Stockyard Inn site on Lititz Pike eyed for $48M apartment development

A Lancaster developer intends to spend $48 million to build 216 apartments on the Stockyard Inn property at Lititz Pike and Marshall Avenue, at the northern edge of Lancaster city.

In a project that would transform a main gateway into the city, Ben Lesher would pare the historic restaurant building down to its oldest portions, then relocate it from the center of the property to the Marshall Avenue side.

There it would be repurposed as a recreational clubhouse for his apartment tenants, taking a spot now occupied by a small empty building that formerly housed Jimmie’s Deluxe Grill. The Jimmie’s building would be razed.

Moving the historic restaurant building would free space for a pair of five-story buildings, standing 65 feet high and 68 feet high. They would contain mostly market-rate units, atop first-floor parking areas, Lesher said this week.

The L-shaped buildings – one along Lititz Pike (with 136 units), the other (with 80 units) along the back of the site adjoining the Stockyards Business Park – would give the development “a nice urban streetscape,” Lesher said.

“I hope this development sets the tone for the whole area,” he added.

Lesher, who completed the 104-unit Stadium Row apartment project next to Clipper Magazine Stadium this summer, said the popularity of those apartments spurred him to go forward with the Stockyard Inn venture a half-mile away.