Viaduct Rail Park Could Become Philadelphia's High Line

[M II A II R II K]

Before Viaduct Rail Park is born, it nurtures area investment


NOVEMBER 12, 2015

By Jacob Adelman

Read More: http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...nvestment.html

Backers of a plan to transform unused rail lines north of Center City into an elevated park say it will draw private investment to blighted areas. That may already be happening at 990 Spring Garden, which sits near a stretch of the planned Viaduct Rail Park that runs through a rundown industrial district along Callowhill Street east of Broad.

- The revamp is part of a multi-property plan by Arts and Crafts Holdings, whose principals include an engineer of eastern Center City's revival. Its first taker at 990 Spring Garden is Azavea, a mapping-software developer that will move into a full floor of the building early next year, says PernaFrederick Commercial Real Estate, which helped broker the lease. "I'm excited about the rail park," said Azavea founder Robert Cheetham. --- Arts and Crafts' plans are just one example of the real estate activity along the proposed three-mile linear park, which takes New York's High Line as an inspiration. It's happening even before the park's backers, the Center City District and the Friends of the Rail Park group, have finished raising money for its first phase.

- There's good reason for the optimism: The High Line drew about $2 billion in private investment by 2011, just six years after getting its zoning approvals, then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the time. "Everybody is now aware of what the High Line in New York City represented in terms of stimulating investment," said Center City District president and CEO Paul Levy. --- The Viaduct Rail Park's backers have raised about 60 percent of the $9.6 million needed for the project's first quarter-mile phase, which would lay gravel and boarded paths on a section from near Broad and Noble Streets to a junction just past 12th and Callowhill Streets. Much of the remaining budget for that expanse, owned by SEPTA, is expected to come from the state, Levy said.

- It's likely areas traversed by the proposed park would be targets for investment on their own. Some of the rails run just north of Center City's revitalized core and west of increasingly affluent Northern Liberties. Another section runs below grade near long-gentrified sections of the city's Fairmount section. --- Still, much of the development activity is concentrated along the proposed park. At 21st and Hamilton Streets near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Washington-based Dalian Development is investing about $130 million in a 10-story apartment complex across from a below-grade portion of the former railway.

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