$140M Rodin Square Project to Break Ground by Labor Day

Developers hope to break ground on the huge Rodin Square mixed-use complex in Philadelphia’s Art Museum district by early September. The 651,000 square foot development at 22nd and Spring Garden Street will include a 60,000 square foot Whole Foods topped by a 35,000 square foot “Sky Park”, featuring a beautifully landscaped green roof with an infinity swimming pool, a grill and bar area, outdoor dining overlooking the Ben Franklin Parkway.

A nine-story residential building, called The Dalian on Fairmout, will be built above the market and include 293-unit luxury apartments with an incredible view of the city skyline.

Designed by Jim Volsky of MV+A Architects, The Dalian will also feature a second-level 12,000-square-foot glass lobby.

Rodin Square will be located at 501 N. 22nd Street - walking distance from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation and Fairmount Park.

Construction of the mixed-use complex will replace a Best Western hotel that is currently on the site.

The development will include almost 500 parking spaces, with one level of below-grade parking to serve the retail component.

The residential units will be served by an multistory above-grade parking structure, screened from the street.

"It's a great project in Philadelphia. It's going to be the next premier apartment building," said Will Simpson, an associate at Federal Capital Partners. “This is going to be a very highly-amenitized, first-class luxury apartment building."

The price tag for the project is estimated at $140 million, with construction expected to be complete by winter 2016.

Neal Rodin is the project’s developer, and INTECH Construction of Philadelphia is providing the construction management.

Massive $660M Delaware Riverfront Apartment Complex

A massive 2.5 million square foot development project will be built on a vacant, 5.3-acre site along the Delaware River waterfront. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission approved Waterfront Renaissance Associates’ $660 million plan to build Renaissance Plaza at the corner of Callowhill Street and Columbus Boulevard. Construction of four mixed-use towers will kick off by the summer of 2015 and will be divided into four phases, with one tower completed in each development stage.  

Combined, the four glass and metal high-rises will comprise 1,411 market-rate apartments and 70,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The complex will also include two sport centers, several bars and restaurants and an enclosed parking garage with 500 spaces.

Renaissance Plaza is being developed by Waterfront Renaissance Associates, along with its affiliate Carl Marks & Co., the New York investment firm that pieced together four tracts that make up the plot about three decades ago.

The $660 million development will consist of four buildings that range in height from 21 to 31 stories. The tallest tower will reach 240 feet into the sky, a significant change from the original proposed height of 480 feet. The project will also include a green roof, and will seek LEED Gold Status

Building the first phase would take about 16 months, with each phase of development comprising about 360 apartments. Plans also include 16 townhouses, nearly 70,000 square feet of retail space, and 653 parking spaces along with more than an acre of landscaped public plazas.

A swath of landscaped public space would run through the property, which the developer believes will draw people from the neighborhoods through the property, and down to the river.  Some roofs would offer additional green space.

Since the complex will be built on the west side of Delaware Avenue, not the river side, the developer will pay for a crossing signal to get people to the river itself, and will make improvements between the project and the Spring Garden transit stop.

Soil conditions at the site require piles to support the buildings - 700 are required. They will be drilled, not driven, because of sewer infrastructure.

The project is within the area covered by the newly adopted Central Delaware Overlay, which sets a height limit of 100 feet, but allows developers to earn height bonuses up by providing public amenities.

A developer who maxed out the public amenities – which include building a section of waterfront trail, building to LEED environmental standards, making transit improvement and providing public green space – can build up to 244 feet.

The site along the Delaware River waterfront had many bold ambitions that never came to fruition.

The site had been known for the last 15 years as the future address of the Greater Philadelphia World Trade Center.

That development would have entailed more than 3 million square feet of space consisting of a residential tower and three office buildings, parking for more than 2,000 vehicles and 118,000 square feet of retail space. That never happened.

Last fall, Waterfront Renaissance Associates, made a leap across the river and decided it would move the Greater Philadelphia World Trade Center project to Camden, New Jersey, where the developer has proposed building a 2.3-million-square-foot campus on 16 acres at the former Riverfront State Prison.
  

10-Story ‘Study Hotel’ to Rise in University City

Drexel University plans to construct a 212-room Study Hotel on the northwest corner of 33rd and Chestnut streets, where the James E. Marks Intercultural Center is now located. The 10-story hotel will total 145,000 square feet and include a 105-seat restaurant and bar, 7,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. The project is a short walk from 30th Street Station and is scheduled to be completed by 2016.

The hotel is being developed by Drexel University in partnership with Hospitality 3 and will be operated by its subsidiary, Study Hotels. The mantra for their hotels is "Read, Rest, Reflect."

The concept caters to college and university markets and will simply be called “The Study at University City”.  The project is being designed by Philadelphia-based DIGSAU Architecture. 

This is the second Study Hotel to be built, after a successful one in New Haven, Conn., known as The Study at Yale, which has become an integral part of the university.

Rates for the Study at Yale start at $219 per night for a Double Room and go to $359 for a King Study.

The first floor will have a 105-seat restaurant, which adds to the other restaurants that opened across Chestnut Street in the Chestnut Square student housing development surrounding Drexel’s student center. 
The hotel will have 212 rooms for university-related guests and 7,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space. The entire project will consist of 145,000 square feet of space. There will also be 37 off-site parking spaces.

Across Chestnut Street is the new Hill Field College House, being built by the University of Pennsylvania, and across 33rd Street is the new Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building. 

A few blocks away, apartments are under construction at 3601 Market Street; the Evo at Cira Center South is under construction a few blocks to the east on Chestnut Street; and the 38Chestnut residential project is underway a few blocks to the west. 

So ‘The Study at University City’ makes for a nice addition to this growing neighborhood where hotel rooms are limited.

