Massive Development Planned for South Broad Street

A local developer has big plans for the northeast corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia. Bart Blatstein is seeking approval from the city’s Planning Commission to build a major mixed-use development on a vacant 4-acre block that could bring nearly 1,000 apartments and an 80-room hotel to the city.

Known as 1001 South Broad Street, the 4.4-acre mega-project will comprise 1.8 million square feet of retail and residential.

Plans call for the construction of a 34-story, 944-unit luxury apartment tower (with 80 hotel rooms on floors two through nine), 11 ground-floor retail stores, 882 parking spots and 357 bike parking spaces, at the corner of South Broad Street and Washington Avenue.

The 371-foot-high building will need zoning variances for roof decks for non-residential use and a parking garage.

The L-shaped development will also comprise a smaller residential building with approximately 60 units and additional commercial/retail and dining establishments on its fourth-level rooftop, dubbed the ‘Village.’

The Village is set to include outdoor gathering spaces and more intimate exterior pathways lined with small retail boutiques and both formal and casual dining establishments, reminiscent of a French village in Provence.

Overlooking the pedestrian streets, this surface will also feature two stories of quaint but luxurious walk-up apartments totaling approximately 100-120 units.

Additionally, the development will bring office space for modestly-sized businesses and co-working users, as well as three levels of a structured self-park garage with about 625 spaces for the use of residents, shoppers and visitors alike.

The site of the project, viewed as a gateway intersection between South Philadelphia and Center City, is bounded by South Broad Street to the west, Washington Avenue to the south, N. 13th Street on the east and Carpenter Street to the north.

Vehicle access to both the parking facility and the numerous internal off-street loading dock facilities is proposed to be through curb-cuts and entrance portals, two of which are along Carpenter Street and one along Washington Avenue. No curb cuts are proposed along S. Broad or S. 13th Streets.

Blatstein’s proposal, which could bring approximately 1.8 million square feet of residential and commercial space, will be reviewed by the Civic Design and Planning Commission on March 1.

Zoning variances will be needed for the project’s roof decks for non-residential use and parking garage. The site is already zoned CMX-5, the most permissive commercial zoning classification in the city. The CMX-5 zoning requires a special exception to include parking spaces above ground.

Washington Avenue is brimming with potential, and its future has become a hot-button topic in real estate circles. Developers have snapped up its many vacant lots and aging industrial buildings, and the city has been seeking to re-zone the former industrial thoroughfare in order to spur its development.

Trendy businesses have open alongside long-standing construction supply warehouses, seafood mongers and auto-repair shops.

The developer’s past projects in the city include the development of Piazza in Northern Liberties, which is modeled after Rome’s Piazza Navona, as well as shopping centers on Columbus Boulevard in South Philly.

A few years ago, Blatstein unsuccessfully attempted to convert the old Inquirer building on North Broad Street into a hotel and casino.

In a partnership with Cescaphe Event Group, the developer is also planning to convert the former PECO power station next to Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown into a wedding venue and event space.

Mr. Blatstein is currently building a mansion for himself on Rittenhouse Square.

Drexel University's Innovative $3.5 Billion Neighborhood Plan

Fourteen acres next to Philadelphia’s 30th Street train station will be transformed into a $3.5 billion “innovation neighborhood” designed to mix education, housing and entrepreneurship, under plans unveiled by Drexel University. 

Schuylkill Yards is the name of the mixed-use project, which will add up to eight million square feet of offices, labs, and housing in new and recycled buildings next to the third busiest passenger rail station in the country.

Drexel University, which assembled the land and envisioned the project, announced that it has selected Brandywine Realty Trust of Philadelphia to be the master developer and its joint venture partner in the project.

SHoP Architects and the Dutch firm West8 are working on the master plan. SHoP will handle the district planning and development of the architectural standards, and West 8 will be responsible for creating the public realm and development of the landscape standards.

Project renderings show a combination of high-rise and low-rise buildings on a 10-acre site next to Drexel’s main campus, Amtrak’s 30th Street Station, and Brandywine’s Cira Centre development.

“Schuylkill Yards will undeniably transform Philadelphia’s skyline as new towers rise on the west side of the Schuylkill River,” said Gerard H. Sweeney, president and CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust.

Proposed uses in this “collaborative neighborhood” include entrepreneurial spaces, educational facilities and research laboratories, corporate offices, residential and retail spaces, hospitality and cultural venues, and public open spaces.

While the community is being designed for a wide range of users, from educational and medical institutions to residents and businesses, developers say the common theme will be the pursuit of innovation.

“Drexel has always believed there’s a superior use for this unique location — essentially the 50 yard line of the Eastern Seaboard — as a neighborhood built around collaboration and innovation. That’s why the University assembled these parcels, and the time is right to put this vision into action,” said Drexel President John A. Fry.

