New highrise apartment tower, Edgewater II, will add to skyline along the Parkway and the Schuylkill River trail

Another apartment tower is planned for Center City, this time on a site adjacent to the Vine Street Expressway and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.  The tower will be part of the large Edgewater apartment and townhouse complex at 23rd and Race Streets.  Edgewater was built on a former parking lot situated on the Schuylkill waterfront and adjacent to the Schuylkill River Park and trail (also known as Schuylkill Banks), circa 2005, by Realen Properties.  That development consists of 270 apartments in a 14-storey building covered in gray concrete panels and large windows, with circular balconies, and 20 rental brick townhouses, across a driveway from the highrise building and on 23rd Street.  A 675-car parking garage is imbetween the townhouses, partially hidden by them.  A small planted garden is at the end of the driveway in the middle of the complex, and the complex has a courtyard and a “bark park”, along the western side, by the railroad tracks.

This new tower, designed by Design Collective, will be built on a parking lot north of the parking garage, at 230 N. 23rd Street, next to the eastbound off-ramp from the Vine Street Expressway where it intersects with 23rd and Summer Streets.  Realen had always intended to build on this parking lot, but had waited until the time was right for more housing.  It will be called Edgewater II and will be 22 storeys, and 263 feet, tall and have 240 rental units and a total square footage of 300,000 square feet.  The outside will have prefabricated panels, mostly on the south side, to match the first highrise building, but will also have large glass windows, mostly on the north side, to match the glass towers of Center City when being viewed from the Parkway or the Expressway.  There will be several amenities on the first and second floors, including a clubroom; a gym; and bike storage, as well as, a pool.  The apartments will begin on the third floor.  The tower will be separated from the garage building by a courtyard, and the first floor will have large glass doors leading to the courtyard and large windows to see it, but there will not be access from 23rd Street, which will have a fence along the sidewalk and a gate only accessible for residences.  There will also be green rooves, as well as, a rain garden in the courtyard.  There will be no new parking, since the garage was designed to accommodate the parking demand from both towers and the townhouses.

This new tower is a nice shiny addition to the skyline along the Parkway and along Schuylkill Banks.  It may provide a niche for housing for those who want to live near both popular locations.  It will, also, provide views of the Center City, and University City, skylines on the south side and the Parkway, Art  Museum, and Schuylkill River on the north side.  It’s not the only construction occurring in the neighborhood, either.  There are several luxury townhouse developments being built on 21st and 22nd Streets.  There is a new apartment building being built at 1900 Arch Street, and a proposed office building on the northwest corner of the same intersection at 19th & Arch Streets.  And, there are potential building sites just down the street from Edgewater, at 23rd & Cherry Streets and 23rd & Arch Streets.  North of the Parkway is The Granary Apartments, under construction at 20th and Callowhill Streets.  So, this development is a nice addition to a popular and steadily developing neighborhood in Center City.  The tower was recently approved by the Planning Commission’s Civic Design Review subcommittee at their May 7 meeting.  The subcommittee had to consider allowing the tower to break the 125-foot height limit that was imposed several years ago in neighborhoods adjacent to the Parkway.  The height limit was a temporary measure to require developers to submit plans to city agencies and community groups, but for some reason is still in place despite the City’s new zoning code.  Since this development received strong support from the Logan Square Neighbors Association, then approval from the CDR subcommittee was swift.  The project will have to be approved by the Planning Commission and Zoning Board at a later date, but approval by those city agencies seems almost certain at this point.

If you are interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in this area of the city, or any other area, please contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com or check out my Facebook real estate page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  You can, also, check out our Condo Shop listings at CityView Condos and elsewhere by logging onto our website, www.thecondoshops.com, or viewing our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, or our twitter page, The_Condo_Shop.  And, you can check out the Edgewater website, here, and the website of Realen Properties, here, as well as renderings and my pictures of the site and neighborhood, below.

Rendering of Edgewater II, from the north, as it will appear from the Vine Street Expressway

Rendering of Edgewater II, from the south and Schuylkill Banks

Edgewater townhouses, at 23rd & Race Streets

Street signs at 23rd & Race Streets

Future site of Edgewater II, from 23rd Street

Close up of the site of the future apartment tower and courtyard

The site from across the offramp to the Vine Street Expressway

First Edgewater highrise, from across the expressway ramp

Looking down Summer Street, from 23rd Street

23rd and Summer street signs

Ramp from Vine Street Expressway, leads into 23rd and Summer Streets

Winter Street begins at end of ramp from Vine Street Expressway, parallel and close to Summer Street, towards the Ben Franklin Parkway

CityView Condominiums, north of the Parkway, as seen from 23rd and Summer Streets

Large Park Towne Place apartment complex, on the other side of the Expressway, and along the Parkway

Expressway traffic

Looking south down 23rd Street

Looking south down 23rd Street, from Race Street, shows PECO Building and 2200 Arch Lofts

Parking lot at 23rd and Cherry Streets could be developed someday

Large parking lot at 23rd and Arch Streets could also be developed someday

Looking east on Arch Street, from 23rd Street, shows Comcast Center and Three Logan Place, and soon, 1900 Arch

Looking west on Race Street, from 23rd Street, towards Schuylkill River Park and Schuylkill Banks trail

