Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey is a company town still owned by its founder's charity: on Dauphin County's open roll the Milton Hershey School, the Hershey Trust Company and Hershey Entertainment & Resorts hold most of the valuable ground in Derry Township, beside the hospital and The Hershey Company.
9 buildings · 9 with an owner established · 5 sources · 3 tier A · 6 tier B · prepared 2026-11-03
Pennsylvania has no state title register; title passes by deed recorded with the county Recorder of Deeds. Hershey is an unincorporated community inside Derry Township, Dauphin County. The county publishes its tax-assessment roll free on its open-data hub as a 'Tax Roll Table': owner of record, mailing address, site address, acres, land and building assessment and use code for every parcel, with no account. It carries no sale prices; those sit on recorded deeds (the state levies a 1% realty transfer tax). The county's licence page could not be reached, so rows are cited, not republished.
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The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center 50 Life Lion Dr (roll site address), Hershey |
Institutional | Milton Hershey Medical Center On the county roll parcel 24-029-020 is owned by 'MILTON HERSHEY MEDICAL CENTER': land $13,119,700, building $378,781,300 (total $391.9M, by far the highest-assessed parcel in Derry Township), 216.49 acres, code E02 'hospital/clinic exempt'. A second 22-acre University Dr parcel (24-029-029, $9.7M) has the same owner. Penn State Health holds four more parcels, incl. 650 West Governor Rd (code C05 medical office, 125.8 ac, $42.4M). No sale price on the roll. |
Institution | —A |
| Milton Hershey School campus Governor Rd, Hershey |
Institutional | Milton Hershey School Roll parcel 24-047-009, owner 'MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL': land $117,683,700, building $242,979,790, 2,638.6 acres, code E03 'educational exempt' — the largest parcel by area in the township and second by value. The school is the beneficiary of the Milton Hershey School Trust, for which Hershey Trust Company is trustee (Hershey 10-K, Note 18). Across 126 parcels the school and the trust company together hold about 5,823 acres on the roll. |
Institution | —A |
| Hersheypark 100 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey |
Land | Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company Roll parcel 24-009-009, owner 'HERSHEY ENTERTAINMENT & RESORTS COMPANY': land $22,917,400, building $36,318,100, 345.74 acres, code P04 'recreational parks'. Hershey's 2026 proxy states HE&R is 'a company that is owned by the Milton Hershey School Trust' (source s4). No sale price: the park has never been sold out of the trust group. |
Private company | —B |
| The Hotel Hershey 210 Hotel Rd (roll site address), Hershey |
Hotel | Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company Roll parcel 24-004-001, owner 'HERSHEY ENTERTAINMENT & RESORTS COMPANY': land $8,577,100, building $31,700,800, 225.9 acres, code C12 lodging facility — the only lodging parcel on Hotel Rd. Owner of HE&R per Hershey's 2026 proxy: the Milton Hershey School Trust (s4). |
Private company | —B |
| HE&R lodging parcel on Governor Rd (Hershey Lodge site) Governor Rd (no site number on roll), Hershey |
Hotel | Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company Roll parcel 24-029-019, owner 'HERSHEY ENTERTAINMENT & RESORTS COMPANY': land $8,379,500, building $46,058,000 (the township's highest-assessed hotel building), 43.7 acres, code C12 lodging facility. The roll gives no building name; identification as Hershey Lodge is by location and is not stated on the roll. |
Private company | —B |
| The Hershey Company headquarters 19 E Chocolate Ave, Hershey |
Office | Chocolate Realty DST The 10-K cover gives 19 East Chocolate Avenue as Hershey's principal executive office, and Item 2 lists 'Hershey, Pennsylvania — Corporate administrative — Lease' (s3). The roll (parcel 24-009-017) names 'CHOCOLATE REALTY DST', a Delaware statutory trust, as owner: land $5,946,100, building $16,444,100, 5.91 acres, code C01 office, mailing c/o 19 E Chocolate Ave. No price on the roll. |
Private company | —B |
| West Hershey plant 1033 Chocolate Ave, Hershey |
Industrial | The Hershey Company Roll parcel 24-008-035, owner 'THE HERSHEY COMPANY': land $7,941,100, building $21,471,800, 193.4 acres, code C25 commercial/industrial misc. The 10-K lists 'Hershey, Pennsylvania (3 principal plants) — Manufacturing — Own' (s3). Hershey Co. parcels, under four name variants (incl. Hershey Foods Corporation), total 24 parcels, 620 acres, $138.3M. |
Public company | —B |
| Hershey Company plant, 925 Reese Ave 925 Reese Ave, Hershey |
Industrial | The Hershey Company Roll parcel 24-029-005, owner 'HERSHEY COMPANY': land $6,566,800, building $27,044,300, 57.43 acres, code C25. The adjoining 1025 Reese Ave (24-029-040, $13.7M) has the same owner. The 10-K says the company owns its three principal Hershey plants (s3). |
Public company | —B |
| Commonwealth of Pennsylvania parcel, Hershey Park Dr 171 Hershey Park Dr, Hershey |
Civic | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Roll parcel 24-004-013, owner 'PENNSYLVANIA COMMONWEALTH', mailing c/o Department of General Services: land $6,070,600, building $10,459,400, 136.1 acres, code E32. The roll does not name the facility on it. The Commonwealth holds 5 parcels in the township (163.6 acres, $19.1M), including 16.5 acres at 1720 Caracas Ave. |
Government | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The most valuable ground is institutional, not commercial: the medical centre and the school campus together account for $752M of the township's $3.23B roll. All figures are Dauphin County assessed values from the Tax Roll Table (updated 22 Oct 2026), not market values.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Derry Township's roll (8,460 owner rows, $3.23B assessed, 15,831 acres) is dominated by the institutions Milton Hershey left behind. The Milton Hershey School and Hershey Trust Company as its trustee hold about 5,823 acres — over a third of the township's parcel acreage. Hershey Entertainment & Resorts (owned by the School Trust, per Hershey's proxy) holds the park, hotels and golf, and The Hershey Company (79.0% of combined votes cast by Hershey Trust Company) the plants. The medical center alone is $460M of the $1.04B of exempt property. Counts group roll name variants; all figures are the roll's assessed values.
