Stockyard Inn apartment plans progress while neighbor wages court battle

Plans for a $59 million apartment complex on the site of the historic Stockyard Inn are moving forward. But the project continues to face opposition from the owner of a neighboring business park, who has filed two court challenges.

“Currently we are on track for a 2024 construction start and completion in 2025,” said Ben Lesher, who is leading the development group proposing The Yards apartment complex.

Last week, the city’s planning commission got its first look at the design for the project, proposed around the former restaurant located at 1147 Lititz Pike. It includes two five-story buildings with a total of 226 apartments – 10 more than initially proposed – and 12,000 square feet of commercial space. The original inn building, which has portions dating to 1750, would be relocated to the northeast corner of the property along Marshall Avenue. Some of the later additions to the inn, a Lancaster dining institution for decades until it closed last year, would be demolished.