PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[Larry King]

I didn't hate the old gallery. Guess I'm the only one. Sad the 2 blocks will be dead til 2019 or so

[br323206]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

You mean 1700 block, just to pick a nit. 1600 block is Liberty Place.

Right you are, thanks for the correction.

[shadowbat2]

Nice to hear!
I was on the roof of the (all but vacant) Robinson building once....
Robinson by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

020 - Copy by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

102 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

100 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

097 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

095 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

[Larry King]

stumbled across a north broad station development project from hfz capital of ny..

http://www.hfzcap.com/2014/06/21/broad-street-station/

anyone know if this is in anyway a real project?

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by Larry King

stumbled across a north broad station development project from hfz capital of ny..

http://www.hfzcap.com/2014/06/21/broad-street-station/

anyone know if this is in anyway a real project?

It looks like a pipe dream. Nothing more than a fantasy.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Inga weighs in on "Good Bart" and "Bad Bart," including the Foxwoods site. Mostly bad these days, I have to agree. There's no accounting for inspiration/taste, or lack thereof. However, pushing bland stuff that violates multiple zoning rules from the get go is just bizarre. The riverfront project also sounds very unappealing, but maybe in today's housing market they count on crap being snapped up by willing renters/buyers:

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/p...g&id=368486621

[1487]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Inga weighs in on "Good Bart" and "Bad Bart," including the Foxwoods site. Mostly bad these days, I have to agree. There's no accounting for inspiration/taste, or lack thereof. However, pushing bland stuff that violates multiple zoning rules from the get go is just bizarre. The riverfront project also sounds very unappealing, but maybe in today's housing market they count on crap being snapped up by willing renters/buyers:

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/p...g&id=368486621

lets hope what he actually presents to the CDR committee shows improvement over the fuzzy renderings we've see so far.

[UrbanRevival]

Thought these two recent articles had some very positive tidbits.

For anyone skeptical of the progress in the Market/Chestnut East area, the cumulative level of recent/announced investment is pretty staggering. Of course, this involves a lot of moving parts, but if anything, it definitely demonstrates how the city/developers are really putting their money where their mouth is:

Revitalizing Philadelphia’s Market Street

Real estate analyst Jones Lang LaSalle predicts that $1.5 billion will be spent to build out 5.5 million square feet (511,000 sq m) of leasable space over the next two years along Market Street and nearby Chestnut Street, a similarly faded retail strip a block away.

“Market Street had been the center of all commerce in Philadelphia, but you saw a long, slow decline starting in the 1970s,” says Bob Fahey Jr. of CBRE, an investment services firm that tracks local real estate. “Only in the last five years has that changed, but it’s changed dramatically.”

http://urbanland.uli.org/planning-de...market-street/

Additionally, 2015 was apparently a strong year for Philly's high-end real estate, indicating that it's attracting more top-dollar buyers (25% y-o-y increase in average sales price at the top of the market).

Redfin Report: Luxury Home Prices Rebounded at the End of 2015

The luxury home market rallied at the end of 2015, ending a nine-month slump. Sale prices for the most expensive 5 percent of homes gained 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier, led by big gains in Philadelphia, Austin and Sacramento.

https://www.redfin.com/blog/2016/02/...d-of-2015.html

[domodeez]

UCity update from Friday 2/12:


Drexel Study Hotel:





Penn's Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, 36 x Walnut/Sansom:

[PhilliesPhan]

Originally Posted by UrbanRevival

Thought these two recent articles had some very positive tidbits.

For anyone skeptical of the progress in the Market/Chestnut East area, the cumulative level of recent/announced investment is pretty staggering. Of course, this involves a lot of moving parts, but if anything, it definitely demonstrates how the city/developers are really putting their money where their mouth is:



http://urbanland.uli.org/planning-de...market-street/

Additionally, 2015 was apparently a strong year for Philly's high-end real estate, indicating that it's attracting more top-dollar buyers (25% y-o-y increase in average sales price at the top of the market).



https://www.redfin.com/blog/2016/02/...d-of-2015.html

Two quotes from the Urban Land article give me immense hope for Market East!

“With more people and more affluence comes more retail,” Fahey says. “But I think we’ll also see an office tower built there and probably another hotel, too, due to the proximity to Convention Center.”

“This was an opportunity for us to test the waters in that [east Market Street] market. If it gets successful, we can convert the site to office or residential. If it doesn’t, a lot of existing parking is getting converted, so we could charge a premium for parking,” DeVuono says.

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan

Two quotes from the Urban Land article give me immense hope for Market East!

Gotta factor in the hype. Only time will tell and the proof will be in the pudding (e.g., more development announcements from major developers and real estate investors).

