Though still surrounded by mushrooms, a whole lot more is sprouting these days in Kennett Square, and some of it is reshaping the borough’s agrarian skyline.

The fertile soil of this southern Chester County community cultivated the growth of $4.4 billion-a-year Genesis HealthCare and global risk management firm Chatham Financial as well as a downtown storefront revitalization that now boasts a lengthy waiting list, according to a recent Philly.com report.

That economic acceleration has spurred a 15.2 percent population increase over 10 years, which in turn has sewn high-yield real estate opportunities. That might mean big returns for those to whom the visionary urge to buy in Kennett came early.

Kennett Realty Group was the first to harvest the fruit of Kennett’s labors with its 79-unit Magnolia Place; each twin home or townhome has sold for $300,000 to $700,000.

“The impact that these townhouses have had on the price of housing in the borough has been tremendous,” Keller Williams Real Estate Associate Broker Rory Burkhart said in the article.

And its quick success has attracted lots of attention. The Chester County Planning Commission is due to release an economic study of the real estate environment in June, and StanAb Real Estate Development has already jumped into the mix with a proposal for street-level retail space and 175 loft apartments across the street from Magnolia Place.

Read much more about what’s sprouting in Kennett Square on Philly.com here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of the booming borough here.