Developers tell Coatesville finance committee LERTA needed to make 562‑unit Brandywine View feasible

Developers seeking a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) schedule for the Brandywine View housing project told the Coatesville Area School District finance committee on Sept. 9 that the tax abatement is essential to move the 75‑acre site from long‑standing entitlements into construction.

At the finance committee meeting, developer representatives outlined a fiscal‑impact analysis that projects the development at full buildout would create 562 housing units — about 266 apartments and roughly 300 townhouses — with an assessed value at completion of roughly $53.2 million and a projected 68 public‑school students in full occupancy. David C. Babbitt, the fiscal analyst on the project, told the committee, “So we are projecting a total of about 68 public school students in this development at build out and full occupancy.”

The nut graf: the developer team and city officials say the site is unusually costly to build and that the LERTA would bridge the economics so the project can be constructed. The fiscal model presented shows the school district would experience a short, small deficit in the first four years of the abatement period and a net surplus thereafter; the cumulative 11‑year impact in the analyst’s schedule is a projected net positive for the district.

Details of the proposal and debate David C. Babbitt of David C. Babbitt and Associates LLC walked committee members through a spreadsheet the…