“Schuylkill Yards is more than a large-scale development; it will be the heart of America’s next great urban innovation district.”

The developers say this is a long-term investment in Philadelphia and its University City neighborhood, and it’s aimed at people who want to live or work in the area and have easy access to the train station.

Besides its proximity to 30th Street Station, Schuylkill Yards will have connections to Philadelphia’s international airport. The master plan calls for a new gateway to Drexel and University City, a real estate submarket with a high concentration of education and medical institutions.

Construction of Schuylkill Yards will take place in multiple phases. As master developer, Brandywine, will oversee a team that includes Gotham Organization leading the residential development, and Longfellow Real Estate Partners leading the life sciences component.

When completed, developers say, the site will contain a mix of repurposed existing buildings and new towers connected by a “diverse network of public spaces.”

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The development will begin with the creation of Drexel Square, a 1.3 acre park at 30th and Market streets, directly across from Amtrak’s 30th Street Station. In addition, they say, the historic former Bulletin Building will be re-imagined by transforming its east facade with “inside/out viewports and a dynamic front screen.”

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the project represents “one of the most valuable assemblages of real estate” in the nation.

“Schuylkill Yards is a big step forward in University City’s transition to a next-generation business district,” he said. “It will provide our region’s current and future innovators with a central hub for collaboration and signal to the world that Philadelphia is ready for business in the 21st century’s new economy.”

Schuylkill Yards “will bring new, innovative businesses and residents to Pennsylvania, and the potential economic impact is tremendous,” said Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, “Those who choose to make Schuylkill Yards their home will have access to many of the most innovative companies, organizations and educational institutions in our state.”

#4 STORY OF 2019

New 30-Story Tower to Rise on North Broad St

The latest project in the wave of new development along North Broad Street is 30-story mixed-use tower named “Mural West,” a 30-story apartment building slated to rise on a parking lot at 523 North Broad Street.

The tower will have 290 residential units on the upper floors with ground-floor retail space. 

Also included on the lot is a separate, one-story restaurant and 24 on-site parking spaces.

Mural West sits just next to Meg Saligman’s popular 1999 mural “Common Threads,” which provides inspiration for the new development. 

A diagonal open space called “common ground” runs between the tower and the restaurant, directly below the mural.

The development plan preserves the mural, while the park enhances the viewer experience by providing a quiet respite from the urban neighborhood with trees, seating, and information about the mural and its creation.

The building is designed by AOS Architects and will be developed by EBRM, the group behind the Divine Lorraine Hotel.

The project is the latest in a recent boom of development along North Broad Street. 

In 2017 the Divine Lorraine Hotel was restored, followed by the Met Philly in 2018. The Nest,  new development geared toward Temple University students opened last year, while another new, 14-story project behind the Divine Lorraine recently broke ground. 

#3 STORY OF 2019

South Philly Shopping Plaza to Become Housing Project

A shopping plaza at 1600 Carpenter Street in South Philly will be razed to make way for a new 44-unit housing development. 

The new housing project will be taking the place of a Vietnamese grocery store.

The project calls for 44 total homes, including 22 attached single-family homes, five two-family homes, and two six-family apartment buildings.

Led by local development group, Streamline, the project will take up 35,300 square feet of space at the corner of 16th and Carpenter. That lot stretches halfway down 16th toward Washington Avenue and is currently home to the Hoa Binh shopping plaza, which has been there for 30 years.

The project will include 48-foot-high single- and multi-family buildings divided in rows that sit parallel to Carpenter Street.

The first two rows of buildings, which are separated by a driveway, will have three-bedroom, single-family townhouses. 

A small courtyard with outdoor seating separates the single family homes from the third row of buildings, which features two-family structures, flanked on either side by six-family buildings.

Plans include 13,000 square feet of open area and 22 parking spots along the driveway off 16th Street. The exteriors will mix fiber cement siding and metal with synthetic wood garage doors.

The project is the latest in several major developments in the neighborhood, the most notable is Lincoln Square, which wrapped up last year with multi-family housing, shops, and a Sprouts grocery store at a previously vacant lot on Broad and Washington Avenue.

Also in the works are plans for the redevelopment of the former Frankford Chocolate Factory into a housing development, while another project plans to bring homes and retail to the 22 and Washington.

Dock Street Brewing Company has recently announced plans to construct a new brewery at 2118 Washington Avenue.

#2 STORY OF 2019

47-story Luxury Tower Planned at Broad and Spruce St 

In the heart of the city, new 47-story skyscraper with luxury condominiums and amenities is set to go up at the corner of Broad and Spruce Streets, overlooking the Kimmel Center. 