Driveway leading into Edgewater, from Race Street

East facade of Edgewater tower, overlooking driveway

Townhouses along driveway, off of Race Street

End of the driveway, in front of the entrance to the highrise

Site of Edgewater II, seen from the inside driveway

Looking back at Edgewater highrise, from inside driveway

Western facade of the highrise, facing the Schuylkill River and Schuylkill Banks

Courtyard along the railroad tracks, on the west side of the highrise

“Bark Park” north of the highrise

Looking south down the Schuylkill River trail (Schuylkill Banks)

Cira Centre, from Schuylkill Banks, at Race Street

Looking south down the Schuylkill and Schuylkill Banks, from in front of Edgewater

View of University City, from Schuylkill Banks in front of where Edgewater II will be

Looking north up Schuylkill Banks and the trail, towards the Vine Street Expressway bridge and the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Looking back towards where Edgewater II will be, behind the billboard

Looking north on Schuylkill Banks, from north of the Vine Street Expressway

Sign for the Parkway Museums District

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Looking down the Ben Franklin Parkway towards City Hall

Paine’s Park will be a new skate park, near Edgewater II, between Schuylkill Banks and the Parkway

Vine Street Expressway, seen from the 22nd Street overpass, facing west

Edgewater seen from the Drexel Park in West Philadelphia

Edgewater as seen amidst the skyline, along the Schuylkill River, from the Spring Garden Street Bridge

Former State Office Building is renovated into apartments at Broad and Spring Garden Streets

The large former State Office Building, on the southwest corner of Broad and Spring Garden Streets, has recently been converted to luxury apartments by Tower Investments.  The newly renovated property is called Tower Place, and it consists of 204 luxury rental apartments in the 18-storey, 300,000 square foot building, originally built in 1958 to house the city’s state government department branches and designed by architectural firm Carroll, Grisdale & Van Alen.  The building is a very modern-style rectangular tower, with square windows that alternate between slight bay and flat windows, evenly spaced from one another, and is covered in white marble and clad in metal on the ground level.  The state government offices have moved elsewhere, mostly to the upper floors of the Strawbridge and Clothier Building at 8th and Market Streets.  This new development, by prolific developer Bart Blatstein, will bring a new level of upscale living to this stretch of Broad Street, that is the upper end of Center City and the lower end of North Philadelphia.

The rental apartment units will consist of one and two bedroom units.  The different models are named after wealthy American families, such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Dupont, and Belmont.  The apartments have the usual stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, and granite countertops and make the most of the building’s large, 1950′s era square windows, with impressive views of Center City and North Philadelphia and Temple University.  The building offers many amenities not often offered in rental buildings, particularly in North Philadelphia, such as a concierge that offers; among other things; continental breakfast delivered and drop-off laundry service, bike storage with complimentary bikes, dog walking service, game room, gym with fitness classrooms, a screening room, and a lounge and business center (the concierge services are available for an extra fee).  There is nothing like this on North Broad Street currently, and there are probably no rental apartment buildings in the city with this level of luxury amenities, which may be a sign of the recent unpopularity of condos among luxury developers.  That unpopularity may be fading soon, though, as the condo market in Center City is booming again and supply is low.  Tower Place could be a good candidate for a rental-to-condo conversion in the near future, however, there may be a market for rental apartments with condo-like luxury amenities, and that diversity of housing could be good for the city.  Also, Blatstein is planning a large second phase which would consist of an additional 18-storey tower, west of the current building on 15th Street, and would have another 200 luxury units.  That phase would include a two-storey, 60,000 square foot upscale shopping center, on the current plaza, at the corner of Broad and Spring Garden Streets.  That underutilized and rather ugly plaza will be rebuilt and re-landscaped in the short run.  The second phase is planned to start in about five years, but maybe sooner if demand is strong enough.

This kind of development helps move this once blighted area forward in a big way.  It brings Center City style luxury living to the doorstep of North Philadelphia and brings a large amount of residents to what had been a sparsely populated area of the city.  Fortunately, it isn’t the only upscale development in the area.  Across Broad Street, an old office building was renovated into the 511 N. Broad Street condos almost a decade ago.  On the next block north on Broad Street, an old car dealership and garage were renovated into the 600 N. Broad Street development, which has apartments and upscale restaurants on Broad.  The developer of that project, Eric Blumenfeld, plans to renovate an old school on the northeastern corner of Broad & Spring Garden into artist’s lofts and would like to eventually build a highrise residential building on a parking lot on that corner.  Blumenfeld, also, bought the very blighted, vacant Divine Lorraine Hotel, at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue, to renovate into luxury apartments soon and he bought the blighted Metropolitan Opera House, at Broad and Poplar Streets, to eventually renovate as well.  Other recent developments on or near North Broad Street include the renovation of the large 1500 Spring Garden Street building into office space, the renovation of the monumentally huge 401 North Broad Street building into 2 million square feet of office space (it’s so huge it has its own zip code, 19108), and the former Inquirer printing press building into the School District’s headquarters, just to the south of Tower Place on Broad.  Blatstein also owns the former Inquirer headquarters building, south of the School District headquarters, which he would like to convert into a hotel for a casino and entertainment complex, called The Provence, if the state Gaming Board were to grant him the city’s last casino license.  Coincidentally, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News also moved into the former Strawbridge and Clothier building on Market East.  There are, also, several developments and renovations occurring in the Callowhill neighborhood east of Broad Street, such as the renovation of the Goldtex Building, on 11th Street, into apartments and developments along 13th Street and Ridge Avenue.  Center City, North and South Philadelphia are all easily accessible by the Broad Street subway station, at the intersection, and the Delaware waterfront neighborhoods and West Philadelphia are accessible by the Route 43 bus on Spring Garden.

