Local leaders along with developers broke ground on a new construction project that will be Warminster’s first Transit Oriented Development when finished next year.

The Station at Bucks County will consist of 233 apartment, clubhouse, fitness center, pool, a building with 5,000 square feet of available retail space and walking paths that lead to a nearby shopping center, developers announced.

The pathways will also lead to the adjacent SEPTA Regional Rail Station, officials from the company that is developing the site, J.G. Petrucci Company, said.

“Our goal is to redevelop an old unused site and clean it up,”said Greogry Rogerson of J.G. Petrucci Company.

The 19 building community is being built on a 16 acre site, that formally housed a medical supply company, off Jacksonville Road.

“This community solves the problem of having an old empty building and wondering what to do with it,” Warminster Supervisor Frank Fienberg said.

“This [development] is what communities like Warminster need,” said Jon Mikula of HHF, a commercial real estate capital intermediary.

Designers said they plan for the community to take the look of a small town when it is completed.

In a economy where new housing communities have trouble getting funding the development had no trouble, said J.G. Petrucci Co. President James Petrucci.

He added that communities planned around public transportation are the future.

SEPTA was involved in the planning of the community that designers believe will help reduce the amount of commuters on the roads trying to get to work in the city.

After speaking, those involved in the five year process of getting the community under construction moved the first ceremonial shovelfuls of earth.

As the event neared a close a woman who helped design the property said, ”this is the future,” as a commuter rain rumbled past.