| Name | Type | Parcels / acres / assessed |
|---|---|---|
| Milton Hershey School and Hershey Trust Company (as trustee) Roll names: 'MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL' (70 parcels, 4,817 ac, $406.1M), 'HERSHEY TRUST COMPANY TRUSTEE' and variants incl. '... M H SCHOOL'/'MHS', 'HERSHEY TRUST COMPANY', 'MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL & TRUST', and 'CATHERINE HERSHEY SCHOOL FOR EARLY LEARNING' (31.8 ac, $10.1M). Much is farmland: 111 township parcels (4,321 ac) carry the clean-and-green farm/forest flag. Hershey Trust Company is trustee for the Milton Hershey School Trust (Hershey 10-K Note 18). |
Institution | 126 parcels, 5,823 acres, $500.7MA |
| Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company Includes Hersheypark (345.7 ac), The Hotel Hershey parcel (225.9 ac), a 362-acre golf parcel at 1000 Derry Rd (code P02), the Governor Rd lodging parcel, and parcels under the old name 'HERSHEY ESTATES' and 'HERSHEY VACATIONS UNLIMIT'. Hershey's 2026 proxy: HE&R is 'owned by the Milton Hershey School Trust', and on 15 May 2025 The Hershey Company agreed to sell it 'certain real properties located in Derry Township' for an aggregate $3,055,000 (s4). |
Private company | 18 parcels, 1,171 acres, $187.0MB |
| Penn State Health / Milton Hershey Medical Center Roll names 'MILTON HERSHEY MEDICAL CENTER' (2 parcels, 238.5 ac, $401.6M) and 'PENN STATE HEALTH' (4 parcels, 179.5 ac, $58.4M), mailing addresses 90 Hope Dr, 500 University Dr and 100 Crystal A Dr. |
Institution | 6 parcels, 418 acres, $460.0MA |
| The Hershey Company Under four roll names: 'THE HERSHEY COMPANY' (7), 'HERSHEY COMPANY' (5), 'HERSHEY FOODS CORPORATION' (10, the pre-2005 name) and 'HERSHEY CHOCOLATE CORPORATION' (2). Includes the 1033 Chocolate Ave and 925/1025 Reese Ave plants and a 500 Lingle Ave warehouse (code C24, 93.7 ac). Its 10-K says it owns its three principal Hershey plants and leases its corporate administrative space (s3). |
Public company | 24 parcels, 620 acres, $138.3MB |
| Pennsylvania State University 400 Centerview Dr (39.6 ac, $17.9M, code E10) and 166.8 acres on Bullfrog Valley Rd (code E02). |
Institution | 2 parcels, 206 acres, $26.3MA |
| Derry Township School District Largest is the Homestead Rd campus (24-032-019, 39.3 ac, $47.4M). |
Government | 5 parcels, 42 acres, $54.4MA |
| Derry Township (and Derry Township Municipal Authority) Township names: 'TOWNSHIP OF DERRY', 'DERRY TOWNSHIP' and its industrial-and-commercial development entity. Largest is 605 Cocoa Ave (17.8 ac, $15.1M, code E12 park/recreation) and 89 acres at 850 Bullfrog Valley Rd. The municipal authority (sewer) is at 670 Clearwater Rd. |
Government | 31 parcels, 222 acres, $36.4M; authority 15 parcels, 94 acres, $12.8MA |
| Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of General Services and PennDOT parcels; largest 136.1 ac at 171 Hershey Park Dr. |
Government | 5 parcels, 164 acres, $19.1MA |
| Utilities: PPL Electric Utilities, Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania-American Water, Verizon North PPL under 'PP&L INCORPORATED' and 'PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES' (12 parcels, about 121 ac); Met-Ed 35.4 ac; Pennsylvania-American Water under four name variants. Norfolk Southern Corporation holds 2 small parcels (0.6 ac); the rail line itself is not parcelled. No federal land and no housing-authority parcels appear on the township roll. |
Public company | 21 parcels, 171 acres, $4.0MA |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Derry Township is mostly owner-occupied: of 7,356 residential-coded parcels, 6,849 are held by individuals (not named here) and 507 by entities. New building is small-scale and done through project LLCs; no national builder holds lots on the roll under its own name. Apartments of 10+ units are held by Briarcrest Residential LLC (395 Briarcrest Dr, 52 ac, $22.6M), New Hershey Heights (Middletown Rd, $15.2M), Hershey Trust Company (50 Northeast Dr, $5.8M) and Rosedale II Apartments LP ($5.7M). Single-family rental holders are small LLCs with under 10 houses each.