If you are interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in this rapidly developing neighborhood, or any other in the city, please contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com or check out my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  You can, also, view our Condo Shop website, http://www.thecondoshops.com/, or our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, or our Condo Shop twitter page, The_Condo_Shop.  And, you can view the website for Tower Place, here, and check out my pictures of the building and neighborhood, below.

Tower Place and Center City skyline in the background

Rendering of Tower Place second phase

Looking up at Tower Place

Geometric texture of the building

Ground floor and plaza

Sign announcing Tower Place

South side of Tower Place

Ground level on the south side

Entrance to Tower Place, shows official address is 1400 Buttonwood Street

Tower Place and the site to the west for future tower

Rendering of Tower Place second phase from 15th & Spring Garden

Center City skyscrapers are visible behind the site of the future tower of the second phase

Lobby of Tower Place is a modernist design

Elevator lobby of Tower Place

Seating in the lobby

This sign, in the lobby, is a reminder of the building’s history

View of Center City skyline from inside a Tower Place apartment

Entrance to Broad Street subway in front of Tower Place

Street signs at Broad & Spring Garden Streets, in front of 511 N. Broad Street

Looking south on Broad Street, from Spring Garden Street, shows 511 N. Broad condominiums and 401 N. Broad further south

School District headquarters and the former Inquirer Building

The former Inquirer Building may become a hotel for a new casino

Looking west down Spring Garden Street, from Broad Street

1500 Spring Garden Street office building, once the headquarters of Smithkline Pharmaceuticals

511 N. Broad Street, Tower Place, and 1500 Spring Garden Street, looking west

Looking north up Broad Street, from Spring Garden Street

600 N. Broad Street and Lofts 640 apartment and restaurant developments

Rodeph Shalom Synagogue, across Broad Street from 600 N. Broad Street

Divine Lorraine Hotel, at Broad and Fairmount, may finally be renovated soon

Looking east on Spring Garden Street, from Broad Street

Former Thaddeus Stevens School may become artists’ lofts and studios

Famous mural on the Stevens School

Rendering of the possible new residential tower next to the Stevens School, on the northeast corner of Broad and Spring Garden Streets

New apartment tower and hotel to be built soon on the 1200 block of Walnut Street

In recent months, I’ve written about highrise apartment towers in Center City, west of Broad Street, and in University City, that are under construction or will be very soon.  I am pleased to announce a new highrise apartment tower is about to be built in Center City, east of Broad Street, on Walnut Street in the busy Washington Square West neighborhood.  This new tower will have a mix of rental apartments and a hotel.  According to the renderings, the hotel brand may be the trendy mid-priced brand Element, although that brand is supposed to be in a new hotel project west of Broad Street that I will be writing about soon.

The new tower is being developed by U3 Ventures and designed by TEN Arquitectos.  It is on the 1200 block of Walnut Street, at 1213 Walnut Street, on the site of a surface parking lot and the site of a recently demolished thrift store building, that had been vacant for a long time.  It will be 26 storeys and 294 feet tall.  The tower will be slender, with metallic sheathing, and will have two outcroppings from the tower covered in sleek, colored glass.  The roof space will be utilized, with a pool on the roof of the base, a few storeys above the sidewalk.  The ground level will have retail, likely a restaurant on Walnut Street and a smaller cafe on Sansom Street, and a driveway and walkway between Walnut and Sansom that will have separate entrances and lobbies to the hotel and the apartments.  A neighboring business on Sansom Street, historic Fergie’s Pub, will remain on the site, next to the Sansom Street cafe.  The ground floor will be covered with large glass-panel windows.  There will be no parking in this building, since the surrounding neighborhood has ample available parking and it usually is not necessary to own a car in this area of the city.  Some new buildings being built in the heart of Center City, such as The Sansom at 16th & Sansom Streets, have little or no parking in the structure as a way to discourage people from owning cars, where they are not very necessary, and encouraging them to consider alternate modes of travel, such as walking, cycling, and using abundant available mass-transit.  This tower is easily accessible by the Route 42 bus, going west on Walnut, and the Route 21 bus, going east on Chestnut Street, and within blocks of the Market/Frankford subway line, the Broad Street subway line, and the subway/surface trolleys leading to West Philadelphia from Juniper and Market Streets.  The regional rail is, also, accessible at Market East Station and Suburban Station, nearby, but numerous office buildings and Thomas Jefferson University and The University of the Arts are within a few blocks walk, as well.

This building was first proposed in 2007 with a slighter taller, larger design, but after community opposition to the height and density, the developers and architects decided to make the tower shorter and with less rental and hotel units, and that was approved by the Zoning Board.  Some neighbors were still unhappy with the height and sued to stop the development.  They lost the first time and then appealed, but their appeal was rejected this past January, so the tower can legally start construction whenever they have all the financing and contracts signed.

If you are interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in this very busy and popular area of Center City, or any other area of the city, please contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com, or check out my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  And, you can look at our Condo Shop listings, by logging onto our Condo Shop website, www.thecondoshops.com, or go to our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, or our Condo Shop twitter page, @The_Condo_Shop.  And, you can check out the U3 Ventures website’s description of the project, here, and the TEN Arquitectos website’s description, here, and view renderings and my pictures of the site and neighborhood, below.

