Lancaster native turns side hustle into successful real estate development business 

Listen to this article

Lancaster city developer Benjamin Lesher began working on his first development as a side hustle while working at a Mechanicsburg-based real estate development firm. 

The project, Lesher’s 104-unit Stadium Row apartment building, become the city’s first all-new residential development in over 50 years when it opened in August 2021. 

Today Lesher is president and founder of his own development firm, SDL Devco, and is using the experience from Stadium Row as a catalyst for new projects in the city. 

Lesher, 35, found his interest in real estate and development after his family sold its Mechanicsburg farm to Lancaster developer Charter Homes and Neighborhoods, which used the acreage to build Arcona, a neighborhood of single-family homes, townhomes and carriage homes. 

At the same time his family was selling the farm, Lesher was pursuing an Economics degree at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. Following graduation, he joined Lancaster developer Drogaris companies as project support. 

“I was able to work with Ed Drogaris for a few years and thought I wanted to go into urban planning,” said Lesher. “While I was working for Ed, I said ‘wow he is doing some really cool projects and doing interesting, meaningful things.’ That got me going towards this real estate development direction.” 

Lesher then went back to school where he received a Master’s in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of business administration in real estate at the college’s school of business. 

Lesher returned to the midstate in 2016 and took a position as a development project manager at Monarch Development Group in Mechanicsburg. 

“After grad school, we came back to this area and I worked for Monarch Development Group,” he said. “I was and still am really interested in the affordable housing world and wanted to work with a local housing developer.” 

It was during his time at Monarch that Lesher’s family had the opportunity to invest in real estate, backed by the selling of their farm. Lesher began looking for a site where he could build his first development using the experience he had gained in the few years since receiving his Master’s. 

In 2017 Lesher purchased acreage outside of Lancaster’s Clipper Magazine Stadium and started early planning and design in 2018 for a 104-unit upscale apartment building named Stadium Row. 

Lesher treated Stadium Row as a side project– working evenings and weekends on the planning and design of the building. To help see the project to completion, he hired Jim Shultz, former development manager at Charter Homes and Neighborhoods to act as a chief of staff on the project. 

Construction on Stadium Row was halted because of the pandemic and resumed later in 2020—under Lesher’s new development company, SDL Devco, which he founded early that year. 

The building opened in 2021 with two thirds of its units pre-leased.  

“I’m still fully realizing how significant it was to me and my career and my future,” he said. “It was gratifying to see something that took so long, so many meetings, solving so many issues, to come to fruition.” 

Millennials are Lesher’s target demographic for the building, but he said that he’s found that it’s a good fit for everyone from empty nesters to people recently divorced. 

“There is a lot of convenience and the walkability and proximity to a lot of great restaurants and neighborhood amenities,” he said. “We are close to the train station; we have people who work at the hospital and Franklin and Marshall College.” 

Lesher is looking to leverage his experience from Stadium Row on a project twice the size of Stadium Row. SDL Devco is currently awaiting approval on The Yards, two apartment buildings with 216 units and 12,000 square feet of commercial space located on 4.5 acres of land at Lancaster’s stockyard. 

SDL Devco purchased the acreage, which housed the city’s popular The Stockyard Inn restaurant, last year for $3.65 million. 

“Our plan is to preserve and relocate the southern half of the restaurant building that there is today,” said Lesher. “That will become the clubhouse and amenities for the apartments.” 

Rather than one stand-alone building, The Yards is planned to include two-five story buildings—one with a parking garage and the other with available commercial space. 

Lesher said he will be looking to include affordable housing at The Yards, something that he wants to ensure is part of his developments in the future. 

“One of my hopes for Stadium Row was mixed-income where we had 20% of the units at an affordable price point, but we couldn’t make it,” he said. “At The Yards, I have a goal to set up 20% of the units as affordable to the 60% of the area’s median income level.” 

Aside from The Yards, Lesher most recently purchased the headquarters of Benjamin Roberts Ltd. At 232 N. Prince St. in Lancaster. He has yet to announce his plans for the property. 

“This property would suit a variety of uses,” Lesher said in early March. “We hope it will complement the many wonderful uses on the block and surrounding neighborhood.”