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  #41  
Old Posted Mar 18, 2020, 10:57 AM
Ifactwo Ifactwo is offline
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Loved it! Can't wait to see it finished!
     
     
  #42  
Old Posted May 12, 2020, 11:58 AM
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$280M University City project 'intentionally paused' by developer

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...ntionally.html

Quote:
Ventas Inc., one of the development partners in the One UCity Square development underway in University City, has temporarily put the project on hold.

The company plans to “bolster financial flexibility by reducing 2020 total capital expenditures by nearly $300 million to a total of $500 million with the decline led by pausing ground-up developments not yet substantially underway, notably One UCity in Philadelphia and 4210 [Duncan] in St. Louis,” said Robert Probst, executive vice president and CFO of the Chicago company, during a first-quarter earnings call on May 8.

In subsequent supplemental reports, the company said that it "intentionally paused" the Philadelphia and St. Louis projects "which are in attractive innovation districts but not substantially underway."

The project first came to a halt when Gov. Tom Wolf ordered only essential projects could continue construction and put a moratorium on those deemed nonessential.

“We have been talking to Ventas to get the project started back up,” said John Grady, senior vice president of development at Wexford Science & Technology, one of the development partners on the project with Ventas and the University City Science Center. Ventas has a 92% ownership stake in the project and has funded $17.6 million of the project as of March 31.

One uCity was in the early stages and had just started construction and excavation, Grady said. No date has been set for the project to start back up. “I think the rationale is let’s pause, revaluate and move forward,” Grady said.

It is not unusual for developments to get reassessed during this time because of the uncertainty of when the pandemic will be over and business can return to normal.

Ventas, Wexford and the Science Center officially broke ground on One uCity Square, a $280 million, 400,000-square-foot building, in January. The project is being built on speculation as a result of the strong demand for office space in University City. Each building that has been developed as part of uCity Square has leased up quickly and at record rents.

A new 45,000-square-foot public park will be developed adjacent to One uCity Square. It was designed by Andropogon Associates and will have hardscapes and softscapes, a water feature and close to 15,000 square feet of retail frontage. Both the park and the new building are expected to be completed by the end of 2021, though it's uncertain if that target date will remain.

While the project is paused, it is still being marketed to companies to lease space. “We have seen prospective tenants for One uCity and getting proposals and I think that is all positive,” Grady said. “I think it speaks to the strength of life sciences and that this is not commodity space. They need to plan for the growth of their businesses.”
     
     
  #43  
Old Posted May 12, 2020, 12:20 PM
cardeza cardeza is offline
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thats not good, but Im sure we will see more of this
     
     
  #44  
Old Posted May 12, 2020, 10:40 PM
reparcsyks reparcsyks is offline
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I’m sure companies around the world are rethinking their leases and any new construction plans. The pandemic has proven that working from home is a viable option for many people. It’s better for the environment and, for those who like it, it’s better for their work/life balance. As things open back up, I believe offices will become smaller and be optional, for those who enjoy working in an office. Just today, Twitter announced that working from home is now the available to any employee indefinitely.

With that said, the Science Center offers amenities and experiences that you can’t get at home, most importantly specialized lab space. I believe this complex will rebound and continue to grow.

The times, they have changed. I predict more residential towers, with WeWork type amenities built into the building.
     
     
  #45  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 12:25 AM
PurpleWhiteOut PurpleWhiteOut is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reparcsyks View Post
I
With that said, the Science Center offers amenities and experiences that you can’t get at home, most importantly specialized lab space. I believe this complex will rebound and continue to grow.
That's what I'm thinking. Besides funding snags, I think most of the west Philly plans should be OK in the long run. Biotech needs physical research space, so it should be a safer bet than traditional office
     
     
  #46  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 2:47 AM
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Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut View Post
That's what I'm thinking. Besides funding snags, I think most of the west Philly plans should be OK in the long run. Biotech needs physical research space, so it should be a safer bet than traditional office
Agree 100%. You can’t do biotech at home. These companies will always require space. Long-term Im not worried about UCity Square - it’ll get built. Though I do wonder if the science center would become comparatively less attractive than, say, the Navy Yard, which is a burgeoning biotech cluster in its own right. And besides, I think the predictions of coronavirus decimating office markets is somewhat overblown. Biologically humans *will* develop herd immunity to the virus, by some combination of human suffering and science being able to provide us with a vaccine sometime in the medium-range future whilst we mitigate suffering in the meantime. This isn’t particularly surprising. Im aware of Ventas actively market the site and reworking the plan.
     
     
  #47  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 5:33 AM
PurpleWhiteOut PurpleWhiteOut is offline
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I'm just speculating, but I could see both spaces filling a different niche. The Navy Yard has the advantage of larger space, especially if there's any kind of physical production involved, but UCity imo will end up more attractive due to the location being near Drexel, Penn, HUP, and CHOP, which allows for greater institutional collaboration, employee recruitment, as well as a pool of patients for studies
     
     
  #48  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 12:12 PM
christof christof is offline
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The Science Center and Schuylkill Yards construction projects are the canaries in the mine.

You will see what the real economic damage, both short term and long term, that has been caused by the virus lockdown with what proposed construction will actually be completed at both of these sites.
     
     
  #49  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 4:12 PM
UrbanRevival UrbanRevival is offline
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Originally Posted by christof View Post
The Science Center and Schuylkill Yards construction projects are the canaries in the mine.