Rendering of 1213 Walnut Street apartment and hotel tower

Retail on Walnut Street

Entrance to 1213 Walnut Street tower, from Walnut Street

Entrance to 1213 Walnut Street tower, from Sansom Street

Future site of 1213 Walnut Street tower, from Walnut Street

Site of 1213 Walnut Street tower with the PSFS Building (Loews Hotel) in the background

Looking east down Walnut Street from 1213 Walnut Street

Looking towards the St. James apartment tower from 1213 Walnut Street

Looking west on Walnut Street, from 1213 Walnut Street

Looking west towards Rittenhouse Row on Walnut Street

Looking south on Camac Street, the “Avenue of the Artists”, across Walnut Street from 1213 Walnut Street

Camac Street signs right in front of 1213 Walnut Street

Back of Fergie’s Pub

Front of Fergie’s Pub, on Sansom Street

Looking south from Sansom Street, towards Walnut and Camac Streets

Looking west on Sansom Street, with tops of Liberty Place and Comcast Center visible in the background

University City Science Center to build large and sleek apartment tower on Market Street in University City

The University City Science Center is the nation’s first urban research and office park, founded 50 years ago to attract and maintain high-tech industries that seek to capitalize technology that was developed at the city’s many universities, or based on those universities’ research and breakthroughs.  It is situated along Market Street, in University City, between 34th and (eventually) 39th Streets, and has 2 million square feet of office and research space in 15, mostly mid-rise buildings, over 17 acres.  Vacancy is extremely low and the Center attracts foreign companies and helps incubate new high-tech businesses.  The Science Center is undergoing a huge expansion that will add approximately 1.5 million square feet of new office and research (lab) space, an increase of more than 50%.  This expansion includes the already under construction 3737 Market, at 38th and Market Streets, and soon a new highrise office building at 34th and Market Streets and a larger office complex at 38th and Market Streets.  While the Science Center is a relatively successful urban research and technology center, it is mostly a business district, not a neighborhood, and it has not been very active in the evening and on the weekends.  The leadership of the Science Center has started to try to make Market Street livelier, in an urban way, by adding more retail and restaurants to new construction, but now they want to take that to a new level by building a large highrise apartment tower at 36th & Market Streets, on a current surface parking lot, that will start to create a true neighborhood for the Science Center and a community of high-tech workers in University City.  The tower will be developed by Wexford Equities, a subsidiary of Wexford Science and Technology, a major landlord of office and research space in the Science Center, and Southern Land Company, and it will be designed by BLT Architects.  The new apartment tower has received approval from the City Planning Commission, last week, and from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, just yesterday, April 24.  The land will be owned by the Science Center and a final agreement with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority will be finalized within the next month.  Once that agreement is finalized, then the tower can start construction.  Officials at the Science Center believe that they will start that construction in the autumn.

The new tower will be 27 storeys and 310 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the Science Center and the tallest on Market Street in University City.  It will be at an angle, right on Market Street, but set back from 36th Street, perhaps to allow sunlight onto that block because the 18-storey tall 3535 Market Street building is across 36th Street.  The apartment tower, officially at 3601 Market Street, will have 362 apartment units of different sizes, 15,000 square feet of retail space on Market and 36th Streets, 194 parking spaces, and 121 bicycle parking spaces.  The entire building will have approximately 413,000 square feet of floor space.  The entrance to the apartments will be on Market Street and the retail on the first level will stretch all the way to 36th Street (the developers hinted at the recent Planning Commission meeting that they may sign a large tenant for most of the space).  The facade of the tower will have large-paneled windows, at the corner of 36th & Market, and staggered windows along the rest, with balconies.  The parking garage will be three levels above ground and visible above the retail portion, but it will not stretch all the way to 36th Street, and it will have its entrance on Filbert Street on the northern side of the building.  There will be a green roof over the one-storey retail portion and a sign saying “3601” (if the Art Commission approves it). The developers believe that building the parking garage underground is impossible, because soil testing revealed some toxins from the site’s once industrial past, and that building underground would expose these toxins when they must be properly sealed with concrete.  The developers will plant new street trees on 36th Street, which currently has none at this corner.

This is another big deal for University City, which as I’ve said recently, is experiencing a building boom that is giving the neighborhood a dramatic new skyline and a mix of new residential space, for both students and workers, as well as quite a bit of new office, research, academic, medical, hotel, and retail space.  This new apartment tower (and a similar 25-storey apartment tower being built by Radnor Properties at 38th & Chestnut Streets that I recently wrote about) will bring new housing for those in the workforce to add to all the student housing and create a community of high-tech and university workers.  It’s important for the city to have workforce housing in downtown, much like the new housing being built in Center City, west of Broad Street, between Chestnut and Arch Streets.  That area was once mostly just office buildings with only a few apartment and condo buildings, largely for retirees.  But, new apartments and condos are being built throughout that area of downtown, making the growing neighborhood busy in the evenings and on weekends, and helping to attract and retain corporate offices in Center City.  This new tower will have easy access to Center City, with the Route 10 trolley passing right by and the 34th Street subway station a block away (35th Street doesn’t intersect with Market Street, apparently).  The regional rail is a few blocks away, also, at 30th Street Station.

