PHILADELPHIA | The Carson @ 501 Spring Garden Street | 153 FT | 13 FLOORS
 

Not quite NoLibs, not quite Center City.

Title: 501 Spring Garden Street
Project: Residential/Ground floor retail
Architect: BLT
Developer: Neal and Victor Rodin
Location: 501 E Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA
District: North Philadelphia
Neighborhood: Northern Liberties/Poplar
Floors: 13 Floors
Height: 153 Feet

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5596f9fe_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bc62fdc6_b.jpg

Construction Webcam


CDR Submission
https://www.phila.gov/media/20200219...ge-Final-1.pdf

Nice! Build it! Great project for this area.

Yes! This project will be great for that portion of Spring Garden and the larger area overall. Not feeling the one story retail though. Maybe they're leaving it open to future construction of a second tower? It also looks like the developer isn't using any of that huge roof space as outdoor amenity. Missed opportunity imo

This is great! Re; the single storey space, I always feel, can be "densified" later but still utilized, and still keep the street wall.

I just walked by this yesterday. The impact this building will have on that area will be amazing.

So psyched for this.

It's firmly NoLibs.

NoLibs is North of Spring Garden, South of Girard.

East boundary is debatable (Front vs Columbus vs the River), west boundary, at least when I was on the zoning committee, was 6th Street though I remember seeing projects as far west as 8th presented to us.

The disputed streets in that area are 7th and 8th. The NLNA would say that's East Poplar and every one who lives in Northern Liberties would agree. Developers would argue it's Northern Liberties for obvious reasons.

Being on the north side of Spring Garden at 5th puts it firmly in the zone.

Where and what is the Northern Liberties? A historical note: When it was a separate township until 1854, the Northern Liberties legally began on the north side of Vine Street. More practically, the marshes and creek called Pegg's Run, which later became Willow Street, was the physical barrier separating NL from the extended grid of the city. It was only after the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the city demolished almost the entire southern portion of the Northern Liberties in order to build a poorly thought-out low-rise industrial district, that the feeling began to arise that NL was restricted merely to the area north of Spring Garden. Someday, hopefully, when the southern NL is restored to more productive uses, this project at 5th and Spring Garden will once again be in the heart of the Northern Liberties.

^ For what it's worth, Google Maps has NL stretching down to the highway spaghetti at Callowhill, which makes sense as far as contemporary neighborhood barriers go.

I think this is a Neal Rodin project. [EDIT: Confirmed] The LLC named is listed at the same address and suite number as he.

Most remember Rodin as the developer of the mixed-use Rodin Square with Whole Foods at 22nd & Spring Garden St, but many of us recall him less fondly as the developer who successfully pursued (through then-owner Live Nation) a hardship application allowing demolition of most of the historic Boyd Theatre, with plans to construct a new iPic theater. When the iPic project subsequently fell through, Live Nation instead sold the Boyd to Pearl Properties.

Name: R Investment Twenty One LLC
Entity Number 6747437
Entity Type Limited Liability Company
Status Active
Citizenship Domestic
Entity Creation Date 07/24/2018
Effective Date 07/24/2018
State Of Inc PA
Address 1617 JOHN F KENNEDY BOULEVARD, SUITE 1840 PHILADELPHIA PA 19103 Philadelphia

This is certain a step to help bright up Spring Garden Street. Hoping the 43, 57 and MFL get a boost from this as well. Also more green space would be nice too!

Confirmation from the Inquirer since I posted:

Apartments planned at Northern Liberties strip mall by group behind Whole Foods building near Art Museum | Philly.com

The plans by father-and-son development team Neal and Victor Rodin for 501-39 Spring Garden St. — now home to a Dollar General store and other retailers — call for 382 apartments and 60,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, said attorney Matthew McClure, who is representing the Rodins on the project.

Interesting.

For what it's worth, I believe the NLNA has jurisdiction as the RCO over the industrial area in question. For sure, the NLNA was the RCO that advised on the Target/Yards development. It (the NLNA) is very much interested in filling in the gaps between it and Old City.

Those gaps are very much psychological more than anything else. For sure, when I lived at 3rd&Brown I walked to Old City regularly. It's not even 10ish minutes on foot to 3rd&Arch from 3rd&Brown...but it "feels" further than that.

Also, given this development team, fingers crossed the retail is a Whole Foods or Whole Foods 365.

Very often these developers have existing relationships with the same commercial companies and just slot them in their buildings wherever they go up. Or even, the company goes to the developer and says...based on demographics we want a store in this area, but there is no appropriate space for us. Can you build one?

