PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread X

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Thanks for sharing. I don't think any of us 'dislike' Dallas (Cowboys, sure), and we are just pointing out some standouts from the data.

I will say, it's strange that article blames the lack of parking for some of the leasing problems. Brandywine Realty, our local juggernaut, who also has long been the largest land owner in Austin Texas, has become rich beyond their dreams developing parking lots in Austin into more useful things like highrise living and more offices. I guess, it just comes down to different places wanting different things.

Lol I dislike Dallas. Had to spend nearly a month straight there in my mid 20s for my job. Unbelievably boring city. Truly the worst major city I've spent time in.

[PhillyGrunt215]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Thanks for sharing. I don't think any of us 'dislike' Dallas (Cowboys, sure), and we are just pointing out some standouts from the data.

I will say, it's strange that article blames the lack of parking for some of the leasing problems. Brandywine Realty, our local juggernaut, who also has long been the largest land owner in Austin Texas, has become rich beyond their dreams developing parking lots in Austin into more useful things like highrise living and more offices. I guess, it just comes down to different places wanting different things.

Me personally I hate everything Texas/Sunbelt/Southern. I especially dislike Dallas, and I really hate Austin. Passionately

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by allovertown

Lol I dislike Dallas. Had to spend nearly a month straight there in my mid 20s for my job. Unbelievably boring city. Truly the worst major city I've spent time in.

Originally Posted by PhillyGrunt215

Me personally I hate everything Texas/Sunbelt/Southern. I especially dislike Dallas, and I really hate Austin. Passionately

There we go, I knew that it wouldn't take long

[PhillyGrunt215]

The moment I saw that comment about people not hating Dallas/Texas/etc. I knew I had to make an account to speak my opinions lolol.

[cardeza]

Originally Posted by iheartphilly

^
I spent a month in Houston working and did a lot of driving, and the highways there are huge and as far as the eye can see and all concrete. Longer life span with concrete. They look brand new and are all elevated but in great condition; no trash on highways, but the biggest drawback is tolls on the tollway almost no matter where you went.

And, Houston is unique in that it has a core downtown with tall blgds. But along the highways around Houston are clusters of highrises and midrises, so it's not concentrated like most big cities.

the tolls are related to the maintenance. Extra money helps a lot.

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by cardeza

the tolls are related to the maintenance. Extra money helps a lot.

also related to paying off bonds used to pay for the design and construction of the toll road system in Harris County.

[3rd&Brown]

For sure the hybrid model is here to stay but for people to act like nobody is going back to the office ever again are completely offbase.

I've been commuting to the WTC in NY 2X a week for my job and every day my Amtrak train is oversold. Anyone who gets on in Trenton is standing. This has been the case every week since the beginning of March. I transfer at Newark Penn to the PATH and yesterday the PATH trains were shoulder to shoulder.

As for Dallas, it's just like any other sunbelt city. All the talk about it being "cheaper" and better quality of life only really applies if you prefer suburban living (which I assume most on this board don't). Sure, if you don't mind living in McKinney 30 miles north of downtown Dallas, yeah, it's great. And we don't really have anything like it anymore because there are not many places in the metro anymore for greenfield development. But if you want any semblance of urbanity you have to live inside whatever version of the "perimeter" all of these sunbelt cities have and within that zone it's always very expensive. This can be said of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, and Houston.

[TonyTone]

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by cardeza

the tolls are related to the maintenance. Extra money helps a lot.

Here we go again.

We have the highest gas tax in the nation. We can afford to sweep a highway shoulder more than once every 5 years.

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Here we go again.

We have the highest gas tax in the nation. We can afford to sweep a highway shoulder more than once every 5 years.

Speaking of cleaning I have seen Penndot closing the right lane and shoulder to pick trash up along 95 at night.

Now how often they do that im not sure but at least there's some sign of maintenance happening.

