Suburban home buyers are increasingly looking for more than just a quiet bedroom community to call home.

“People are really looking for an opportunity to connect. Whether that is chatting on a trail, or getting a cup of coffee, or going to a brewery,” said Rob Bowman, founding CEO of Lancaster-based Charter Homes and Neighborhoods.

Charter recently started construction on a new neighborhood in Cranberry that will have amenities normally excluded from suburban developments. The 115-acre plan, called Crescent, will include a brewery, a coffee shop, trails, a fishing pond and a communal fire pit.

Bowman said Crescent will eventually have about 550 homes, which can be customized by buyers. Not all homes will be completed at once. Bowman expects the neighborhood to take about 10 years to be completely full. The first homes should be ready by the spring, he said.

Bowman said 50 acres of the neighborhood will be dedicated as open space. He said that space will include amenities such as a small lake, which will be stocked with fish, have several docks and help manage stormwater runoff. The lake is being converted from a farm pond that sat on the property.

There also will be more than three miles of walking paths and wooded trails.

Crescent is the third Charter Homes neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Charter opened Hastings in South Fayette in 2017 and then Meeder in Cranberry in 2019. Both include restaurants, breweries and parks and offer a mix of suburban life with a sprinkle of urban convenience.

Crescent will have space for about six retailers, Bowman said. Other charter neighborhoods have attracted local businesses like Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe and Recon Brewery.

The neighborhood will be located on Mars Road in Cranberry, less than a quarter-mile from Target and other stores in Cranberry. It is situated on a small hill, offering views of the Westinghouse headquarters and the surrounding hillsides.

Bowman said it is important for Charter neighborhoods to be close to other amenities outside of the development as well.

Homes will range from dense townhomes to single-family homes on larger lots. Prices will start in the range of $400,000 to $800,000. Bowman said a broad range of homes will be available, with some homes going up to as large as 3,500 square feet.

Bowman hopes the range of homes will lead to all kinds of customers, including multi-generational families.

He added that homes can be customized easily and some might even include “work from home” rooms to account for the growing number of remote employees in the workforce. Bowman said that Charter’s other Pittsburgh-area neighborhoods filled up quickly, and he expects the same for Crescent.

“We have discovered what people really want is more than a home to live in,” he said. “They want a place to share as part of their story, a place to call home where they always feel invited, and where they invite others to enjoy.”

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