When asked about how the hotel will specifically impact students, Drexel Vice President James Tucker replied: “First and foremost, parents and families from out of town will have the option to stay in world-class accommodations right on Drexel’s campus when they visit students during orientation, commencement, move-in and move-out, and other milestone events throughout the year.”

The project is part of the Drexel University Institutional Master Plan, and is scheduled to be completed by 2016.
 

Let Freedom Ring

Developer Ready to Break Ground on One Riverside Place

Dranoff Properties is planning to construct a new 167,282-square-foot glass tower in Center City called One Riverside. The Philadelphia developer will build the 22-story residential structure on a parking lot at 25th Street between Locust and Manning streets in the Fitler Square neighborhood of the city.

After weeks of debates, the Civic Design Review board of Philadelphia unanimously green lighted the mixed-use tower designed by Cecil Baker + Partners on a triangle-shaped parking at 210-20 South 25th Street, at the intersection of 5thStreet and Locust Street.

One Riverside Place will include 167 luxury apartments on 18 levels with retail and amenity space such as a fitness center, game room and club room, along with a cafe on the ground floor, according to the proposal.

The project will also include 14,000 square feet of landscaped terrace built over a parking podium with 81 parking spaces and 49 spaces for bicycle storage, according to the proposal.

One Riverside would front the Schuylkill River Trail. Apartments would occupy floors 3 through 20 and the top floor would have three penthouse units. The new tower would sit near Locust on the Park, another one of Dranoff’s developments.

Designed to achieve LEED Silver certification, One Riverside Place will feature several green amenities that will make it a sustainable addition to the Fitler Square neighborhood.

The tower will be built from recycled and locally produced materials, which is expected to reduce energy consumption and water use by 20 percent.

A green deck above the parking garage and new plants and trees at sidewalk level will improve the quality of air. The area is presently zoned for industrial use.

In order to maximize natural daylight and reduce the need for artificial light, each residential unit will feature floor-to-ceiling windows.

 

401 N. Broad Moving Forward with $70 Million Renovation

The new owner of 401 North Broad Street in Center City is moving forward with a $70 million renovation to the telecom building. Amerimar Enterprises and its partners bought the property in March and are hopeful the multi-phased, multifaceted improvements planned for the building will help entice new tenants to fill up its empty space. 

The building is considered one of the most important mission critical data centers along the East Coast. The renovations aim to position the building to truly realize its full potential.

The first phase of work will entail overhauling many of the building’s mechanical systems and its security and creating new shaftways from decommissioned elevators.

The shaftways will be used to house cabling. Work will also be done to the facade.

In addition, a 20,000-square-foot “meet-me” room will be constructed. This is space within a telecom hotel where different networks can connect with each other. It will be carrier neutral and owned by partners.

Work will also entail preparing the vacant space with the necessary equipment and other gear that telecom tenants need. The types of tenants that might be interested this data center space is vast.

About 300,000 square feet of the 11-story, 1.3-million-square-foot building is empty. The vacancy came about when some of its non-data related tenants vacated.

Tenants can come from a range of industries including financial, cloud and information technology services, manufacturing, health care, universities and other institutions.

Aside from housing Internet data and data communications, data centers are used for disaster recovery purposes, processing transactions and even housing corporate IT operations.

Childrens' Hospital Massive Addition on Schuylkill River

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is planning to construct a massive 23-story, 563,063 square foot office building at 700 Schuylkill Avenue. CHOP will build the first tower in order to consolidate employees who currently work out of a few locations around the city, mostly at 3535 Market Street. 
 

As the hospital grows, there will be three more buildings on the site, nearly as tall as the first tower, over the next 10 years. The parcel could accommodate about 2 million square feet when fully built out.

Phase 1 construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is undergoing an extensive expansion that includes the construction of three new facilities: on Schuylkill Avenue; a new Specialty Care Center in King of Prussia; and the relocation of two existing clinics into a new building, to be constructed in South Philadelphia.

The first phase of the hospital's massive addition to the banks of the Schuylkill River has received both praise and negative feedback.

The metal and glass building and campus, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli and Cooper Robertson & Partners, would include clinical research facilities and office space. These uses would remain consistent over the two prospective future phases at the site.

Doug Carney, CHOP's senior vice president of facilities, hopes the new tower would “be attractive to the world-class researchers we compete for.”

The half-million-square-foot tower would stand right next to the low-rise neighborhoods of Graduate Hospital and the Devil’s Pocket, and would bring 1,000 researchers to the site each day.

Besides the tower, the Phase 1 plan for the site includes a four-story parking garage mostly tucked away next to the South Street Bridge.

A new stoplight would be installed at the garage’s entrance on the bridge, cutting a hole in the bike lane and the sidewalk, thereby requiring bicyclists and pedestrians to stop and wait as an estimated 500 cars a day come off of I-76 and make the turn into the driveway.
     
Of particular interest to neighbors of the new tower is the layout of the proposed park that will accompany CHOP's new tower, which some see as "more of a landscaped entrance than a real park".

The tower itself has a footprint shaped like a fan or a seashell.

The first four stories will be clad in terra cotta and vertical metallic tubing, above which an aluminum and glass façade will rise to the roof, topped by a section of metallic tubes that create a background for an illuminated CHOP logo.

The wall facing east, toward the neighborhood, has some visual character at ground level thanks to the wide steps that flank both sides of the tower and lead to the promenade, as well as a semicircular indentation that marks the building’s entranceway and rises to the roofline.

The project also includes several public and green areas. Level with the bridge will be a promenade positioned above the CSX tracks to offer a view of the Schuylkill River. At the southern end of this promenade, an eventual bridge over the train tracks will provide access to the extension of the Schuylkill Banks hike-and-bike trail.