PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[PHLtoNYC]

Nice looking building planned for Frankford Avenue. The only sad part is that it will cover the cat Fishtown mural. I always loved that mural, it gives off Wynwood vibes.

150-Unit Building Planned on Frankford Ave in Fishtown

http://www.rising.realestate/150-uni...e-in-fishtown/

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

Good zoning and a great project. This stretch of Girard is coming along nicely.

Are there any replacement plans for the Dollar Tree across the street?

Brewerytown’s Bordeaux Building Bets on Bricks, Bringing Better Design Than Most

https://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phil...sign-than-most

Great looking building(s)! Brewerytown is on fire.

Current progress at 26th & Girard:


Rendering of project:


New building at Taney & Girard:

[summersm343]

Surface Lot Will Disappear Next to Barcade, Five Story Building Will Rise in Fishtown

Current site at 1120 Frankford Ave:


Aerial rendering of project:


Rendering of project:


Read/view more here:
https://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phil...ding-will-rise

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

Thoughts? I can share some tidbits if people need.

The city desperately needs more public housing. There’s a perfect site in West Philadelphia.

https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate...-20220115.html

Glad those towers are coming down, but yes, affordable housing needs to be incorporated into the project with market rate housing. I think it's been proven that stuffing a bunch of low income units on top of each other doesn't work. I like the plan from Post Brothers. Looking like a nice site plan:

[summersm343]

Penn to invest nearly $5M over 5 years in another West Philly school

The University of Pennsylvania is poised to change the fortunes of another West Philadelphia public school, pouring nearly $1 million annually for five years into Lea Elementary.

It would be the second such transformational, recurring commitment Penn would make to a Philadelphia School District school. The university already partners with Penn Alexander, providing it with $1,300 a student — money used to pay for extra staff and other supports.

Lea parents were told of the coming commitment Friday evening. The school board is expected to vote Jan. 27 on a measure that would enter the district into a memorandum of agreement with Penn worth $4.1 million over five years.

The reason? Penn, the district, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers “wish to emulate the success of the Penn Alexander School and desire to collaborate to support the Henry C. Lea School,” according to the board resolution. The money “will further support the provision of the highest-quality educational opportunities for children in West Philadelphia and Penn’s desire to collaboratively support Lea.”

The aim is wide-ranging, according to board documents, and includes improving instruction and school culture, and bringing more innovation and flexibility to school operations. Lea would become a “vigorous clinical setting” for teacher development and “testing and refining effective instructional and curricular programs and practices through applied research,” and serving as a sort of research lab to replicate and scale the model over the next five years.

Early indications are that both the university and district understand the possible large-scale implications of the Lea gift, and are taking steps to assure the community that existing families will be able to stay, and will have a say in what happens at the school going forward. Both Penn and the district, the school board document said, have as a goal for the partnership “enhancing appreciation for racial, ethnic, economic, and other forms of diversity among students, teachers and staff.”

Read more here:
https://www.inquirer.com/news/penn-l...-20220117.html

[PurpleWhiteOut]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Glad those towers are coming down, but yes, affordable housing needs to be incorporated into the project with market rate housing. I think it's been proven that stuffing a bunch of low income units on top of each other doesn't work. I like the plan from Post Brothers. Looking like a nice site plan:

It probably would involve multiple more properties, but I wish they could connect this site up to Haverford Ave and reconnect this parcel to the grid better. Otherwise it will be kind of a gated/closed off community. I get that it might not be possible or out of scope, but the super blocks in this area kind of suck

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

It probably would involve multiple more properties, but I wish they could connect this site up to Haverford Ave and reconnect this parcel to the grid better. Otherwise it will be kind of a gated/closed off community. I get that it might not be possible or out of scope, but the super blocks in this area kind of suck

Reconnecting this area to the grid is also hampered by the El rising from underground right in front of this site.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Penn to invest nearly $5M over 5 years in another West Philly school



Read more here:
https://www.inquirer.com/news/penn-l...-20220117.html

Huge impact to those neighborhoods. I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen the same commitments from Drexel yet in Mantua/Powelton. I was under the assumption that they were looking to mimic what Penn has done to their surrounding neighborhood. I know John Frey has been busy with Brandywine and uCity Square, but figured they'd be looking at a similar school partnership as well.

