Ardmore Place Redevelopment Project: $56 Million

The first phase of a challenging revitalization effort in Ardmore is now closer to fruition as developer Dranoff Properties is preparing to construct an 8-story mixed-use project called One Ardmore Place.

Conveniently located near the Ardmore train station, the $56 million project will transform the township-owned Cricket Avenue parking lot into 121 high-end studio, one, two and three bedroom rental apartments with state-of-the-art amenities and a 24/7 concierge.

10,500 square feet of ground floor retail space, as well as covered parking on two decks with more than 200 parking spaces, will round out the complex.

The project is estimated to create 900 construction jobs and 80 permanent retail jobs and generate around $40 million in annual revenue once construction is completed.

Once the parking garage is complete, it must for the first five years provide the same number of public spots — 133, with four-hour meters — that the Cricket Avenue lot provided, in an agreement reached with local businesses owners, so that they would drop their challenge to the project.

One Ardmore Place will stand at the crossroads of stores, homes and the historic district, where just about everything is within walking distance.

Located on Philadelphia's affluent Main Line, Ardmore is bordered by Wynnewood, Haverford, Gladwyne and Havertown, One Ardmore Place will be the very heart and soul of the town’s revitalization.

Originally unveiled in 2008 as Ardmore Station, the project was scaled back from a $180 million, three-phase development with 335 apartment units and 120,000 square feet of office and retail space, as the economy stumbled.

Pre-construction is already underway with ground breaking slated for later this year.
 

Construction Expected to Grow to $712 Billion in 2016

Economists at Dodge Analytics forecast that total U.S. construction starts for 2016 will rise 6% to $712 billion, following gains of 9% in 2014 and an estimated 13% in 2015. “The expansion for the construction industry has been underway for several years now, with varying contributions from each of the major sectors,” said Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics, in a press release.

“Total construction activity, as measured by the construction starts data, is on track this year to record the strongest annual gain so far in the current expansion, advancing 13%.

Much of this year’s lift has come from non-building construction, reflecting the start of several massive liquefied natural gas terminals in the Gulf Coast region, as well as renewed growth for new power plant starts."

“Residential building, up 18% this year, has witnessed continued strength for multifamily housing while single family housing seems to have re-established an upward trend after its 2014 plateau.

At the same time, nonresidential building has decelerated this year after surging 24% back in 2014, and is now predicted to be flat to slightly down given a sharp pullback for new manufacturing plant starts and some loss of momentum by its commercial and institutional building segments.”

For 2016, the economic environment should support further growth for the overall level of construction starts.

While short-term interest rates will be going up in 2016, given the expected rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the increases in long-term interest rates should stay gradual. On the plus side, the U.S. economy continues to register moderate job growth, lending standards are still easing, market fundamentals for commercial real estate continue to improve, and more funding support is coming from state and local construction bond measures.

Total construction starts in 2016 are forecast to advance 6% to $712 billion, with gains for residential building, up 16%; and nonresidential building, up 9%; while the non-building construction sector retreats 14%. If the volatile electric power and gas plant category within non-building construction is excluded, total construction starts for 2016 would be up 10%, after a corresponding 8% gain in 2015.

The 2016 pattern by more specific sectors is the following:

• Single family housing will rise 20% in dollars, corresponding to a 17% increase in units to 805,000. Access to home mortgage loans is improving, and some of the caution exercised by potential home buyers will ease with continued employment growth.

• Multifamily housing will increase 7% in dollars and 5% in units to 480,000, slower than the gains in 2015 but still growth. Low vacancies, rising rents, and the demand for apartments from Millennials will encourage more development.

• Commercial building will increase 11%, up from the 4% gain estimated for 2015. Office construction will resume its leading role in the commercial building upturn, aided by more private development as well as construction activity related to technology and finance firms.

• Institutional building will advance 9%, picking up the pace after the 6% rise in 2015. The educational facilities category is seeing an increasing amount of K-12 school construction, supported by the passage of recent school construction bond measures.

