[summersm343]

Why Parkway’s Doubling Down on North Broad

Along with Eric Blumenfeld, Parkway Corporation has become one of the most important developers along the North Broad Street corridor. And like Blumenfeld, Parkway sees the street as having untapped potential as an all-day live/work/play environment. (The folks at Parkway should know: the company headquarters is at Broad and Race streets.)

What’s different about Parkway’s latest development proposal is that it seeks to combine all three of those elements into a single package at a convenient location.

“It’s my dream to build significant office space there, to get some jobs into that neighborhood,” said Parkway CEO Robert Zuritsky. “The retail and residential are a slam dunk, but [North Broad] is also an important commercial district.”

“The office space is the first driver of this project,” Zuritsky said.

That’s apparent from the design of the project as well: the office tower is the larger of the two buildings in the BLTa-designed complex.

The development consists of a 13-story, 140-foot-tall residential tower with a parapet that slopes to the west at the top to shield the rooftop terrace from the 20-story, 330-foot office tower to its east. That tower is similar in massing to the firm’s initial East Market tower, with a slender tower perched atop a four-story podium containing two levels of retail and two of office space, with an office amenity level atop the podium.

The office tower’s design, however, is a significant departure from BLTa’s usual work: an all-glass slab whose service core is attached to its western end. The slab itself is distinguished by alternating two-story bands of beveled and flat glass panels that also cover the tower’s exoskeleton of columns and diagonal bracing, both necessary in order to produce large, column-free floorplates.

The design also gives the building a great amount of flexibility that will allow it to be configured to suit a wide range of possible tenants.

That’s good for Parkway, which has not yet identified a lead office tenant. And while Zuritsky is in search of office tenants for this speculative building, he said that if none are found, it won’t sink the project: “If we can’t make it office, we’ll do residential.”

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/business/20...GGFOX8g3doX.99