[City Wide]

Anyone know who controls the air rights for building on top of whatever the Gallery is being called these days? There's a piece in the Inky today about Preit wanting to build apartments at their suburban malls, and they are meeting piles of push back. It just made me think that here is a site that wouldn't have any zoning or sewer problems, and not only is the site 'cleared' the foundations are complete. Plus it seems that new apartment towers aren't having any problem filling up in CC, another 2 or 300 units seems like no big deal.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by TonyTone

Speaking of cleaning I have seen Penndot closing the right lane and shoulder to pick trash up along 95 at night.

Now how often they do that im not sure but at least there's some sign of maintenance happening.

WHERE?!?!

With an actual sweeper? Or just big debris?

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

WHERE?!?!

With an actual sweeper? Or just big debris?

2 trucks & 2 Men walking along the shoulder picking up the big stuff & throwing it in the dump trucks. No street sweepers atleast yet.

Also I was just in the areas around Lehigh & Kensington & they do have the street sweepers out in full force.

Its actually pretty nice to see some cleaning going on around the city again. Quality of life improvements are surly underway.

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by City Wide

Anyone know who controls the air rights for building on top of whatever the Gallery is being called these days? There's a piece in the Inky today about Preit wanting to build apartments at their suburban malls, and they are meeting piles of push back. It just made me think that here is a site that wouldn't have any zoning or sewer problems, and not only is the site 'cleared' the foundations are complete. Plus it seems that new apartment towers aren't having any problem filling up in CC, another 2 or 300 units seems like no big deal.

The biggest pushback is their attempt to construct an 11-story residential building in Plymouth Meeting.

For the Gallery, that should have been the plan all along, but I wouldn't hold my breath. But I'd rather see the South side of the 1000 block of Market transformed at this point.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

The biggest pushback is their attempt to construct an 11-story residential building in Plymouth Meeting.

For the Gallery, that should have been the plan all along, but I wouldn't hold my breath. But I'd rather see the South side of the 1000 block of Market transformed at this point.

IIRC National owns most of, if not all of that block.

[thoughtcriminal]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

For the Gallery, that should have been the plan all along

It was. the structure was designed to have towers built on top of the mall.

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by thoughtcriminal

It was. the structure was designed to have towers built on top of the mall.

I bet this happens relatively soon.....

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by thoughtcriminal

It was. the structure was designed to have towers built on top of the mall.

Which baffles me even more as to why that wasn't incorporated into the recent renovation... Is there an actual reason beyond a negligent renovation?

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

Which baffles me even more as to why that wasn't incorporated into the recent renovation... Is there an actual reason beyond a negligent renovation?

What's negligent about undertaking a renovation of the "podium" without launching a new high-rise development on the roof? Different projects with different considerations. That said, I'm not impressed with PREIT, so I'm sure the residential construction market in the Market East area will come and go before they put much thought into it. Certainly adding residents on top of retail would help the mall, but, unlike their proposals in the 'burbs, it is already in an urban environment and on top of a transit hub.

[William Van Alen]

Originally Posted by City Wide

Anyone know who controls the air rights for building on top of whatever the Gallery is being called these days? There's a piece in the Inky today about Preit wanting to build apartments at their suburban malls, and they are meeting piles of push back. It just made me think that here is a site that wouldn't have any zoning or sewer problems, and not only is the site 'cleared' the foundations are complete. Plus it seems that new apartment towers aren't having any problem filling up in CC, another 2 or 300 units seems like no big deal.

I think PREIT has a pretty small stake in FD at this point. This is a good piece by one of the only analysts who seems to care about PREIT anymore that gives some idea of the FD situation: https://seekingalpha.com/article/449...efore-too-late

According to that piece, PREIT's equity stake is only $16.3 million. As he points out, there's a possibility they just sell their stake to Macerich, but that's probably also dependent on them getting some of these apartment approvals on their other core properties.

I fear that they're 3-5 years late to the "convert your malls to mixed use communities" game.