For sure, even though Fishtown has surpassed Northern Liberties as the "hot" neighborhood, Northern Liberties has become super dense and by far has higher family incomes. That's what's prompting companies like Target, Starbucks, Orange Theory, Heirloom to poke around the area.

As a long time resident of Northern Liberties (20+ years) I also acknowledge this parcel is absolutely Northern Liberties.

Mcgrath618, you do a lot of good things for this website and I truly appreciate it. However, your note above “Not quite NoLibs, not quite Center City.” is incorrect and misleading.

Although I was never on the NLNA board, I’ve been to plenty of meetings and know some of the people that are. It makes me wonder if I actually know 3rd&Brown from the neighborhood but we just never discussed this website.

Anyway, from what I’ve observed in those meetings as well as from various self-promotional neighborhood literature (neighborhood calendar, booklets, events, etc), and from living with long time Northern Liberties locals, the general thought is that Norhern Liberties boundaries include the industrial area up to Callowhill, to 6th, to Girard, to the river. But the “neighborhood” part of northern liberties stops at Spring Garden, at least for now. New residential development in the industrial area would obviously extend the “neighborhood” south.

That means Target, Yards Brewery, Silk City, City Fitness, etc are all in Northern Liberties.

Regarding some of the local promotional material distributed over the years, I found a 48 page glossy, thick page bound book (about 5"x4") which was distributed throughout the neighborhood in 2006. It's a fun piece which includes many neighborhood informational nuggets.

While certainly not an official map (I doubt one actually exists) it does provide insight on how the residents identified the neighborhood boundaries, at least at that time.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9f757f09_z.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5a2182655e.jpg

Might be my new favorite based on what it's replacing. Next let's get rid of the car wash down the street on Spring Garden.

That's very interesting. I've often wondered what's happened here.

Did anyone do anything right in the 60s or 70s? :hell:

Seems to me if Philadelphia simply refused to grant anyone a demolition permit between 1955 and 1985 or so this city would be in considerably better shape.

Amazon grocery store headed to new Northern Liberties project

Link to article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

Amazon grocery store headed to new Northern Liberties project

By Natalie Kostelni – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
Sep 28, 2020, 3:56pm EDT

Amazon.com Inc. has signed a lease for one of its new grocery stores in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, according to sources familiar with the deal.

The online retailer has taken 40,000 square feet of 60,000 square feet that is proposed for a new apartment complex at 5th and Spring Garden streets, the sources says. The project calls for a 13-story building with 382 apartments and underground parking with 206 spaces, according to plans filed earlier this year with Philadelphia’s Civic Design Review. The retail portion that Amazon would anchor faces 6th Street at Spring Garden, the plans show.

A representative from Rodin Development, a Philadelphia real estate company that is proposing the project, couldn’t be reached for comment. Officials at Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.

The project at 5th and Spring Garden would rise on a site that involved five different owners and took six months to negotiate. Ken Mallin of MPN Realty arranged the deal between Rodin Development and the owners of the property, which is a small retail strip center.

The project, though not a carbon copy, is similar to another development Rodin completed in 2016 called Rodin Square. That $160 million development has a 10-story apartment component called Dalian on the Park at 500 N. 21st that has 293 rental units as well as a 500-vehicle parking facility. The 85,000-square-foot retail component of that development is leased to Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon. Other tenants are Santander Bank, Jefferson Hospital and CVS.

In its ongoing quest to expand its grocery footprint beyond Whole Foods, Amazon has narrowed down two other locations in the Philadelphia suburbs for its new chain of stores. The two locations that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has zeroed in are in Bucks County. One deal has Amazon leasing 36,000 square feet of a 49,000-square-foot former Giant at Creekview Center off Easton Road in Warrington. Another site is 41,000 square feet of a former Kmart at the Brookwood Shopping Center on Street Road in Bensalem.

Amazon been experimenting with a grocery concept that is different from its Whole Foods chain and unlike its Amazon Go, which is more like a convenience store with no cashier and more like a traditional grocery.

Rodin is finishing up the permitting process and it was unclear when the real estate company would proceed with the Northern Liberties project. It will add to an ongoing revitalization of that corner of Philadelphia that began nearly five years ago.

That’s when Alliance HSP began converting the former Destination Maternity headquarters into a mixed-use development anchored by Target and Yards Brewing Co. A 50-unit apartments complex called SoNo will round out that development and expected to be completed next year.

Northern Liberties is becoming the most compelling non-Center City neighborhood in the city for retail.

It will be interesting to see how 2nd & Girard evolves as well as all of those 1000s of apartments come on line in the vicinity between NoLibs and South Kensington. Add the waterfront on top of that and it's a demographers dream.

This is true, but Spring Garden is DEAD. Major improvements need to be made between this site and 10th.