The new Science Center apartment tower will, also, have a positive effect on Powelton Village, creating a new gateway to the neighborhood, and Lancaster Avenue in particular.  Lancaster Avenue is not as busy in the evenings as it could be, and several blocks and intersections have high storefront vacancy.  This new tower could bring up to 500 new residents, with good paying jobs, and that along with a new Drexel dorm at 34th & Lancaster that I will be writing an article about very soon, will bring many new residents and consumers to Lancaster Avenue.  The intersection at 36th & Lancaster, in particular, could benefit.  Currently, all but one storefront at that five-point intersection are vacant.  The latest vacancy is at the southwestern corner, where the Mexican restaurant, Zocalo, recently closed up.  That corner space does have a new tenant, which will be a Middle Eastern cuisine and hookah restaurant, called Aloosh, owned by Samer Albarouki, who also owns Ed’s Buffalo Wings and Pizza a few doors down on Lancaster, but the new residents and consumers (along with some new pedestrian lights that are going to be installed along Lancaster up to 52nd Street) can ensure that Aloosh stays in business and that new businesses open up in long vacant spaces on the north side of the intersection, and that there are more businesses open in the evenings and on weekends.  The new retail in 3601 Market will also connect the retail node at 36th & Lancaster with the retail node at 36th & Chestnut and Walnut Streets, making 36th Street one large retail corridor from Walnut up to Lancaster.  It is, also, likely that the soon-to-be closed University City High School property, across Filbert Street to the north of 3601 Market, will be sold to developers and a parking lot across 36th Street from the former high school may be developed by Drexel or the Science Center, as well.  All this will make Powelton and Mantua more desirable places to live and will make the Science Center a desirable place to live and attract even more companies to the expanding high-tech business district.

If you’re interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in University City, or any other neighborhood in the city, feel free to contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com or check out my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  You can, also, check out our Condo Shop listings and services on our website, www.thecondoshops.com, and our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, and our Condo Shop twitter page, @The_Condo_Shop.  You can, also, view this link from Southern Land Company’s website, here, and check out this PDF file from the Planning Commission website and these renderings and my pictures of the site and neighborhood, below.

Rendering of 3601 Market Street apartment tower

Rendering of the lower levels and retail businesses of 3601 Market Street

Future site of 3601 Market Street apartment tower

Street sign, @ 36th & Market, denotes that Science Center stretch of Market Street is the “Avenue of Technology”

Stretch of 36th Street honoring Esther Klein

Looking east, on Market Street, towards Center City

3535 Market Street, across from 3601 Market Street

Office building, across Market Street, from 3601 Market Street site

Sign announcing neighborhood landmarks and institutions

The URBN Center of Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Art & Design, east of 3535 Market Street

34th Street subway station leading to Center City

Site of future Science Center office building at 34th & Market Streets

Future site of Drexel’s Lancaster Square residence hall, @34th Street and Lancaster Avenue

New building for Drexel’s Lebow College of Business, at 32nd & Market Streets

Looking west on Market Street, towards the site of future Science Center buildings at 38th Street

3601 Market Street site and 3535 Market Street building

Plaque in Founder’s Plaza of the Science Center

Various buildings along Market Street, in the Science Center, will flank 3601 Market Street creating a modern street wall

Construction site of 3737 Market Street

Site at 38th & Market is to be developed with 800,000 square feet of office and retail space

Site of a future 25-storey apartment tower, next to the Episcopal Cathedral, at 38th & Chestnut Streets

Looking south on 36th Street

Looking north on 36th Street, along site of 3601 Market Street, towards Lancaster Avenue and Powelton Village neighborhood

Route 10 trolley going south on 36th Street

University City High School, just north of 3601 Market Street

Parking lot on the east side of 36th Street, shows view of Center City skyline

Route 10 trolley going north on 36th Street, passing by 3601 Market Street

Intersection of 36th Street & Lancaster Avenue

Looking east on Lancaster Avenue, from 36th Street

Looking west on Lancaster Avenue from 36th Street

Site of new restaurant, Aloosh; former site of Zocalo

Long vacant storefront at northeast corner of 36th & Lancaster

Another long vacant storefront at the northwest corner of 36th & Lancaster

Exciting new entertainment center coming to Delaware Avenue and little-known Canal Street

I’m taking a break from talking about new apartment buildings (although, I’ll be resuming those articles next week) to write about the exciting entertainment center planned for the intersection of Frankford Avenue and Canal Street, just off of Delaware Avenue, near the Northern Liberties and Fishtown waterfront.  The new development will be called Canal North and it is planned for the former Ajax Warehouse and an adjacent warehouse, across Canal Street, that was used for a long time to store dry ice.  It is being designed by Interface Studios and built by Core Realty, whose owner Michael Samschick has promised to transform several acres of land in this area into a master development known as Penn Treaty Village.  Core Realty has already been developing the Pennthouses at Penn Treaty Village (formerly known as Waterview Grande), which is a renovation of two large eight-storey warehouses at Delaware Avenue and Brown Street.  Canal North just had a hearing at the Zoning Board of Adjustment today, April 17, but the size of the project and a few neighbors concerned about the size and hours of the venues caused the ZBA to decide to schedule a special purpose hearing for the project, so that they can hear all the details and allow the neighbors’ attorney, Paul Boni, to voice their concerns, before they can have a final vote on approval.  That new hearing will likely be held in the next month.  The Fishtown Neighbors Association has  already voted to support the project.