You will see what the real economic damage, both short term and long term, that has been caused by the virus lockdown with what proposed construction will actually be completed at both of these sites.
It's true that there's likely to be a notable changes in what's proposed and what's built at this point, but it's far to early to determine how those changes will manifest themselves. There's obviously a much bigger push for telework now, and much of that will likely end up being permanent, but there will never be a real substitute for in-person collaboration as long as there are human beings--that's just basic fact. In recognition of this, companies will always want to have some type of physical presence; it's just how that must be configured with a mind towards public health in a new post-pandemic age.

In less philosophical terms, less demand for workspace among individual companies is also likely to be offset by the need for more physical distancing space and individualized offices over "hoteling" or "co-working" spaces. That trend will only serve to push overall spaces to the larger side, rather than a trend of overall reduction.

Who knows, it might end up being a "wash" in the long term.

Last edited by UrbanRevival; May 13, 2020 at 4:29 PM.
     
     
  #50  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 9:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanRevival View Post
It's true that there's likely to be a notable changes in what's proposed and what's built at this point, but it's far to early to determine how those changes will manifest themselves. There's obviously a much bigger push for telework now, and much of that will likely end up being permanent, but there will never be a real substitute for in-person collaboration as long as there are human beings--that's just basic fact. In recognition of this, companies will always want to have some type of physical presence; it's just how that must be configured with a mind towards public health in a new post-pandemic age.

In less philosophical terms, less demand for workspace among individual companies is also likely to be offset by the need for more physical distancing space and individualized offices over "hoteling" or "co-working" spaces. That trend will only serve to push overall spaces to the larger side, rather than a trend of overall reduction.

Who knows, it might end up being a "wash" in the long term.
I work for a company where I'd say 80% of us are remote, in an industry that is trending towards remote work as well. Even still, we have a large HQ on the west coast with numerous offices across the US - 3 in the Philly area alone. They are small, but in person office space is still important - we actually recently opened a center city office for client meetings and center city workers. I like working from home just because time is rare for me these days and not commuting really helps out, but there is something to be said about working in an office with people that you work with directly on a day to day basis. I would have found it very difficult starting my career as a remote worker. I think companies may downsize their space, but highly doubt they are going to nix their offices altogether. Remote working isn't a new concept, it's been gaining traction for a good decade, this just forced some old school companies to try it out without giving them any other choice.
     
     
  #51  
Old Posted May 13, 2020, 11:08 PM
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^
I think if you do a lot of intellectual and independent work and produce independent work product, work at home is great, especially if things get back to normal. Trying to juggle daycare, home-schooling and work at home now isn't that great now and is counterproductive but most employers recognize this and give allowance that family life comes first.

On the flip side, if you do a lot of collaborative work and need to meet clients face to face, have a company office with rooms for collaboration is ideal or you like the office interactions, then work at home isn't ideal for you. That being said, COVID-19 will temporary modify how offices and conference rooms are used, at least until a vaccine and treatment is found and used and we beat this COVID-19.
     
     
  #52  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2020, 12:28 AM
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Some good news!

Quote:
Growing biotech firm signs on as first tenant for big office tower in West Philly

Biotechnology company Century Therapeutics LLC has signed a lease at One uCity Square, making it the first confirmed tenant at the office tower now being erected in West Philadelphia .

Century develops treatments that use stem cells to target tumors and blood cancer. It plans to lease 32,500 square feet of office and lab space in the building, which is part of the large uCity Square development site centered at 37th and Market Streets. The news comes from commercial real estate firm CBRE, whose life-science brokerage team helped negotiate the deal.
https://www.inquirer.com/business/ce...-20200601.html
     
     
  #53  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2020, 3:05 AM
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CBRE Expands Life Sciences Group into Greater Philadelphia
https://www.globest.com/2020/05/26/c...20200501225657

Included in that announcement...
Quote:
CBRE’s latest research suggests that more than 1 million square feet of life sciences real estate requirements have entered the Philadelphia region within the past 12 months. The firm intends to capitalize on the market’s growing demand by expanding its Life Sciences Consulting Practice with a local Philadelphia life sciences team.
     
     
  #54  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2020, 6:20 AM
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Awesome, that's great news. Is getting one tenant enough to restart construction because they'll be expecting the space?
     
     
  #55  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2020, 4:48 PM
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^^^^^^^^^
That is good news. I don't see why a company would sign up to lease space unless there was a known time table for when it would be available. Hopefully they'll just keep their present plans and move ahead.
     
     
  #56  
Old Posted Aug 14, 2020, 2:43 PM
MadhattersLT MadhattersLT is offline
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Anyone hear anything about this, looks like they are pouring concrete on the site today.
     
     
  #57  
Old Posted Aug 14, 2020, 3:19 PM
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summersm343 summersm343 is offline
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Nice! Someone get a photo and then we can move to “Under Construction.” Maybe they decided to resume the project?
     
     
  #58  
Old Posted Aug 14, 2020, 4:56 PM
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Originally Posted by summersm343 View Post
Nice! Someone get a photo and then we can move to “Under Construction.” Maybe they decided to resume the project?
They got a foundation-only permit in May so maybe they're just building the foundation for now. Not necessarily a guarantee of construction, but better than nothing. The foundation includes an underground garage for the complex so maybe that's the motivation... in the early 80's Independence Place at 6th and Locust was in development hell but it's underground parking garage got built nonetheless.

Last edited by Aaamazarite; Aug 14, 2020 at 5:37 PM.
     
     
  #59  
Old Posted Sep 18, 2020, 9:49 PM
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Couldn’t get a photo but saw lots of heavy equipment and drilling on site today.
     
     
  #60  
Old Posted Sep 19, 2020, 1:45 AM
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Awesome! Someone get a photo. If it's caisson installation, we'll move this one to under construction.
     
     
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