PHILADELPHIA | East Market | 284 & 248 FT | 24 & 20 FLOORS

[Londonee]

Does anyone have any timelines on when the retail podiums will open? This 2nd tower is probably going to take close to 2 years to complete - are they able to open the 2nd retail podium while work is underway up above?

[mmikeyphilly]

[QUOTE=Philly Fan;7843796]Annnnd, now we officially have steel erection (yeah, I know how that sounds ). Two columns and counting.
Steel being erected is always a stimulus , or stimuli ? Yes?
Glad to see this finally...rise!

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by Londonee

Does anyone have any timelines on when the retail podiums will open? This 2nd tower is probably going to take close to 2 years to complete - are they able to open the 2nd retail podium while work is underway up above?

Good question. I was wondering the same thing.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

Annnnd, now we officially have steel erection (yeah, I know how that sounds ).

If cladding stays crooked for more than 5 days, call a physician.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

If cladding stays crooked for more than 5 days, call a physician.

I'd rather call an attorney.

[Londonee]

So what's the deal with Mom's Organic?

This article from last July said the building (and Mom's) would be open by end of 2016.

Here we are 6+months after it was supposed to be open (and a full year since I could find any article on Moms' progress) and still...nothing? No update, no press release, no opening date. I suppose no news is good news with development, but wonder what's going on here.

[New2Fishtown]

Originally Posted by Londonee

So what's the deal with Mom's Organic?

This article from last July said the building (and Mom's) would be open by end of 2016.

Here we are 6+months after it was supposed to be open (and a full year since I could find any article on Moms' progress) and still...nothing? No update, no press release, no opening date. I suppose no news is good news with development, but wonder what's going on here.

Thought I saw a Coming Soon ad on a bus shelter at 16th and Chestnut the other day, but there was no date on it, and so then I wasn't sure if it was recently installed or leftover from two years ago when it was first announced. As for the store itself, they've had promo signs up over the windows for only the past month or so, and at night I walked by and swear I could see through a break in the window dressing that there were dry goods on shelves already, so it feels like they're on an "any day now" kind of basis, but the lack of formal announcements is odd.

Related, it seems like they've only recently paved and cleared the sidewalk around the building enough to even allow safe access into the store. Perhaps there are still aspects of construction on the site that need to wrap before ingress and egress is possible?

This feels like extensive construction delays more than any hesitance on the company's part.

[1487]

Originally Posted by Londonee

So what's the deal with Mom's Organic?

This article from last July said the building (and Mom's) would be open by end of 2016.

Here we are 6+months after it was supposed to be open (and a full year since I could find any article on Moms' progress) and still...nothing? No update, no press release, no opening date. I suppose no news is good news with development, but wonder what's going on here.

Ive been wondering about this for months.

[Elevator1]

Originally Posted by Londonee

So what's the deal with Mom's Organic?

This article from last July said the building (and Mom's) would be open by end of 2016.

Here we are 6+months after it was supposed to be open (and a full year since I could find any article on Moms' progress) and still...nothing? No update, no press release, no opening date. I suppose no news is good news with development, but wonder what's going on here.

Mom's Organic opened in Cherry Hill a year ago to no advertising, no Grand Opening, no outreach at all. If this pattern holds for this one it may have opened two months ago and no one noticed.

[Bariscos]

Originally Posted by Elevator1

Mom's Organic opened in Cherry Hill a year ago to no advertising, no Grand Opening, no outreach at all. If this pattern holds for this one it may have opened two months ago and no one noticed.

There is now signage in the windows, but the store hasn't opened.

[New2Fishtown]

Originally Posted by Bariscos

There is now signage in the windows, but the store hasn't opened.

I walked by last night. The sidewalks have been opened around the perimeter of the store, so it is possible to walk partially along the northern and southern facades of the building. In doing so I confirmed that the store looks pretty far along, and that several aisles of stocked dry goods are visible. Views are obstructed to a degree that it's hard to say how close to finished they are, and how much of the store remains to be filled. One would imagine they plan to open soon so as not to have the pre-stocked inventory expire, but if they haven't loaded in perishables yet, that might not mean much. There are signs on the entrance doors that say hours are 8am-9pm 7 days a week. That's about all I can tell. There were no workers on site when I snooped around.

In other news, it's official that Luke's Lobster will open next to Honeygrow in the Steele Bldg across from MOM's, so I'd say the retail environment is certainly shaping up nicely.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by New2Fishtown

I walked by last night. The sidewalks have been opened around the perimeter of the store, so it is possible to walk partially along the northern and southern facades of the building. In doing so I confirmed that the store looks pretty far along, and that several aisles of stocked dry goods are visible. Views are obstructed to a degree that it's hard to say how close to finished they are, and how much of the store remains to be filled. One would imagine they plan to open soon so as not to have the pre-stocked inventory expire, but if they haven't loaded in perishables yet, that might not mean much. There are signs on the entrance doors that say hours are 8am-9pm 7 days a week. That's about all I can tell. There were no workers on site when I snooped around.

