King of Prussia Business Park is no more

Source, Philadelphia Business Journal, Natalie Kostelni

The King of Prussia Business Park, an area bound by North Gulph Road and just past Allendale Road and Route 23 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike that is populated by flex and office buildings, has a new name and logo that seeks to shed its past and embrace its future.

It is now called Moore Park KOP.

The King of Prussia District initiated an effort with the support of a committee of property owners in the business park and input from the township to give the area more of an identity.

“We felt like there was so much going on in the business park that continually referring to it as the business park wasn’t doing the neighborhood any justice,” said Eric Goldstein, executive director with King of Prussia District.

The area has changed since the first buildings were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s and it is poised to veer from its past even more in the future. In addition to 3.6 million square feet of office and industrial space, the area is home to the Valley Forge Casino Resort as well as five hotels and 20,000 employees work in those combined spaces. It continues to be a headquarters destination as well and in the last year saw five companies -— GeoBlue, the American College of Financial Services, Trillion and Camber Spine Technologies — make the park their corporate base.

The addition in 2014 of new zoning in Moore Park is also expected to bring mixed-use development to the area and two apartment projects are underway. LeCesse Development Corp. of Florida is developing an apartment complex called Skye 750 at 750 Moore Road that will have 245 units. Around the corner, another apartment community is under development called Park Square at 751 Vandenberg Road.

Other changes are in the works. If an effort to get a train in King of Prussia is successful, the line will go through the park as well and a slip ramp is proposed at the Valley Forge interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that would allow motorists to exit into the park. The business district is also working with 21 property owners on a linear park that will run along First Avenue and be completed in 2019.

As a result of the increased development activity and the changes afoot, stakeholders thought a new name was warranted. A marketing firm was hired to help with the process, which took a year. After mulling over several options, Moore Park KOP was selected. The business park was once the Moore family estate and their original home is still in the park on Moore Road, Goldstein said. “So it’s a nod to history without being the typical Valley Forge or King of Prussia nomenclature and now the former business park has a real neighborhood name —Moore Park KOP,” he said.