The tower, named Arthaus, is being developed by Carl Dranoff, who had previously planned to construct a 45-story SLS International Hotel & Residences on the site. 

The hotel plan was downsized last year, and then scrapped entirely, in favor of the new, solely residential, Arthaus building.

The $275 million tower will include 108 condominiums ranging from 1,600 to nearly 5,500 square feet, along with 151 parking spaces.

The building’s luxury amenities will include a 75-foot pool, a dining salon which will feature celebrity chefs doing demonstrations, and a sky garden with a greenhouse.

The Arthaus name is inspired by the Bauhaus—an architecture movement founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 that helped shape modern design and architecture for decades to come.

About the Arthaus design, “excess was replaced by beauty that will also meet the needs and desires of real people.” 

They point to the tiered facade of the primarily glass building, which is aesthetically pleasing and which, “gives every unit its own corner, with two full exterior walls of breathtaking views.”

Carl Dranoff said it was the goal of his team and architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox to bring a vertical tower that would be a sort of landmark for the Avenue of the Arts. 

The upper levels look like steps going to the sky, while the lower levels feature brick and clay tiles that relate to the Kimmel Center across the Street.

The condominium units, which start at two bedrooms, feature floor-to-ceiling glass, terraces, kitchens with marble backsplashes and a marble waterfall countertop. 
The largest unit stretches over two stories with four bedrooms, five baths, a private elevator, and a massive terrace. 

The bottom floors will have four units a piece, with that number decreasing as you move up the building. 

The units will cost around $1,200 to $1,500 per square foot, with the largest unit costing as much as $8.2 million and the smallest as low as $1.9 million. 

When factoring in the location, the luxury nature of the units, and the amenities, it’s a bargain compared to similar New York condos, the developer says.

The tower is a far cry from the earlier plans for the site, which has been empty for years but once held Philadelphia International Records. 

It wasn’t until late last year that Dranoff announced he was scrapping the hotel portion of the project entirely, after only receiving $1.4 million of the $19 million he needed from a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant to complete the hotel portion. 

This time the money they did secure from RACP grants, amounting to about $2.4 million, will go toward a restaurant on the first floor of the building.

The Arthaus tower is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2021.

#1 STORY OF 2019

Giant 30-acre Development Planned for Philly Waterfront

A vacant 30-acre site on the Delaware River will soon be getting nearly 1,100 new homes, including apartments and row houses.

The development spans a plot of land between the waterfront and Beach Street in Old Richmond, just below Graffiti Pier. 

The project is designed by ISA Architects and Hickok Cole.

The overall development which is billed as a “hybrid community,” will include four seven-story apartment buildings on the eastern side of the site with 850 units, ranging from one to two-bedrooms. 

The apartment buildings will also include 744 parking spots, a community center with an outdoor plaza, and a community pavilion.

A road separates the apartment buildings from the complex of 248 row houses on the riverfront side of the land, ranging from three to five bedrooms with roof decks and parking for two cars.

As part of the Delaware River Waterfront Cooperation’s master plan, the project includes green space between the buildings, a pedestrian connection to trails on the water’s edge, and an access point to a public park.

The overall design echoes the row homes built in adjacent Fishtown and Old Richmond.

It’s the largest project to tap the northern banks of the Delaware River for residential development.

Further south, multiple projects like the Views at Penn Treaty, a luxury development with 19 townhouses, and Pier 35 1/2, a 41-townhouse development will soon be moving forward as well. 

Giant 30-acre Development Planned for Philly Waterfront

A vacant 30-acre site on the Delaware River will soon be getting nearly 1,100 new homes, including apartments and row houses.

The development spans a plot of land between the waterfront and Beach Street in Old Richmond, just below Graffiti Pier. 

The project is designed by ISA Architects and Hickok Cole.

The overall development which is billed as a “hybrid community,” will include four seven-story apartment buildings on the eastern side of the site with 850 units, ranging from one to two-bedrooms. 

The apartment buildings will also include 744 parking spots, a community center with an outdoor plaza, and a community pavilion.

A road separates the apartment buildings from the complex of 248 row houses on the riverfront side of the land, ranging from three to five bedrooms with roof decks and parking for two cars.

As part of the Delaware River Waterfront Cooperation’s master plan, the project includes green space between the buildings, a pedestrian connection to trails on the water’s edge, and an access point to a public park.

The overall design echoes the row homes built in adjacent Fishtown and Old Richmond.

It’s the largest project to tap the northern banks of the Delaware River for residential development.

Further south, multiple projects like the Views at Penn Treaty, a luxury development with 19 townhouses, and Pier 35 1/2, a 41-townhouse development will soon be moving forward as well.