Metropolitan Development has not purchased the Promenade, but is presenting a sketch plan for the property

There are new wrinkles in this story, and it speaks once again to a lack of due diligence done by Exeter township government

Metropolitan Development Group will be presenting a plan this evening for the Promenade property that involves apartments. Word on the street is that it will be “luxury” apartments, but that will be seen in tonight’s presentation.

The Examiner erroneously reported that a sale had occurred, but we can hardly be blamed for the error. No information comes from Exeter Township, even when asked. Merely vague utterances of the fact that they’re “interested”. We can hardly be blamed for reporting a sale when the company itself is putting this out into the ether.

There is even less information coming from Berks County Redevelopment Authority (BCRDA), the purported owner of the property, which stymies information sought at every turn, even to the point of refusing to turn over information they were ordered to turn over. More on that in the coming days.

After checking the Berks County Parcel Search and seeing no sale of the property, I reached out to a member of the Exeter Planning Commission to make basic inquiries.

I found out that Metropolitan has NOT purchased the property, but they ARE presenting a spec plan, to gauge interest.

Interesting information has come to the Examiner in the last few days. Metropolitan principal Kevin Timochenko and a host of Metropolitan companies were handed a judgment on the last day of 2025 by Judge Jeffrey G. Trauger of Bucks County Court of Common Pleas for more than $13.3 million in a suit filed by former business partner Michael Tulio.

For nearly a decade, developer Tulio and Timochenko operated a far-reaching real estate enterprise in eastern PA. Tulio was responsible for identifying land, securing zoning and municipal approvals, managing site development, and negotiating sales.

Timochenko controlled financing, overhead allocations, interest calculations, and final financial decisions. The partnership eventually collapsed under mounting disputes over overhead charges, interest calculations, and profit distributions. According to court findings, Tulio was at various points informed that he had been overcharged interest by approximately $1 million, only to later be told he owed $900,000 after internal reassessments.

In July 2020, after relations had severely deteriorated, the parties executed a Memorandum of Understanding intended to wind down Tulio’s active role while preserving his ownership interests and defining compensation. The agreement addressed dozens of active projects, distributions, insurance coverage, allowances, and apartment development interests.

Despite the agreement, litigation followed. In the detailed decision issued by the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, the court upheld the Memorandum of Understanding as valid and enforceable, rejected claims that Tulio had breached the agreement, and confirmed his right to compensation including $925,000 related to apartment development projects.

The ruling emphasized that the case was not one of criminal fraud, but rather a business divorce rooted in control, accounting practices, and whether negotiated agreements would be honored.

Both Timochenko and Tulio have past involvement in the criminal justice system. Timochenko was convicted in federal court in 2006 for theft of utility services when prosecutors proved he’d altered gas meters at apartment complexes he owned. He was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, ordered to pay full restitution of nearly $1 million to UGI Utilities, and fined $75,000.

Tulio was convicted of charges at roughly the same time.

Is anyone surprised when one partner cheats another, when the two were already convicted of seedy dealings? Everyone deserves a second chance, but we now have multiple instances involving Timochenko of less than stellar conduct. The question must be asked; do Exeter taxpayers want to be involved in business with a person of questionable dealings? I’m sure the man is nice to his family, and doesn’t kick his dog. But there’s evidence of less than perfectly upfront dealings.

The Township has already committed to Metropolitan for the apartment development behind Home Depot. When Exeter officials were contacted with this information about Timochenko and Tulio, none of them knew anything about any of it. Not the criminal or the civil cases. Which raises another, even bigger question. If they knew nothing, have they done their due diligence about these business partners? It didn’t take me long to dig this information out, once the initial kernel of info was sent to me. This is another case of them not doing their homework, of which we have numerous instances. The RHM 75/25 deal which cost taxpayers roughly $350,000 to allow RHM to notch nearly a million in revenue. The deceit, year after year, about the true costs and performance of the Reading Country Club. They always pleaded ignorance. They didn’t know. Their ignorance of continuous use of $1.8 million in unpaid water bills, used in the Township budget as an asset, not a receivable to be collected, which forced a taking from reserves. Nobody knew anything about that until pointed out by a member of the public.

Is anybody watching the store? Is anybody watching our money? Is anybody watching out for the taxpayers?

It doesn’t look like it to me.