CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — The Chambersburg Borough Council endorsed an agreement for the Chambersburg Area Municipal Authority to sell the remaining 69% of the original Southgate Shopping Center to the Southgate Development Group, also known as Inch and Company, from York, Pennsylvania.
The Chambersburg Area Municipal Authority has sought proposals for years from third-party developers to buy the shopping center. Keystone Health previously purchased part of the property for its new healthcare center.
Inch and Company would pay an estimated $1.45 million purchase price in installments over 10 years. The Chambersburg Area Municipal Authority would retain the net proceeds to support future economic development in the area.
The company proposed building six residential market-rate apartment buildings, totaling 178 one- and two-bedroom units. Existing retail will remain, and the company plans to honor current leases for those businesses.
Over the next three years, the project will move forward in three phases. Inch and Company will submit land development plans to the borough council for approval, with the first phase scheduled to begin early next year.
Phase one would involve building three apartment buildings, while phase two would involve demolishing the former Big Lots building and constructing three more apartment buildings on the site. Phase three would include further development of commercial properties.
The residential side of the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2028.
Officials assured the public that the project used no local tax money. Federal and state grants, along with utility investments and retail rent revenue, funded the borough’s original purchase.
Once the project is complete, the borough does expect to receive an additional $421,720 in annual tax and utility revenue.
Vice President of Development for Inch and Company Joe Eisenhauer acknowledged the area’s history with Frederick Douglas and said the company welcomes suggestions to rename the Southgate area.
Concerns raised over goals, impact
Council member Lucinda Butler, along with public comments, expressed concerns about the direction the development is heading, with the focus being on renting rather than supporting home ownership. The area especially has a history of marginalized members of the community facing hardships in the past.
“I often wonder whether those residents, given the struggles and sacrifices they experienced, would have envisioned this area becoming another development dominated by apartments, rather than opportunities for families to own their own homes and build generational stability,” Butler said.
Pastor Renata Moseley Harper of John Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church spoke during public comment and agreed with Butler.
“My family lived in this area before it was taken over by the feds back in the ‘60s. They didn’t live in apartments,” she said. “They lived in homes, and when we participated in the vision for this area, I know that the groups that I had…they wanted affordable homeownership, affordable homes — not apartments.”
Another community member raised concerns about deviations from the original project goals and promises to the area, along with possible misinterpretations of the Sunshine Act. He urged the council to develop a system to better notify disenfranchised groups and their representatives about these meetings and changes to agreements.
Council members Austin Rosenbaum and David Wilson supported the project. Rosenbaum’s only concern was around contract details that could be adjusted to better favor the borough.
Wilson approved the project and the opportunities it could bring to the area, focusing on phase three with retail.
“I think if we can make that retail phase really work well, see what we can do as a borough to support the businesses that go in there to make them be the ones that the community really wants and needs is very important,” he said.
The endorsement ultimately passed, with nine council members voting in favor and one opposed.
Here is a link to the Southgate project presentation that is available so that the public can view concept and design plans. https://chambersburgpa.gov/pdf/Southgate%20Redevelopment%20Initiative%20Prospectus%20and%20RFP%207-1-2026.pdf
