Shuman Development Group

10/15/2026

Hard to believe it has been twelve years since the massive fire at the Big Mill building which almost put us out of business. It was a little sad last month when we had to sell the building to raise the money needed for finishing the Elks Club and restoring the properties at 5th and Penn Streets. A lucky person got a great deal on an award winning restoration project for $10 million less than what went into restoring it. I think the sale at $13.3 million might be the highest price ever paid for a property in the city. Lets hope with all the restoration and development going on there will soon be lots more buildings with values even higher.

10/03/2026

Article in Reading Eagle this week about the Lincoln Chemical building being razed at taxpayer expense. Our recently retired Community Development Director was making significant progress in pushing to get the owners of the nearly 4,000 vacant buildings in the city to sell or renovate their properties so they don't end up costing taxpayers millions of dollars. We looked at purchasing and renovating this building over a decade ago, before the roof started to collapse but when it was already in very poor condition. According to public records, most of those vacant buildings are years behind on their taxes. Is it right for a nearby property to bring down the value of your property or put your neighborhood at risk? Your thoughts?

09/30/2026

Window cleaning time again on one of the newest, and oldest, office buildings in the downtown. Originally built in 1964 and completely skinned and updated with new mechanicals in 2007-2009. Many people think it is a modern glass office building, but that is all built on the original 1964 steel structure.

09/17/2026

More progress on the long vacant Elks Club/Trexler Mansion restoration project.

09/11/2026

08/30/2026

Elks Club/Trexler Mansion progressing. It has taken years to get all the behind the scenes repairs done correctly, now that is all done the finishing work is much more visible.

08/08/2026

WFMZ did a story this past week on the city considering raising the false fire alarm fees, which probably needs to be done, but with some thought behind it. Currently, there is a fee after the first false alarm PER PROPERTY, but there is a big difference between a single family rental house having five false alarms per year and a 100 unit apartment building having five false alarms. The tenants in the larger buildings get hammered with a huge fine, now proposed to be $400 or more per call. It seems like there should be a once per year legal residential unit allowance and not per property. Your thoughts?

08/05/2026

Berks County Orthopedics expands into a new location at the former Community General Hospital Doctor's Office building, now the Reading Medical Campus. Note the skybridge to the parking garage we had painted last year to Reading High School colors. This building was vacated during covid and is now about 70% re-occupied with some great downtown businesses.

07/18/2026

Ongoing restoration work at the Elks Club. The plans for a 1928 addition on the top of the building, that were scrapped by the Great Depression, have been updated for current codes and is finally going up after waiting nearly 100 years.

07/05/2026

Restored windows continue to be installed at the Elks Club building. The rear addition housing the new fireproof stair tower and elevator, to make the building compliant with current fire and accessibility codes, is nearly completed. Back in the 1920's plans were drawn up to build another floor on the roof of the existing building, but then the great depression hit and the plans were cancelled. We found those plans and have updated them to current code requirements, and have the planned rooftop conservatory starting to be installed.