• Manufacturing plant construction will recede an additional 1% in dollar terms, following the steep 28% plunge for 2015 that reflected the pullback by large petrochemical plant starts.

• Public works will be flat with its 2015 amount, as a modest reduction for highways and bridges is balanced by some improvement for the environmental public works categories. A new multiyear federal transportation bill is being considered by Congress, and is expected to achieve passage in late 2015 or during the first half of 2016. The benefits of that bill will show up at the construction site later in 2016 and into 2017.

• Electric utilities and gas plants will fall 43% after a sharp 159% jump in 2015. The lift coming from new starts for liquefied natural gas export terminals will be substantially less, and new power plant starts will recede moderately.
 

$280M W Hotel Ready to Rise on Chestnut Street

Chestlen Development has begun preliminary work for a 52-story tower that will soon begin to rise at 1441 Chestnut Street in Center City. The 780,000 square foot project will construct 755 hotel rooms, of which 295 rooms will be managed under the W Hotel brand and 460 rooms dedicated to the Element by Westin. The development is projected to create 1,800 construction jobs and 450 permanent jobs and is expected be completed by January 2017.
 

The W Hotel and Residences will rise 582 feet and have 41,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, an 8,600-square-foot restaurant, and a 185-space, below-grade parking garage.

The project will also include more than 1,700 square feet of retail space on the ground floor at the corner of 15th and Chestnut.

Tutor Perini is beginning excavation work for the building’s foundation.

The project, which sits across from City Hall and next to the Ritz Carlton, is estimated to cost $280.4 million.

Chestlen Development will put up $205.4 million, and receive $75 million in tax-payer subsidies over 20 years.

It is not unusual for the city to arrange tax incremental financing for construction projects, especially if the work will give an otherwise blighted area an economic boost.

However, tax incremental financing can be controversial when it is put into areas where development would likely have happened without it.

Once the project is completed, it is expected to generate $220.6 million in incremental tax revenues over 20 years and will represent an estimated $25.8 million net gain to the city and $12.3 million to the school district over those two decades.

The W Hotel and Residences is expected to be completed by October 2017.
 

$660M Renaissance Plaza Project on Delaware River

A massive 2.5 million square foot development project is being planned for 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 is expected to kick off in early 2016 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.
  

Gigantic Mixed-Use Complex Coming to Fairmount Avenue

A company named Broad Street Holdings is planning to construct a supermarket, two parking levels, two residential towers, and 27 residential row homes at 1300 Fairmount Avenue, a large development site directly behind the Divine Lorraine Hotel in North Philadelphia. New York developer RAL Companies & Affiliates is designing the 860,000 square foot project which will be located just a block away from the Broad Street Line’s Fairmount station.

Plans for the massive development call for construction of a large supermarket, with an attendant parking garage that will front on Ridge Avenue, while a belt of row houses will line the block bounded by 13th Street, Melon, Park, and Wallace Streets.

Finally, at the corner of 13th Street and Fairmount Avenue, two midsize residential structures would be erected: a 15-story mid-rise residential building facing Fairmount Avenue, and an 18-story apartment tower, about the same height as the Divine Lorraine.

A short part of Melon Street–between Ridge and Park Avenues–would also be erased in favor of the supermarket. The market will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood as two large new apartment buildings are just two blocks away.

It is difficult to attempt large-scale projects on North Broad Street. The street calls for higher densities than what is being built in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Blumenfeld Development, which owns the Divine Lorraine and Metropolitan Opera House, developed 600 North Broad and Lofts 640, and is currently working on Mural Lofts in the former Thaddeus Stevens Public School, has been going at a relatively slow pace in large part for this reason.

Broad Street Holdings, based at 275 Seventh Avenue in New York City, bought the property from the City just prior to the beginning of 2014 for one dollar, a fraction of a percent of the parcel’s $6.3 million assessed value.

The developer is now seeking $15 million in state funding for this project.