[EastSideHBG]

Liberty Property Trust gets first planning approvals for Camden project
Updated: FEBRUARY 12, 2016 — 5:04 PM EST
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...L0esO0kUKtA.99

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by shadowbat2

Nice to hear!
I was on the roof of the (all but vacant) Robinson building once....
Robinson by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

What an interesting building. I would love for a developer to open that huge blank wall up and put glass there. They'd probably have to combine the first and second floors into one retail floor to make it a viable retail space, however. Acturally now that I think about it, this building is way to small the generate the returns necessary to spend that much money on saving it, which is a shame.

[summersm343]

Councilman Johnson’s bill clears path for Schuylkill River Trail extension to Christian Street



http://planphilly.com/articles/2016/...ristian-street

[Philly Kid]

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/p...e&id=368994481

[RonnieStevens]

Originally Posted by Philly Kid

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/p...e&id=368994481

Schools is a big challenge which might force certain families to move to the burbs once they have kids approaching kindergarten age. I wonder if large corporations can band together and offer a solution as a benefit for their employees. I think it will take years and years for the public schools in the city to reach the levels that most parents will be comfortable with.

[1487]

Originally Posted by Philly Kid

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/p...e&id=368994481

CCD puts out reports like this every year. It's the same story. Basically if you don't get tax reform or better schools the "new" people will all leave and the city will decline and start looking like Detroit. I think its interesting they choose to look at the job trend going back 10 years instead of post recession. All other measures indicate Philly is more than holding its own vs suburbs post recession. That's reflected in jobs numbers and office vacancy rates. Also, I see they note total out migration to the suburbs without specifying where they come from. The total number may be higher, but what if the majority of those leaving are from NE Philly and not CC? Out migration isn't new or specific to Philly. People leave NYC and other cities all the time for schools and yards. That doesn't mean the city is heading into decline. Many people are having kids late, some use private school, some use public school, some will never have kids, some people are just single and happy, etc. They oversimplify to drive their point home- and reports about Philly schools aren't helping anything. We have a statewide problem that is affecting Philly and most other poor districts. The solution, especially in terms of funding has to be a statewide initiative.

[UPenn18]

I think it's just a piece to keep the politicians on their toes and the issue in the back of their minds. The jobs will come, especially as CC becomes an increasingly attractive place to live. At a certain point (I think we're reaching it now), it will be worth it for companies to move into the city to attract talent despite the marginally higher costs. I'm hesitant to make the sweeping assertion that city life will the favorable mode of living forever, as I'm sure many thought that about the suburbs), but the trend of younger people living in the city shows no signs of slowing. People just don't want or need as much space and stuff as they did before because technology has advanced so much. I do think the school issue will be addressed eventually, as the pressure will continue to build as these people grow older and take up a more significant chunk of the population.

[summersm343]

Washington Avenue Getting Another Big Project?

Change is coming to Washington Avenue, it's just a matter of when.

Over the last several years, there have been a number of large mixed-use projects proposed for Washington Avenue west of Broad Street, but none have yet materialized. From what we know, 1601 Washington has been sitting in legal hell for a couple of years. 2401 Washington got approval last year from the ZBA but is also under appeal. A project at 18th & Washington, originally planned and approved a few years ago, also hasn't happened. Even with these project delays, developers continue to look at this corridor, tantalized by the fact that it runs between Graduate Hospital and booming Point Breeze and hoping for a future with fewer forklifts and more bistros.

So it came as no surprise last night when developers came to SOSNA to present at an information-only meeting for the northwest corner of 25th & Washington. Today, the property is a mix of parking lot and billboard space.

Their presentation was very preliminary, but we do have some details. Their current plan includes a 6-story building at the corner of 25th & Washington which would include 79 apartments and 10K sqft of retail on the first floor. Also, they want to build a 5-story building with seventeen apartments on the other side of the parcel, fronting Grays Ferry Avenue. In between these buildings they're looking to build 17 townhomes, each with garage parking.

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phill...er-big-project

[1487]

Originally Posted by UPenn18

I think it's just a piece to keep the politicians on their toes and the issue in the back of their minds. The jobs will come, especially as CC becomes an increasingly attractive place to live. At a certain point (I think we're reaching it now), it will be worth it for companies to move into the city to attract talent despite the marginally higher costs. I'm hesitant to make the sweeping assertion that city life will the favorable mode of living forever, as I'm sure many thought that about the suburbs), but the trend of younger people living in the city shows no signs of slowing. People just don't want or need as much space and stuff as they did before because technology has advanced so much. I do think the school issue will be addressed eventually, as the pressure will continue to build as these people grow older and take up a more significant chunk of the population.

Right. The reality is no one knows what is going to happen. 20 years ago most wouldn't have predicted the increased interest in urban living and public transportation. CCD tries to predict the future based on what has happened in the past, i.e. young idealist who move into the urban fringe will come to their senses and eventually settle for a big house in the burbs unless Philly schools somehow become competitive with LM schools. At some point in time people may have to accept that the current generation of young people aren't chasing the same goals as their parents. I've heard the same thing about car ownership- many are saying the lower interest in only temporary and all these young people will eventually realize they want new cars and the one car per adult ratio that is necessary in suburban America.