Canal North will have several entertainment venues.  The highlight will be a 3,000 seat concert hall on the first floor of the Ajax warehouse, that will be managed by Live Nation under their “Fillmore” brand.  But, there will also be a 20 to 24 lane Revolutions bowling lounge, a distillery on the second floor , a restaurant on the first floor at the corner of Frankford, Laurel Street, and Canal, and a large country-western themed restaurant, with live music, in the former dry ice warehouse, that is part of the chain of restaurants owned by country singer Toby Keith.  There will, also, be some space for additional retail, such as restaurants, and office space on the second floor of the Ajax warehouse, intended for small, start-up businesses that are popular in that area of the city.  The concert venue and distillery will be accessible on Canal Street and the restaurant in the Ajax building will open up onto a plaza at the intersection of Frankford, Laurel, and Canal, which almost intersects with Delaware Avenue across the street from the SugarHouse Casino.  In fact, there will be about 14,000 square feet of landscaped open space, as well as, storm water planters on Frankford Avenue.  The Ajax building will have new windows on the upper floors and lighted signs on the first floor along Frankford Avenue, probably to advertise the concerts, and there will be accessory digital signage on the roof of the building, and possibly an artistic model of a train on the roof, that would both be visible from I-95.  The developers promised that all signage on Canal North would be for accessory purposes of the venues and businesses there, so there will not be billboards.

What’s also cool about this development is that it is intended to be the first phase for Canal Street.  Canal Street is a thin, winding street that stretches from Frankford Avenue to Brown Street in an unusual way.  It was once a creek and was later converted to a canal, then to a Belgian-block street, amidst the Delaware waterfront’s many warehouses.  In modern times it was all but forgotten, as most of the warehouses on that stretch of the waterfront were left abandoned.  Now, Michael Samschick and Core Realty want to reimagine Canal Street by building low-rise buildings with unique stores, restaurants, and cafes along the street and apartments and office space above.  Low-rise buildings are appropriate for thin Canal Street, however, I don’t think that they are best for wide streets like Delaware Avenue or Spring Garden Street.  The City Planning Commission and City Council are about to consider a height limit of 244 feet for the waterfront, as part of the Central Delaware Waterfront Overlay District, and I think the height limit portion of that legislation would only hold back the city’s progress by limiting large development along major streets, where it is most appropriate.  Anyway, Core Realty would also like to close off Canal Street, which ends between the two buildings of the Pennthouses, to vehicular traffic, so that Canal Street becomes a colorful and unique destination, like a pedestrian version of South Street or Frankford and Passyunk Avenues.  Canal North would anchor the northern end of the new version of Canal Street and the Pennthouses would anchor the southern end, and include a pedestrian plaza with retail and, according to representatives of Core Realty, an IMAX movie screen in a building adjacent to the Pennthouses.  Canal Street might just become one of the coolest streets in the city!

While this article isn’t about an apartment building for once, this area of the city is experiencing quite a lot of residential development, some of it likely encouraged by this development.  There is an eleven storey apartment building planned for Delaware Avenue; next to the Ben Franklin Bridge, a 20-storey apartment highrise planned to be built next to Waterfront Square; across Delaware Avenue from the Pennthouses, a 16-storey apartment building planned for Columbus Boulevard (Delaware Avenue south); next to the Dockside Condominiums, and a huge apartment and retail development planned for Delaware Avenue at Callowhill Street; which would have four highrise buildings and a large shopping center and public plaza.

Canal North would, also, extend the Delaware waterfront entertainment area, which includes the SugarHouse Casino across Delaware Avenue, the new home of the Fringe Festival/Live Arts Festival at Race Street, the Festival Pier and Great Plaza (which I hope they would keep when they redevelop Penn’s Landing), and several nightclubs and historic ships.  Soon, there will also be an additional mid-sized concert venue on the waterfront when Grasso Holdings builds a new House of Blues concert hall at an old warehouse about a mile north of Canal North and SugarHouse (that project has all the financing needed and should start construction soon).  Canal North would likely start construction this year, as well.  The Planning Commission approved the project last December, but put several conditions that must be met in order to be allowed to begin construction.  Among those conditions are that the developers must provide enough parking for both normal and peak use days and evenings.  The Commissioners insist that the developer provide 500 regular spaces and have agreements with owners of neighboring lots, such as at SugarHouse and the Festival Pier, to provide excess parking during concerts, which will likely be held 60 to 70 times a year.  Most of the every day parking would be under I-95, and eventually a multi-storey parking garage would be built there.  Many patrons of the concert venue, and other businesses, would be young people who would take mass-transit there, including the Market/Frankford El and the Girard Avenue (Route 15) trolley, which stops right in front of Canal North at a new branch on Frankford Avenue that has a loop back to Girard Avenue.  There will, also, be 66 bike parking spaces.

Canal North would be a great addition to the city’s entertainment offerings and to the Delaware waterfront.  Canal Street, itself, could become another cool and unique urban street and will add to Northern Liberties‘ continued revival.  If you are interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in this area, or any other area, of the city, please contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com or check out my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  You can, also, check out our Condo Shop listings at Waterfront Square, and elsewhere, at our website, www.thecondoshops.com, or look at our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, or our Condo Shop twitter page, @The_Condo_Shop.  You can, also, check out more info about Penn Treaty Village from Core Realty’s website, here, and view renderings and my pictures of the site and neighborhood, below.

