Looks like 21 floors, 238 feet, all in one building. This project looks really great! Will be a huge transformation for the area for this to happen and the Divine Lorraine redevelopment.
This is impressive- lets hope this developer is the real deal. They may break ground before the DL gets started- but I guarantee you they will never get as much press as EB gets for a project that still hasnt begun. He can't be beat when it comes to getting media coverage of future plans.
This is impressive- lets hope this developer is the real deal. They may break ground before the DL gets started- but I guarantee you they will never get as much press as EB gets for a project that still hasnt begun. He can't be beat when it comes to getting media coverage of future plans.
I think 1300 fairmount is a situation where an institutional owner is using a developer friend to push through new zoning so they can flip the property with approvals. Similar to how garrison and NP rezoned the riverwalk property to later sell at a high price to PMC. I could be wrong, not close to the deal, but thats how it smells to me
Last edited by Larry King; Aug 20, 2016 at 11:52 AM.
Zoning Board to consider project at 1300 Fairmount
Quote:
Earlier this year, City Council passed an ordinance changing the zoning for a large vacant property at 1300 Fairmount Ave., behind the Divine Lorraine Hotel, which is being resurrected on North Broad Street. The bill was meant to allow a 486-unit apartment building and supermarket complex from RAL, a New York development company, to be built on the site.
On Tuesday, the project received generally positive remarks from the Civic Design Review Committee. It’s planned to be built in phases, with the first phase consisting of the supermarket, fronting on Ridge Avenue, and a 19-story apartment tower. Later phases include a shorter apartment building and a number of smaller town homes.
Members of some local community groups, West Poplar CDC and the 14th Ward Democratic Executive Committee, represented on the CDR Committee Tuesday asked for assurances that all phases of the project would be built. The Committee said it couldn’t extract promises of that nature, charged as it is with reviewing the public-realm impacts of major development projects. The developers, Robert Levine and his son, Spencer, said that they fully intend to build the whole project but they don’t want to make all the apartments available at once.
Other concerns were narrower. The developers are planning a landscaped plaza along the north side of the project, and Committee members had questions about the elevation of that plaza. Others wanted to emphasize that street lighting would be an important safety feature along the long blocks of Ridge and Fairmount. Some worried that having only one loading zone could cause traffic problems around the site.
Despite receiving a legislative rezoning, the developers will need to go to the zoning board later this month. They need to get a special exception for parking facilities; underground parking is permitted on the site. A special exception is a much lower hurdle to jump than a variance, which is what most developers need when they visit the zoning board. A variance is needed when a developer wants to do something specifically prohibited in the zoning code. Special exceptions are for uses that are permitted as long as they don’t have any extraordinarily harmful impact on the neighborhood.
This project really is awesome. The Divine Lorraine has one of the L&I work in progress signs on the front now, I don't think I noticed that before this week. Also next week one of my favorite pizza places in Philly is opening on the next block down a couple storefronts from Jimmy G's.
This project really is awesome. The Divine Lorraine has one of the L&I work in progress signs on the front now, I don't think I noticed that before this week. Also next week one of my favorite pizza places in Philly is opening on the next block down a couple storefronts from Jimmy G's.
If this gets built it is a huge milestone for this area. That vacant lot is horrible and honestly the DL being redone without that lot being addressed isn't good enough.
This is a nice architectural example that I wish some of the local clowns, err architects, would take note of at the lower construction price points. "But it doesn't have crazy random window patterns!!??"
Set-backs, interesting angles and unexpected lines - a building that you have to fully walk around to appreciate. The integrated greenery in the setbacks. There's an elegant statement to it. Good stuff, hope it gets built.
If this gets built it is a huge milestone for this area. That vacant lot is horrible and honestly the DL being redone without that lot being addressed isn't good enough.
This is true, unfortunately this area's ability to really transform into a special urban area went out the window when the fucking asshats at the PHA decided to plop this down - 1 mile from City Hall:
This is true, unfortunately this area's ability to really transform into a special urban area went out the window when the fucking asshats at the PHA decided to plop this down - 1 mile from City Hall:
This is true, unfortunately this area's ability to really transform into a special urban area went out the window when the fucking asshats at the PHA decided to plop this down - 1 mile from City Hall:
Agreed. Such an atrocity. Some of the blocks are fine, but the Levittown like suburban homes are a nightmare. What needs to be done - and this may be controversial - is move some of these residents to their new Sharswood development (which I pray to god will be urban). They can keep some of these residents in the area, but knock down blocks and rebuild urban. Mix in low income/subsidized housing and market rate housing, and then sell some blocks to developers as well. Until this is done, these projects will be a huge hole in the doughnut of development.
Agreed. Such an atrocity. Some of the blocks are fine, but the Levittown like suburban homes are a nightmare. What needs to be done - and this may be controversial - is move some of these residents to their new Sharswood development (which I pray to god will be urban). They can keep some of these residents in the area, but knock down blocks and rebuild urban. Mix in low income/subsidized housing and market rate housing, and then sell some blocks to developers as well. Until this is done, these projects will be a huge hole in the doughnut of development.
Turning huge inner-city acreage into cheap suburban tracts simply sends a message of no confidence in the city's future.
There are several random blocks that have been suburbanized further to the north and west, but none of them have been de-urbanized as completely as the Allen Hole.
There are actually two components to the Hole: the section west of 12th Street, which was called Poplar Homes or something like that, is a HOPE IV program under subsidized ownership. The Allen Homes proper remain PHA's purview. Those buildings are now ~20 years old, which means they're approaching their design life.
And with changes to the south and west, I hope they start MLK-izing.
(Incidentally, something that I think is coming...two of those Poplar homes will get purchased and demolished, the lot lines returned to a three-rowhome configuration, and the property redeveloped more densely.)