| Name | Type | Parcels on roll |
|---|---|---|
| Linlo Governor Crossing LLC 20 lots under one acre (L01) plus land on Sand Hill Rd, Fishburn Rd and Governor Rd — the largest holding of building lots in the township. |
Developer | 24 parcels, 8.1 acA |
| M & M at Oak Springs LLC 10 condominium/townhouse-coded parcels (R07) and a lot on Berne/Heiden Dr. |
Developer | 11 parcelsA |
| JPJR Alpine LP Mostly multi-unit (R12/R13) parcels on Rhue Haus Ln and Bullfrog Valley Rd. |
Private company | 10 parcels, $3.2MA |
| MTL Rentals LLC Largest single-family-rental-type holder: houses and condos on Caracas Ave, Areba Ave and Peggy Dr. |
Private company | 8 parcelsA |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Outside the Hershey institutions, commercial ground in Derry Township is held by single-asset LLCs and partnerships. Largest non-Hershey commercial-coded owners on the roll, by assessed value; the roll names the entity only, not who stands behind it.
| Name | Type | Assessed (roll) |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate Realty DST 19 E Chocolate Ave, office (C01), 5.91 ac — the building The Hershey Company leases as its headquarters (10-K, s3). |
Private company | 1 parcel, $22.4MB |
| U & ME Hershey LLC Mae St / Hershey Park Dr; two shopping-centre parcels (code C03) at 1154 and 1158 Mae St plus retail and service parcels. |
Private company | 6 parcels, 34.4 ac, $15.9MA |
| FSH Associates LP 51 Northeast Dr, shopping centre (C03). |
Private company | 1 parcel, 33.7 ac, $14.2MA |
| Hershey DTC LP 169 Chocolate Ave, store/retail (C02). |
Private company | 1 parcel, 4.6 ac, $11.6MA |
| Hershey Plaza PA TC LLC 233 Chocolate Ave, code C25. |
Private company | 1 parcel, 4.5 ac, $8.9MA |
| LIT Palmyra LP 390 Lingle Ave, warehouse/industrial over 50,000 sq ft (C24). |
Private company | 1 parcel, 23.9 ac, $6.8MA |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Facility names for roll parcels (Hershey Lodge on Governor Rd; the Commonwealth's 136-acre Hershey Park Dr parcel) are not stated on the roll
- Who stands behind Chocolate Realty DST and what it paid for 19 E Chocolate Ave: trade-press search results describe a Hershey plan to sell the office portion of its original plant and lease it back (asking about $57.9M, date not shown) and talks with Hershey Trust Co. about buying the original factory, but the articles sit on BNP Media and CPBJ sites that were not opened (BNP terms forbid robots); recorded deed prices were not searched
- Derry Township municipal building (600 Clearwater Rd, the Township's mailing address on the roll) does not appear as a site address on the roll; the Township's 31 parcels are counted under landowners
- Large homebuilders (NVR/Ryan, Toll, etc.) hold no lots on the Derry Township roll under their own names; no per-builder permit or Pro Builder figure for Hershey was found
Sources
- Tax Roll Table (owner of record, site address, acres, land and building assessment, use code) — Dauphin County, PA (open-data hub) · openA
- Tax Assessment District Codes (24 = Derry Township) and Tax Assessment Land Use Codes — Dauphin County, PA (open-data hub) · openA
- The Hershey Company, Form 10-K for 2025 (Item 2 Properties; Note 18 Related Party Transactions) — U.S. SEC EDGAR · openA
- The Hershey Company, 2026 proxy statement (DEF 14A), 'Certain Transactions and Relationships' — U.S. SEC EDGAR · openA
- BNP Media Terms and Conditions 2026 — BNP Media · openA