectacular addition.

I think the retail will fill in quite nicely, Kahn said.

Demolition of buildings from the Malvern Design Center east to Rusticraft Fence Co., just into Willistown Township, should be complete by next Friday, Kahn said. With all construction contracts signed, storm-water management on the Willistown side will head the list of projects with excavation, foundation pours and the lower-level parking structure following shortly. Bozzuto Construction of Baltimore will do the work.

The project will also include a 5,000 sq. foot office building.

Kahn praised the newly refurbished Malvern train station area with its improved parking arrangement as spectacular, and said that it made Malvern accessible for businesses.

In answer to a question, Kahn said that he will be creating a lot of parking on the north side of King, with 17 to 20 parallel parking spaces planned along with 10- to 20-foot-wide sidewalks. Answering another question, he said the faade will be varied in appearance and in the materials used -- brick, stucco, stone -- to give the long building front the feel of individual buildings.

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Kahn updates Malvern on E. King progress