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Huge impact to those neighborhoods. I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen the same commitments from Drexel yet in Mantua/Powelton. I was under the assumption that they were looking to mimic what Penn has done to their surrounding neighborhood. I know John Frey has been busy with Brandywine and uCity Square, but figured they'd be looking at a similar school partnership as well.

They are to a similar extent. From my experience at Drexel, they were historically more involved with the surrounding community than Penn was. Penn just writes bigger checks.
But I am happy to see both Universities booming and heavily involved in their surrounding communities.

Drexel and School District of Philadelphia Break Ground on Facility for K-8 Public Schools in West Philadelphia

https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2019/...ublic-Schools/

[PhilliesPhan]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Huge impact to those neighborhoods. I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen the same commitments from Drexel yet in Mantua/Powelton. I was under the assumption that they were looking to mimic what Penn has done to their surrounding neighborhood. I know John Frey has been busy with Brandywine and uCity Square, but figured they'd be looking at a similar school partnership as well.

I know that Temple is a state-related university with a smaller (but still sizable) endowment, but I wish that Temple would make a similar commitment to schools in its surrounding neighborhood. Temple could cause the area surrounding it to explode if it made such a commitment to Meade, Dunbar, Ludlow, McKinley, or any of the others below Lehigh Avenue.

Bringing it back to Penn, I hope that they will continue to invest in other West/Southwest Philly schools, such as Comgeys and Harrington.

[Nanyika]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

It probably would involve multiple more properties, but I wish they could connect this site up to Haverford Ave and reconnect this parcel to the grid better. Otherwise it will be kind of a gated/closed off community. I get that it might not be possible or out of scope, but the super blocks in this area kind of suck

The "super-blocks" are a legacy from the 19th century, when the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was located there and the area was quite rural. I don't agree with those who advocate completely breaking up the area into a grid, but I do share concerns about constructing another community that is closed-off from the rest of the city.

In my opinion, the Post Brothers plan is terrible and should be rejected. Where there now is a beautiful park, with mature trees, the plan would erect a sprawling "campus" of low buildings, broken up in the interior by small and unusable "green spaces" and cul-de-sac roads for cars. It repeats some of the worst aspects of the postwar housing projects — isolated "garden-style" buildings on dead-end streets.

Instead, the buildings could be clustered around the edges of the park. Busti Street could be made into a real urban street (even divided into two parallel streets), and connecting with Haverford Avenue, as it does now. The streets would be lined with buildings in the areas now taken up by parking lots and the remains of the towers. The present park would remain as an irregularly shaped "square" in the middle of the neighborhood, and would be bordered by streets and housing, similar to other urban squares in Philadelphia.

[Jayfar]

CDR agenda for February 1st is up: https://www.phila.gov/media/20220118...02.01.2022.pdf

Submitted plans are on the meetings page: https://www.phila.gov/departments/ph...blic-meetings/

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Nanyika

The "super-blocks" are a legacy from the 19th century, when the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was located there and the area was quite rural. I don't agree with those who advocate completely breaking up the area into a grid, but I do share concerns about constructing another community that is closed-off from the rest of the city.

In my opinion, the Post Brothers plan is terrible and should be rejected. Where there now is a beautiful park, with mature trees, the plan would erect a sprawling "campus" of low buildings, broken up in the interior by small and unusable "green spaces" and cul-de-sac roads for cars. It repeats some of the worst aspects of the postwar housing projects — isolated "garden-style" buildings on dead-end streets.

Instead, the buildings could be clustered around the edges of the park. Busti Street could be made into a real urban street (even divided into two parallel streets), and connecting with Haverford Avenue, as it does now. The streets would be lined with buildings in the areas now taken up by parking lots and the remains of the towers. The present park would remain as an irregularly shaped "square" in the middle of the neighborhood, and would be bordered by streets and housing, similar to other urban squares in Philadelphia.

Are there any rendering of the proposals?

I'll be happy once something is done. Those buildings are a menace. I have a rental on Powelton across the athletic fields and earlier this year my tenants reported a bullet hole in their living room. The police said that the bullet came from a spatter of shots from one of the towers. It was quite a crazy shot based on how far away they are. I'm very thankful nobody (at least my tenants) was hurt, but the fact that they're literally raining bullets on the neighborhood is a bit terrifying.