Area of Canal North development (courtesy of PlanPhilly)

Front of Ajax warehouse, at intersection of Frankford Avenue, Laurel Street, and Canal Street, as seen from the middle of Delaware Avenue

Front of the Ajax warehouse, at the intersection of Frankford Avenue, Laurel Street, and Canal Street

Rendering of Canal North from the intersection of Frankford Avenue, Laurel Street, and Canal Street

Rendering of plaza at Canal North

Looking south on Delaware Avenue

Looking north on Delaware Avenue

SugarHouse Casino, across Delaware Avenue from Canal North site

Waterfront Square
Condominiums, across Delaware Avenue

Sign at intersection of Canal Street and Laurel Avenue, a few dozen feet from Frankford Avenue

Looking down Canal Street, south of Laurel near Frankford, shows the barren streetscape that will someday be very active

The dry ice warehouse will have a Country/Western themed restaurant

Looking up Frankford Avenue, from Delaware Avenue, with Ajax building on left

Route 15 trolley in front of Ajax warehouse

Route 15 trolleys, passing Ajax warehouse in both directions on Frankford Avenue, will provide transportation to and from Canal North

Ajax warehouse, along Frankford Avenue

Bus and trolley loop on Frankford Avenue, across from Ajax warehouse

Sign at bus and trolley loop

The Barbary, across Frankford Avenue from the Ajax warehouse

Looking east on Frankford Avenue at Ajax warehouse and Waterfront Square Condominiums in the background

Fishtown banner on Frankford Avenue

Looking west on Frankford Avenue from Richmond Street

Ajax warehouse on Richmond Street side

Closer view of Ajax warehouse on Richmond Street

Looking down Richmond Street at the apartment buildings surrounding The Piazza in Northern Liberties

Looking towards the Pennthouses from Richmond Street

The Pennthouses, one building is renovated and the other is being renovated

Parking will go underneath I-95

The Market/Frankford El and I-95 are next door to Canal North

Ajax warehouse, from underneath I-95

New 25-storey highrise apartment building at 38th & Chestnut Streets in University City

A new highrise apartment tower is planned for the busy intersection of 38th and Chestnut Streets.  This is the latest story on my blog about highrise apartment towers in the city.  This apartment tower will replace two historic townhouses (at 3723 and 3725 Chestnut Street), a small apartment building that used to be a townhouse, and a small yard next to the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, on 38th Street, in University City.  The developer is Radnor Property Group, which is purchasing the neighboring properties from the Episcopal Cathedral to build the apartment tower and in order to provide revenue to renovate the existing church building and fund the church’s community programs.  It is being designed by BLT Architects, also known as Bower, Lewis, Thrower Architects.

The new tower will be 25 storeys tall and have 280 rental apartment units, and it will have retail at the street level, along both Chestnut and 38th Streets.  It will have a linear, modernist look with abundant windows and balconies.  There will be a church community center and school, attached to the original church structure, and a day care center in the basement.  The church applied to have the historically designated townhouses, that were used as the church’s parish house, demolished last year, arguing that they did not have sufficient funds to afford the approximately $3 million renovation of their historically designated cathedral and needed to sell the townhouses and yard to obtain those funds.  The City’s Historical Commission granted the demolition permits, saying that the demolition was in the ”public interest” according to preservation laws, but the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia objected to the demolition, arguing that the townhouses, designed by architect Charles M. Burns, were still too historically significant and that tearing down historically designated buildings to save other historically designated buildings would set a dangerous precedent.  When the Preservation Alliance lost their appeal to the Historical Commission, they decided to work out an agreement in which the Episcopal Cathedral committed in writing to spending the funds from the sale of the next door properties to renovation of the existing cathedral and agreed to a timeline for the renovation and maintenance for 50 years, if the Preservation Alliance dropped their lawsuit in Common Pleas Court.  The developers are planning to break ground in September and be ready for occupancy by 2015.

This latest apartment tower is located in an important area and it will be designed to appeal to a broad group of tenants, not just the usual student tenants.  Its location next to the rapidly expanding University City Science Center, and close to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University campuses, will make it attractive for workers in those locations, as well as, come Center City workers.  It will, also, further animate a key intersection in University City and add to the skyline of this part of the city (although, I don’t think it would be a bad idea if the developers preserved and renovated the facades of the brownstones as part of the project).  It is one of several major developments in the center of University City, including the Science Center developments at 38th & Market Streets and 34th & Market Streets, and another new highrise apartment tower, soon-to-be built by the Science Center, at 36th & Market, that will make the heart of University City feel like an extension of the city’s downtown.  Also, developer Campus Apartments is planning to build a new apartment building, at 41st and Walnut Streets; next to the new Homewood Suites by Hilton, and a highrise apartment tower and highrise office tower at a large site at 42nd & Chestnut, which is currently occupied by a large brick warehouse.  And, the link between University City and Center City is being strengthened by the development of the Cira Centre residential and office highrises that I recently wrote about.

If you are interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in the ever-changing University City neighborhood, or any other neighborhood in the city, please contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com or check out my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  You can, also, check out our Condo Shop website, www.thecondoshops.com, or our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, or our Condo Shop twitter page, The_Condo_Shop.  And, you can learn more about Radnor Property Group, here, and check out the renderings and my pictures of the site, and the soon-to-be demolished townhouses, and the neighborhood, below.

