Audubon Land Development has purchased Happy Days Farm in Exton from Nelson Realty Trust, an entity affiliated with Vanguard, for $18.1 million, writes Natalie Kostelni for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The roughly 240-acre property fronts the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Route 100.

The Uwchlan planning commission has already given a green light to Audubon Land’s plan to develop the site for warehouse-distribution centers. They will span 1.93 million square feet across three buildings. The project also includes a 30-acre park with trails.

Work will start next year on the largest of the three buildings, a structure of 1.1 million square feet, and the park.

Vanguard put the land on sale in March 2019 after owning it for two decades as a potential expansion property. When the Malvern-based investment giant acquired the plot, it had anticipated constructing a campus of up to 2 million square feet.

However, Vanguard never moved forward with these plans, and instead, decided to expand closer to its Malvern campus.

Audubon Land originally put the property under agreement two years ago, while it began to seek approvals for the industrial buildings.

Read more about Happy Days Farm in the Philadelphia Business Journal.