In other news, it's official that Luke's Lobster will open next to Honeygrow in the Steele Bldg across from MOM's, so I'd say the retail environment is certainly shaping up nicely.

Good to hear vis a vis Luke's Lobster.

Interesting that we have no heard about any true Retail yet (i.e. actual retailers).

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Good to hear vis a vis Luke's Lobster.

Interesting that we have no heard about any true Retail yet (i.e. actual retailers).

A bunch of design stores that are now on West Market and Chestnut near the Schulykill will move to the same building as Mom's. Not sure how much space is really left in the towers with Iron Hill, the gym, and some of the other announcements. But I guess there is some. Also not sure how many clothes retailers and the like they really need. The Fashion Outlets down two blocks will have a lot, and there are lots of vacancies on the other side of the street across from them as well.

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by jsbrook

A bunch of design stores that are now on West Market and Chestnut near the Schulykill will move to the same building as Mom's. Not sure how much space is really left in the towers with Iron Hill, the gym, and some of the other announcements. But I guess there is some. Also not sure how many clothes retailers and the like they really need. The Fashion Outlets down two blocks will have a lot, and there are lots of vacancies on the other side of the street across from them as well.

Some? Someone did the math upthread - they have tens of thousands of square feet still to fill here. If your retail mix is a WaWa, a Microbrew chain, a gym, and a DWR - none of which are actual retail - you're not going to be very successful.

Edit. I just did the math. The building has 105,000 sf of retail.
Iron Hill - 8,450
Wawa - 6,200
DWR - 15,000
City Fitness - 27,000

Total left: 48,350

Which can be something like 10-15 smaller retailers, or 3-5 fast-fashion type places.

[Parkway]

Given that it's across the street from the Convention Center I expect these spaces have a lot of appeal for chain restaurants similar to Cheesecake Factory.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Londonee

Some? Someone did the math upthread - they have tens of thousands of square feet still to fill here. If your retail mix is a WaWa, a Microbrew chain, a gym, and a DWR - none of which are actual retail - you're not going to be very successful.

Edit. I just did the math. The building has 105,000 sf of retail.
Iron Hill - 8,450
Wawa - 6,200
DWR - 15,000
City Fitness - 27,000

Total left: 48,350

Which can be something like 10-15 smaller retailers, or 3-5 fast-fashion type places.

Exactly. It doesn't feel very cohesive.

For such a high profile project, I would expect a lot less Wawa and a lot more DWR.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Exactly. It doesn't feel very cohesive.

For such a high profile project, I would expect a lot less Wawa and a lot more DWR.

It's not just DWR. It's 48,000 sq feet of other design/furniture stores:

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...rket-11th.html

At least this was the plan, and I think it's still in place. Although, that still leaves all the space in the actual new construction towers in play.

[summersm343]

Have any of you worked in Commercial Real Estate before, or have any sense on how this works?

Keep in mind, a lot of retailers (especially clothing retailers) are very picky:

1. They normally don't like moving into sites that are still under construction.
2. They usually don't commit to a space more than a year out
3. They want to see the finished product, foot traffic, etc.

We won't hear clothing retailer announcements until the site is wrapping up construction. We're also in a pretty bad retail environment right now... we're in a retail bust. Companies are going bankrupt left and right: Juicy Couture, Coach, Kenneth Cole, Michael Kors, Lacoste, Bebe, Armani Exchange, American Apparel, Ralph Lauren, etc. etc. All of these retailers are either gone, or significantly downsizing their store real estate.

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by jsbrook

It's not just DWR. It's 48,000 sq feet of other design/furniture stores:

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...rket-11th.html

At least this was the plan, and I think it's still in place. Although, that still leaves all the space in the actual new construction towers in play.

You're confusing the new construction building - the one I'm talking about and referencing - with the basically complete rehab that has the Moms, the relocated Marketplace Design Center, and the HQ for BCJ.

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by summersm343

1. They normally don't like moving into sites that are still under construction.
2. They usually don't commit to a space more than a year out
3. They want to see the finished product, foot traffic, etc.

We won't hear clothing retailer announcements until the site is wrapping up construction.

Which kind of gets back to my initial question. The article linked mentioned the DWR would be open in 2017 (it also said the Moms would be open by end of 2016) - but if any of these numbers are to be believed than we are certainly less than a year out for much of the complex to be open, right?

Also, what constitutes "wrapping up construction" - the east tower and podium are almost fully complete - are they going to sit idle as a non-producing cost for another 2 years while the west tower is built? Seems unlikely.