Good move. Dumb ass bill.

First good thing Kenney has done all year.

Just what we need, a new ad hoc, unique to Philly tax. We have to consider that this construction tax is on top of the 4+% transfer tax (which I assume people pay for gut renovations and new construction that qualifies for the abatement - maybe I'm wrong). And this is from someone who is in favor of scaling back the abatement (or at least considering doing it if it won't hurt development too much - I don't trust developers on this point).

New, temporary taxes never go away and they just continue to compound.

Can we keep this shit to a minimum? Maybe you can't help yourself, but you're going to turn a discussion about specific legislation into yet another idiotic argument over which mayors are/were terrible and how terrible said mayors are/were.

+1. Personally I think scaling back the abatement in a more progressive manner would be a much better compromise.

Why fast-growing Philadelphia biotech firm Imvax picked the iconic Curtis building for its new HQ

Good to see companies are still bullish on Philly and putting their faith in Philly to grow their companies.

Read more behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...-building.html

Rather than bump its thread, I figured I'd complain here.

WHY IS THERE STILL BLUE TAPE ON THE CTC???????????

Nice, I love that area of town. I know there has been chatter about residential developments in the area, but I think more office space would be great given the proximity to transit (assuming you're willing to walk 5 mins outside).

I was looking through Zillow, where I noticed that 676 N Broad--which includes 676, 678, and 680 N Broad--has been listed for sale at 3.25M. This is essentially at the corner of Broad and Ridge, which, I believe, is zoned CMX-4. With a combined lot size of 8250 SF, this may be the the first sign of yet another highrise along North Broad!

A tower at this location would also further help the rebirth of Ridge Avenue, as well as hopefully spurning new mixed-use development on Fairmount Avenue between Ridge and 17th Street.

https://i.imgur.com/VWIixOs.png?1

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...oom%22%3A16%7D

It basically melted onto the metal cladding. However they're finally working on cleaning the entire building. The hotel section was recently finished, now they're working on the north side of the office section

On a completely random note, City Commissioner Al Schmidt announced yesterday the city has more registered voters (1,124,000) than it has any time since 1984.

Looking at historical population figures, in my estimate, this puts the city's population at about 1,630,000. It could even be 20-30K more than that.

Wow-- they're gonna be mad when they find out they could have gotten a boatload of tax breaks if they went for lab space at UCity Square or 3.0 University Place instead

The article has several nuggets:

1) The Curtis was designed (in part) to hold printing presses, which means strnager floors, higher ceilings, and the possibility of roof vents. So it is being actively marketed to life sciences companies.

2) Several founding principles in Imvax are closely associated with Jefferson where much of the prinicple reasearch has been done. So proximity to Jefferson is likely the factor that outweighs the taxbreaks?

3) Imvax is expanding rapidly, pulling in people from out of town as well as locally. Has over $100M in venture capital.

4) The CEO used to be an executive at Spark.

^
I can't imagine they wouldn't know. People in the same field have colleagues they associate or collaborate with. I'm sure the CEO of Imvax knows of people working in UCity Square or other spots in University City and the idea was floated but he ultimately chose Curtis for very specific reasons.

Very cool, I know some parts of the Curtis building are already outfitted for lab space. There used to be EPA labs here, and that lab I worked at at the time got some of their leftover supplies. Maybe Imvax wanted something they could work in more immediately rather than waiting for a building to get built.

Center City, suburban Philadelphia office markets see more companies shedding space

Behind paywall. Who can read? Not that any of us are necessarily surprised by this:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=2#cxrecs_s

Interesting-- I thought I knew everything about the Curtis Building (like their 1914 fire suppression system that produces a waterfall on two sides of the building) and I didn't know that it had existing lab space.

Yeah I realized that after I wrote the comment-- UCity Square has the highest asking rent for office space in the entire region so that probably factored into the decision too.

Edited to include a pic of the "water blanket" system on the Curtis Building. The spigots for it are still visible above each window on the 7th Street side of the building

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nYxXA9WmBJ...is+water+2.jpg

The veto of the Society Hill zoning overlay was just overridden in City Council. Gym, Brooks, Gautheir, and Thomas were the only Council members that voted to uphold the veto.

I think the location and the fact that the Curtis is such a beautiful and iconic building also weighed in in the decision. Plus it's a block from the subway.

I think it's a great move.