Plans for University of Pennsylvania South Bank Campus

The University of Pennsylvania plans to construct another 58,000-square-feet of cutting-edge architecture with its new Pennovation Center. The new structure is set to anchor Pennovation Works, a 23-acre industrial site along the Schuylkill River that the university is turning into a research and innovation park, and will add to the University's already impressive portfolio of campus buildings.

Pennovation Works will be built on the former DuPont Marchall Research Laboratories site, a large industrial property along the Schuylkill River that will house the school's new South bank campus. 

The 23-acre industrial site located between 34th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue served as an automotive paint lab, manufacturing and testing facility for DuPont until 2009, when the factory was shut down.

The property, which includes 250,000 square feet of vacant laboratory, office and warehouse space, was acquired by Penn for $13 million.

Penn’s South Bank campus is the tip of the spear when it comes to recasting underused industrial property on the Lower Schuylkill as a zone for gritty creativity and economic growth.

The university has announced new plans to begin more deliberately transforming this 23-acre former DuPont campus into a buzzing hive of research and entrepreneurship, starting by establishing a new business incubator called the Pennovation Center.

Designed by architecture firm Wallace Roberts and Todd to support entrepreneurial and innovation growth in Philadelphia, the South Bank is an important component of Penn Connects 2.0—an ambitious long-term development strategy that has added almost 3 million square feet of space to Penn’s campus and increased the university’s open space on campus by 25 percent since 2006, when the university embarked on a two-decade expansion plan.

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A 200,000-square-foot incubator and accelerator dubbed the “Pennovation Center” will anchor the university’s campus and will serve as a hub for collaboration and creativity while encouraging the exchange of ideas for innovators from Penn’s departments.

According to a news release, Penn’s flexible project design allows for another 550,000 sq. ft. of new campus space that will be built in phases over the next twenty years.

The school’s long-term campus development strategy to add facilities while expanding the amount of open space it has. Penn has constructed four million square feet of new space on its West Philadelphia campus since 2006. At the same time, it has boosted the amount of open space by 25 percent.

South Bank aims to become a research park supporting entrepreneurs and advances in technology. The development would be multi-phased and will initially concentrate on adding new light industrial and flex-use buildings.  

At build out, up to 1.5 million square feet of new space will be constructed on South Bank.

Penn’s South Bank is very much in sync with Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation’s (PIDC) long-term revitalization plan of the entire Lower Schuylkill River into a 500-acre Innovation District, a Logistics Hub and an Energy Corridor while expanding riverfront green space.

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Penn will release a Request for Proposals for design services to help bring the Pennovation Center to life in a converted industrial building on the property.
  

Ten Skyline Altering Projects Coming to Center City (Part 1)

If you have ever been stuck in mid-day traffic, you know that Philadelphia construction is booming. The signs are everywhere, from exposed steel for super tall skyscrapers in Center City to large cranes for massive apartment complexes on the waterfront. But some of the city’s largest projects are still waiting to get underway. 

Here’s a list of skyline altering development taking place in and around Center City:

Comcast Center for Innovation & Technology 1121 feet    Liberty Property Trust    Foster + Partners
Cira Centre South (FMC Tower)      730 feet      FMC Corporation    Brandywine Realty Trust    Pelli Clarke Pelli
SLS International Hotel & Residences 600 feet    SLS International    Dranoff Properties    Philippe Starck
LoSo Entertainment Center 615 feet     PHL Local Gaming     U.S. Thrill Rides
W Hotel and Residences 582 feet     Starwood Hotels     Cope Linder
1911 Walnut Street 525 feet & 200 feet     Southern Land Company     KingStubbins
Market8 Casino 450 feet     Goldenberg Group     Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority
Riverwalk Apartment Towers 446 feet, 220 feet, 220 feet     NP International     Gensler Associates
MIC Apartment Tower 429 feet     Brickstone Realty     Stantec Architecture
500 Walnut Street Condominiums 380 feet     Scannapieco Development     Cecil Baker + Partners Architects