Mixing in market rate and less stratified affordable housing can only help the situation. Hopefully there are some good amenities and green space. The neighborhood up there needs it.

[skyhigh07]

Looks like Artizia, which is a high end women’s clothing store, is looking to set up on Walnut. It appears to be a major “high street brand” having locations in Georgetown, SoHo and 5th Ave. Even with the current retail apocalypse, this is certainly a good sign for the long term vitality of Walnut. It’s a good indicator that even with the setbacks, our assumptions that landlords are confidant they can hold out for luxury brands and the allure of additional high end residential in the area as a selling point appear to be correct.

https://www.phila.gov/media/20220118...-Walnut-St.pdf

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

Looks like Artizia, which is a high end women’s clothing store, is looking to set up on Walnut. It appears to be a major “high street brand” having locations in Georgetown, SoHo and 5th Ave. Even with the current retail appocopse, this is certainly a good sign for the long term vitality of Walnut. It’s a good indicator that even with the setbacks, our assumptions that landlords are confidant they can hold out for luxury brands and the allure of additional high end residential in the area as a selling point appear to be correct.

https://www.phila.gov/media/20220118...-Walnut-St.pdf

I just came here to post that. I have no feelings about the present facade, since they previously butchered it for H&M by removing the modern c. 1961 cylindrical vestibule.

…which see in this PICH discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Phil...9693888652584/

[skyhigh07]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

I just came here to post that. I have no feelings about the present facade, since they previously butchered it by removing the modern cylindrical vestibule for H&M.

That’s my take as well. It looks like the HC Staff denied the facade alteration. I frankly didn’t mind it. Hopefully, the next iteration will move through swiftly.

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

Looks like Artizia, which is a high end women’s clothing store, is looking to set up on Walnut. It appears to be a major “high street brand” having locations in Georgetown, SoHo and 5th Ave. Even with the current retail apocalypse, this is certainly a good sign for the long term vitality of Walnut. It’s a good indicator that even with the setbacks, our assumptions that landlords are confidant they can hold out for luxury brands and the allure of additional high end residential in the area as a selling point appear to be correct.

https://www.phila.gov/media/20220118...-Walnut-St.pdf

Awesome news! Great to see an actual store opening on Walnut.

There is a huge Artizia in Soho (as you said), always packed. I've wondered for years why this store is not on Walnut.

There is also an outpost in KoP.

[PurpleWhiteOut]

As long as they sort out the facade issue. The brand wants black metal bc that's apparently their brand, but the HC doesn't want those materials at all so that seems like an impasse unless someone budges. Googling Aritzia, they do seem pretty consistent with the look they're asking for. AKA, Scotch and Soda, Barbour, Loft next door, and probably more have prominently black facades. Maybe they'd get approval with only recladding the lower-half, but idk I think denial on a non contributing property here is a little much from the HC

[Raja]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

As long as they sort out the facade issue. The brand wants black metal bc that's apparently their brand, but the HC doesn't want those materials at all so that seems like an impasse unless someone budges. Googling Aritzia, they do seem pretty consistent with the look they're asking for. AKA, Scotch and Soda, Barbour, Loft next door, and probably more have prominently black facades. Maybe they'd get approval with only recladding the lower-half, but idk I think denial on a non contributing property here is a little much from the HC

I think black trim would be sufficient, similar to their Union Square location: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7375...7i16384!8i8192

They make some solid winter coats. I think there's actually room for them in the current Walnut St. market.

[skyhigh07]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

As long as they sort out the facade issue. The brand wants black metal bc that's apparently their brand, but the HC doesn't want those materials at all so that seems like an impasse unless someone budges. Googling Aritzia, they do seem pretty consistent with the look they're asking for. AKA, Scotch and Soda, Barbour, Loft next door, and probably more have prominently black facades. Maybe they'd get approval with only recladding the lower-half, but idk I think denial on a non contributing property here is a little much from the HC

The Artizia facade at Georgetown is white. I don’t have an issue with the current plan, but from the HC’s notes, it sounds like if they just chose a lighter color for the stone, it’d likely pass. Would be shocked if this was a dealbreaker lol