Rendering of the new apartment tower at 38th & Chestnut Streets

Elevation drawings of the new apartment tower

Rendering of the lower levels of the new tower, shows church offices and retail spaces

Future site of the apartment tower at 38th and Chestnut Streets

Episcopal Cathedral

The historic townhouses and garden of the Episcopal Cathedral

Sign of the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral

The historic former parish house of the Episcopal Cathedral

Bay windows of the historic brownstone parish house

Looking east on Chestnut towards Center City

Looking west on Chestnut Street, from 38th Street

Looking south down 38th Street, from Chestnut Street, towards Wharton School buildings and University City Medical Campus

Looking north on 38th Street, from Chestnut Street, towards University City Science Center future construction sites

Street signs at 38th & Chestnut Streets

St. Agatha St. James Roman Catholic Church, across Chestnut Street from the site

International House dormitory, next to the site of the new apartment tower

Popular businesses on 38th Street, across the street from the site of the future apartment tower

Center City skyline, from 38th & Ludlow Streets

Route 21 bus goes into Center City, along Chestnut Street

Large parking lot at 38th & Market Streets will be developed with a large office development in the Science Center, almost across the street from the new tower

Sign and rendering of proposed office development at 38th & Market Streets

Construction of 3737 Market Street office building in the Science Center, a block from 38th & Chestnut

Site at 36th & Market Streets will soon have another apartment building

This site, at 34th & Market Streets, will also have a highrise office building soon

New apartment highrise on Chestnut Street will replace long blighted YWCA Annex building

It’s starting to sound like a broken record (if you remember what those are) but there is another highrise apartment building about to be built in the city, this time on Chestnut Street in Center City.  The new building is at 2021 Chestnut Street, about a block from my Condo Shop office at the Riverwest Condos.  What’s significant about this development is that it will replace a long vacant and horribly blighted building, that was the annex for the former YWCA building next door.  The annex building has an unusuable pool inside, among other things.  The former YWCA  building, itself, is now used by the Freire Charter School.  This new building will provide space for that school, as well as, rental apartments and retail along Chestnut Street.

The new highrise will be built by local developers Aquinas Realty Partners.  It will be 12 storeys and have 110 rental apartment units, mostly one-bedroom apartments.  There will be almost 5,000 square feet of retail space along busy Chestnut Street.  The building will have an internal side courtyard, for residents, and bicycle storage (among other sustainable features), but there will be no parking for cars since the building is located within walking distance of so many things.  There will, also, be space for the Freire Charter School in the basement of the building.  The facade of the building will be dominated by large windows, some in bay windows and the others behind Juliet balconies.

This will be a nice addition to the neighborhood.  It replaces an old eyesore on Chestnut Street with upscale apartments, new retail, and much-needed space for a popular school.  It is one of several new apartment buildings in the neighborhood, including The Grove at Cira Centre South, 2116 Chestnut Street, 2040 Market Street, and the soon-to-be built 1919 Market Street.  It’s, also, one of several articles I have done and will be doing about new apartment highrises, which are really booming right now.  There is growing talk, as well, about new condos being built in Rittenhouse soon, since the market demand for condos has improved to pre-recession levels and the supply of newer condo units is low and prices are rising.  The owners of the large empty lot on Walnut Street, at Rittenhouse Square Park, are talking about finally building their large condo and hotel development soon, or selling the land to another developer who can.

If you are interested in buying or selling a home or investment property in the very popular and upscale Rittenhouse neighborhood or any other neighborhood, you can stop by my real estate office on the next block of Chestnut Street, at the Riverwest Condos, or contact me at gabriel@thecondoshops.com.  You can, also, go to my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, or my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE.  You can, also, check out our Condo Shop listings in the neighborhood, and others, at our Condo Shop website, www.thecondoshops.com, or our Condo Shop Facebook page, The Condo Shop and TCS Homes, or our Condo Shop twitter page, @The_Condo_Shop.  And, you can view Aquinas’s website, here, and check out my pictures of the site and neighborhood, below.

Rendering of 2021 Chestnut Street apartments

Elevation rendering of 2021 Chestnut Street apartments

The former YWCA building next door, now the Freire Charter School

Old, abandoned YWCA Annex to be demolished soon

Sign announcing 2021 Chestnut Street apartments on old YWCA Annex

Looking east on Chestnut Street, from 2021 Chestnut Street, towards Liberty Place

Looking west on Chestnut Street, towards 2116 Chestnut Street and Riverwest Condos

Looking east down Chestnut Street, towards Two Liberty Place

The 2000 block of Chestnut Street

2116 Chestnut Street apartment tower, just west of 2021 Chestnut Street in the foreground

Front of Riverwest condos, and Condo Shop office, one block west of 2021 Chestnut Street

My Condo Shop office, at the Riverwest Condos at 2101 Chestnut Street, one block west of 2021 Chestnut Street

2040 Market Street apartments

Looking south down 21st Street, from 2040 Market Street apartments, at Riverwest Condos

Rendering of 1919 Market Street apartment tower, which will be around the corner from 2021 Chestnut Street, at 20th & Market Streets

Rendering of The Grove at Cira Centre South apartments, under construction a few blocks west of 2021 Chestnut Street