This is the first I've heard of this new Amazon grocery concept. Read a little about it and it doesn't sound all that exciting of a concept. We'll see though

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/busin...ore/index.html

Probably has something to do with the projects running right behind it from 9th to 7th. They have been renovating the building that houses Trilogy recently on 6th. Between 9th and 10th isn't bad though, their is one vacant lot next to the coffee shop.

Worst part of spring garden to me is the dismal stretch between broad and 11th.

This is all gonna fill in quick, I bet. This project will jump-start that.

The car-wash next to the church, across the street from the methadone clinic is one of the most uniquely American landscapes I've ever seen. Nothing says 2020 America like this intersection.

Sometimes I wonder why things take so long, but a stretch like spring garden has “good bones“ and location in spades – too much to continue as a traffic ditch at grade.

This location seems very Amazon-ish. But the locations of their suburban stores are...interesting. KoP or the Main Line. Would have been cool in Suburban Square.

Also, it appears that Philly's cash law did not in fact deter Amazon from entering the market. These stores are typically cashless?

From what I understand, this is not *that* kind of Amazon grocery store. This will be more of a traditional grocery with regular check out lanes not a convenience store with no traditional check outs like the Amazon Go concept. I have a post a little bit above that describes this.

The only odd thing about an Amazon store here is that it's literally right across the street from a huge new Target.

Permits Issued For A 373-Unit High-Rise At 521 Spring Garden Street

Read/view more here:
https://phillyyimby.com/2021/02/521-...ladelphia.html

Good to see this moving along. Between this and the new project between Green and Fairmount, this will be a huge change for that area. (it needs the change).

Not odd at all. Retailers tend to do better when clustered together, even when they overlap a bit in their offering.

Having these two near each other increases what we call the "funnel" in retailing. It brings more people to both locations, so even if conversion or AOV takes a hit, overall revenue per location will likely increase.

Construction Anticipated For A 373-Unit High-Rise At 501 Spring Garden Street

Rendering:
https://phillyyimby.com/wp-content/u..._b-777x389.jpg

Current site:
https://phillyyimby.com/wp-content/u...7-1024x683.jpg

Read/view more here:
https://phillyyimby.com/2021/03/cons...ladelphia.html

That’s like anticipating the Eschaton. It’ll happen… Eventually.

"Eschaton", are you trying to raise the tone of the discussion around here?! Is eschaton a new type of re-bar or something, maybe something to do with the curtain wall. Was it going to be used in the ACC? No hurry for the answer, we've got all the time in the world!

Well, all the time that's LEFT. :stunned:

From the Lowrise Thread:

Anybody want to tailgate while watching this hideous stripmall/nightmare being demo'd?

Hell, I’ll take the Cardinal back to Philly to come watch.

I didn't realize this is adjacent to the huge project planned between Fairmount and Green Street. Between these 2 projects, that is ~800 new residential units in the next 2-3 years. Transformative for that area.

My one wish is that the buildings use more brick and less metal. But I will still take it over the current setup.

I think that, between all of these new developments, the importance of the thoroughfare, and the general lack of transit in Philadelphia in general, that there is an argument for a Spring Garden subway. Or, at the very least, a light rail line.

I've always thought there should be a Circle Line!

The boundaries on the north would be Spring Garden or Girard.

The boundary on the south would be Washington.

The north south routes could be determined by somebody who knows better.

It could even be a light rail/tram that goes Washington -> Delaware -> Spring Garden (or Girard) -> ?

Anyways...you get the gist.

I can't think of a single recent project that will do more to 'restore' the fabric of a Philadelphia neighborhood.

Not only will it greatly heal Spring Garden as a pedestrian thoroughfare, but mentally, this goes a long way closing the gap between both NoLibs and Spring Garden/Ludlow and NoLibs and Old City.

This is huge!! Can't wait to see it start.

I'll try to get out and grab a pic today, but I noticed equipment on site near the corner of 5th and Spring Garden while driving over the weekend!

They dug out a decent section of the parking lot but all of the businesses are still open so I don't think its demo or foundation work. Also seems like too big a hole for soil samples/site prep so I'm not sure what is going on.

There was work on the same spot at some point in the last year where they dug up that section of the parking lot and then filled it back in when they were done so it may just be another phase of whatever they were doing then

i was by here today and can confirm it is indeed seemingly just work on the parking lot or utilities - no other demo yet. hopefully things will get moving shortly per previous intel.

Current site:
http://www.ocfrealty.com/wp-content/...6/IMG_9336.jpg

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phill...-spring-garden

Is this the updated rendering? Or opposite side of the street. This update was just posted here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CP3TU4eDqbJ/