Spring Township's $350M Broadcast District: what's coming

The Broadcast District, a roughly $350 million project going up on about 100 acres in Spring Township, is one of the largest private developments Berks County has seen in decades. It sits across Broadcasting Road from the Broadcasting Square shopping center, broke ground in October 2025, and is under construction now. When it opens, the first tenants are targeted for fall 2027.

Here is what is going in, and where the project stands.

The stores and restaurants

The retail center runs about 120,000 square feet. Its anchor is a 35,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market, billed by the developer as the first Whole Foods in Berks County.

As of the developer's September 2025 leasing announcement, with about 85 percent of the retail leased, the signed or committed tenants included:

• Whole Foods Market (grocery anchor)
• Shake Shack
• BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse
• First Watch
• Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen
• Qdoba
• 7 Brew Coffee
• Nothing Bundt Cakes
• Sephora
• European Wax Center
• LaserAway
• Luna Nail Lounge
• Hair Cuttery
• MyEyeDr.
• Chase Bank
• Sleep Number

Tenant lineups shift while leasing continues. Spring Township planning records from June 2025 also listed Starbucks, Ruth's Chris Steak House, and Dave's Hot Chicken among the tenants at that stage, and the developer says roughly 12,000 square feet of retail was still open as of the fall 2025 announcement. Treat the roster as the current plan, not a final directory.

Homes, a hotel, and a library

The project is far more than a shopping center. Plans reviewed by the Berks County Planning Commission describe a 10-lot mixed-use development with 782 residential units and 12 commercial buildings on public water and sewer. The developer breaks the housing into 441 townhomes and single-family homes built by Lennar and 341 apartments built by SJC Ventures. Plans also include a 110-room hotel, a walking trail, greenspace, and a dog park.

The developer has agreed to dedicate about 6 acres to Spring Township for a future public library.

The developers are The Concordia Group, a Washington, D.C. firm with a Wyomissing office handling the land development, and SJC Ventures of Atlanta, handling the retail and apartments.

How it was approved, and the public money involved

Spring Township supervisors granted conditional-use approval in September 2024, subject to 42 conditions from the township engineer. The most consequential is a traffic condition: the developer must study and, if warranted, install a signal at Paper Mill Road and Ethan Drive, and if PennDOT rejects a signal, the Paper Mill Road entrance becomes right-in, right-out only. The Planning Commission granted preliminary land-development approval on June 5, 2025. The county planning commission, in a December 2024 review, found the plan sits in a Designated Growth area and is consistent with the Berks County Comprehensive Plan.

On public subsidy: the developer's application for a state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant sought $5 million for site infrastructure and, as of October 2025, had not been awarded, according to Spotlight PA. The project has also drawn state transportation money for road improvements; the reported figure ranges from about $1.5 million (Spotlight PA) to $2.1 million (Berks Weekly, citing state Sen. Judy Schwank), so treat the exact amount as unsettled. No LERTA tax abatement or tax-increment financing has been publicly reported. The RACP application projected about 500 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs.

What to watch

1. Whether the $5 million state RACP grant is awarded.
2. The Paper Mill Road traffic signal and PennDOT's decision, which sets how the site is entered.
3. The start of vertical building construction, targeted for 2026, and whether the fall 2027 opening holds.
4. A named operator for the 110-room hotel, and the remaining unleased retail.
5. Residential phasing, and the timing of the promised library dedication.

Spring Township approves the land-development steps at public meetings; how Berks County government works explains conditional use and who decides what. Every story we run on this municipality collects on the Spring Township coverage page. We will keep this report updated as the project advances.