If you are a business owner in the market for King of Prussia commercial real estate, let WCRE be your guide. We are the premier commercial real estate firm in the greater Philadelphia area and South Jersey, and we can help you find the ideal spot for whatever your business needs may be. Our knowledge of the area and experience can help you maximize your return in King of Prussia.
King of Prussia’s claim to fame, of course, is the gigantic and superb King of Prussia Mall – a shopping destination that residents from miles around come for unmatched shopping and dining choices. The King of Prussia Mall features no less than 450 stores and 30 eateries…so while the competition is tough, it’s a great location for a restaurateur, retail store owner, or hotel operator to plant a business and be successful. The King of Prussia Mall is convenient to several major roads in the area, including the PA Turnpike, U.S. Route 202 and 422, and the Schuylkill Expressway.
Even with its being one of the prime shopping destinations in the Untied States, King of Prussia is still a residential area, and people living here still need the necessities of life…groceries, cars and their maintenance, gas stations, healthcare facilities, daycare centers and much more. There are plenty of prime commercial real estate locations that are outside of the gigantic mall itself.
A Brief History of King of Prussia
The community of King of Prussia – an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) within Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania – has a pre-Revolutionary War tavern to thank for its name; a moniker it shares with the second-largest shopping mall in the country and with some of the most desirable commercial real estate in the Philadelphia region.
The King of Prussia Inn, when originally built in 1719, was a cottage homestead for the family of William and Janet Rees, Quaker immigrants from Wales who purchased their land – as most settlers did back then – from William Penn. About a half-century later, the Rees family turned their home into an inn and attracted a steady business from travelers headed further into Pennsylvania and on to the Ohio Territory as it was about a day’s ride from Philadelphia on horseback.
A man named James Berry was hired to manage the inn and, for several years, the hostelry was known as “Berry’s Tavern;” it even bears that name on a British spy map that was captured during the Revolutionary War. The inn’s name appears to have been changed to the “King of Prussia Inn” sometime after 1773, the year Benjamin Franklin published one of his more famous satirical essays – “An Edict by the King of Prussia” – that supported American independence. One theory says the name chance was to help convince German and Prussian soldiers fighting in war to remain in the area once the conflict ended. Coincident with the name change, a signboard was posted outside the establishment bearing the image of King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) of Prussia.
As the King of Prussia section of Upper Merion Township continued to grow, and it did so quite rapidly in the mid- to late-20th century, the inn was forced to close, and almost faced demolition, as the state of Pennsylvania planned to improve and widen the right-of-way for the critically important Route 202 highway. Historic preservationists prevailed on state officials to have them change the design of the proposed expressway by splitting the northbound and southbound lanes with a fenced-in island that encapsulated the boarded-up structure for nearly three decades.
On a Sunday in August 2000, in a major televised event, Route 202 was briefly closed as the then-281-year-old King of Prussia Inn was slowly moved across the street and around the corner a distance just short of a half-mile. The gentle operation took about 12 hours and cost roughly $1.6 million. The building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1960, was renovated and currently serves as a museum and home to Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
If you are interested in expanding or moving your business to King of Prussia, reach out to the professionals at WCRE. We are the premier Philadelphia area commercial real estate firm, and we put our knowledge and experience to work finding the ideal location for your business needs, whatever your industry. Contact us today to get started and let us help you maximize your King of Prussia investment return.
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