Horse Scandal Delays the Urban Outfitters Lifestyle Center

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Our sister site Racked Philly reports that the Urban Oufitters development Devon Yards, a boho-chic mecca/shopping sleep-away camp of sorts scheduled to be built about thirty minutes outside the company's base-city of Philadelphia by 2016, has been delayed. The reason? It was to be located next door to the Devon Horse Show fairgrounds and Wade McDevitt, the chairman and descendent of the show's founder, has stepped down.

But of course there's more backstory. Before leaving to spend time with his family, McDevitt proposed leasing part of the Horse Show's land to the project. He's married to Wendy McDevitt, who's the president of Urban brand Terrain, and is also the brother-in-law to Scott Belair, who's on Urban Outfitters' board of directors and was one of its founders. In short, the crew stood to gain from the project. Because, allegedly, the rest of the DHS board did not know about the land lease, there was some drama.

Back in October, developers set forth the plan for the Urban Outfitters theme park lifestyle center and it included a Terrain garden center, an Anthro, a boutique hotel, a couple farm-to-table restaurants, a specialty foods market, possibly a health/spa facility/boutique fitness studio, and a parking garage. McDevitt's replacement, Sarah Cox Lange, has not heard from Urban since McDevitt stepped down: "No one's called me, made any effort to call me, called any of the board."
· Controversy Puts Urban Outfitters' New Lifestyle Center on Pause [Racked Philly]
· Urban Outfitters Jumps on Activewear Trend With New Brand [Racked]