The construction trucks have been lining the narrow River Road south of New Hope since the fall of 1987.
The stone factory buildings, where construction crews have been hammering all through winter and summer, are remnants of what New Hope officials say was the only heavy industry for miles along the Delaware River.
Sixty-two high-priced condominium apartments - some completed, some still shells - are being cut into the eight buildings of the old mill.
Last week, the walls of the Union paper mill - which occupied the site from 1880 and ceased operations there in the 1970s - began coming to life as the first residents moved in.
No other such renovation has ever happened in or near New Hope, borough manager Tom Potter said.
And no higher-priced apartments have ever been sold there, Potter said.
So who are these new residents?
Who would buy an apartment - for as low as $275,000 or for as high as $800,000 - in an old factory next to one of the busiest summer tourist spots in the eight-county Philadelphia region? Who would pay $1.3 million to live in the only one of the eight buildings that has been turned into a separate residence?
Some are people who have so much money that they won't even live there much of the time.
"What we found is . . . the people who are buying here are wealthy," said project manager Steve Grutowski. "We're not getting (buyers) from the close- in Philadelphia suburbs. We thought we would.
"So we're shifting more of our focus toward the central Jersey area," he said, "where prices of real estate have gotten extremely, extremely high."
It's those people, he said, who don't mind paying high prices.
No one profile fits all who have agreed to buy into the Waterworks, but there seem to be several shared characteristics.
"We have quite a few people (for whom) this is maybe their third getaway," Grutowski said. For example, he said, they might live in Florida, visit a second home near New York City in the summertime and use The Waterworks as a country home.
