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Tag: News

Center City’s 2013 Retail Renaissance

Posted on by Solo Team

A new report from the Center City District reveals that downtown Philadelphia, long caught between the King of Prussia Mall and New York City, has emerged as a major upscale shopping destination, as retailers use the area’s population density to their advantage.

 

The Center City District’s annual retail report (seen in full here) features some truly impressive numbers: retail rents along the high-end Walnut Street shopping district have increased by 33.8% from 2012 to 2013, the strongest growth of any major urban retail corridor in the country.

 

Michelle Shannon, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Center City District, recently discussed this growth with Philly.com, saying that many now “feel like the rubber’s really hitting the road” for Center City retail investments and that “people we wouldn’t see four years ago, or signing leases in Philadelphia, are now open.”

 

So what’s driving this growth? The report concludes Center City’s amazing density of jobs and residents is a key part of this success story. With over 100,000 residents in walking distance of major shopping streets, plus nearly nine times the office workers of King of Prussia, Center City retailers have easy access to customers.

 

In addition, this report reveals that district’s workers and residents are among the highest earning in the Philadelphia area as well, making Center City even more attractive to retailers.

 

Areas outside the Walnut Street shopping district are growing too, like here in Washington Square West.

 

Of course, as a city famous for its independent spirit, Philadelphians are sometimes wary of embracing the big national brands driving this retail renaissance. Boutiques and independent stores play a critical role in Center City’s retail market and still represent the majority of stores. Encouraging continued big developments, while also helping the city’s small businesses to share in that growth, is critical to ensuring a high quality of life (and sense of style) for Center City’s residents and workers.

New Land Bank Faces Hurdles To Success

Posted on by Solo Team

Philadelphia is on track to become the largest city in the nation with a Land Bank. However, the bank’s central mission of connecting developers with abandoned properties may now be complicated by the very bill establishing this institution.

 

In a deal reached just days before adjourning for the year, City Council is now set to pass a landmark bill creating a single authority to manage the sale of Philadelphia’s abandoned properties. That process has become far more complicated however thanks to the recent actions of Council President Darrell Clarke.

 

Arguing that the unelected members of the Land Bank would have an unaccountable influence over major development decisions, Clarke has fought for months to expand Council’s say over the Bank’s management. Clarke even went so far as to introduce an amendment to the Bank bill that would add the extra step of City Council approval over all Land Bank deals, effectively giving the Council veto power.

 

A Daily News cartoon skewering Council President Clarke's attempt to add the step of Council approval to Land Bank deals. (Image via Philadelphia Daily News).
A Daily News cartoon skewering Council President Clarke’s attempt to add the step of Council approval to Land Bank deals. (Image via Philadelphia Daily News).

 

Clarke’s original demands were however watered down through negotiations. His new amendments, which now require the Land Bank to receive Council approval for its annual development plans and budget, were successfully added to the final bill on December 5th.

 

Interestingly, the controversy swirling around Clarke’s amendments demonstrate the wide popularity that the Land Bank enjoys throughout the city’s many interest groups. Organizations as diverse as private developers, neighborhood associations and non-profits see the Bank as a critical new means of redeveloping the estimated 40,000+ abandoned properties that dot the city and the blight many of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.

 

With so much raw potential for good then, we at Solo feel it would be foolish to inject any extra interference into the management of the Land Bank. Council President Clarke’s amendments would do just that though, making an institution designed to streamline the redevelopment process slower, more complicated and more bureaucratic. This could do irreparable harm to this promising new institution.

 

Let’s then encourage our leaders to give the Land Bank the independence it needs to fully realize its mission of rejuvenating forgotten spaces and encouraging economic growth throughout the city of Philadelphia.

 

UPDATE: On December 16th, City Council approved the Land Bank bill. Mayor Nutter has vowed to sign it into law soon.

Conversion Project To Densify Problem Block

Posted on by Solo Team

Marked by low occupancy, graffiti and poor foot traffic, the 1100 Block of Chestnut Street is a rare remaining example of Center City’s bad old days. Developers however have just received approval to transform a large part of this neglected street for the better.

 

At a recent Zoning Board meeting, an affiliate of Brickstone Realty won approval from the City to construct a mixed use residential/commercial conversion project on Chestnut Street near its intersection with 12th Street. When completed this three building project will feature two floors of dedicated retail and commercial spaces with 80 rental apartments above.

 

The project, located on 1118-28 Chestnut Street, comes as a major boost for one of Center City’s least desirable blocks, whose mix of vacant store fronts, low-end retail and handful of municipal service centers form an unpleasant atmosphere for pedestrians between the dynamic Washington Square West and Independence Mall neighborhoods.

 

A rendering of the future retail and residential spaces at 1118-28 Chestnut.  Image courtesty of Plan Philly.
A rendering of the future retail and residential spaces at 1118-28 Chestnut.  Image courtesy of Plan Philly.

 

Despite its current state though, 1100 block of Chestnut Street has natural assets, as it is strategically situated between the booming Jefferson Hospital campus and the commercial and retail spaces along 13th Street. Developers likely believe new construction will allow them to take advantage of this prime yet under-developed location.

 

Indeed, over the past several decades numerous Philadelphia neighborhoods have experienced sustained growth thanks to projects (like 1118-28 Chestnut) which increase local population density. Philadelphia’s pedestrian-friendly scale also plays a role, as new residents are able to support businesses on their very own block. The successful rehabilitation of Northern Liberties and University City are great examples of this development strategy.

 

Nearly three decades on then, it’s good to see that private businesses and the City still recognize that increased population density is the key to Philadelphia’s continued structural and economic redevelopment.

How Philadelphia Gets To Work

Posted on by Solo Team

A new report from the Center City District (CCD) has some fascinating figures about how Philadelphians commute to work. Relying increasingly on public transit, bicycles and their own two feet, these eco-friendly commuting habits have become increasingly important to the city’s continued development.

 

The CCD’s new report reveals in depth statistics on how Philadelphia’s commuters are uniquely different and far more environmentally-friendly than that of the average American. Unlike almost every other American community, Philadelphia’s urban core residents hardly use cars to get to work.

 

This auto-less commute is possible in part thanks to the sheer density of jobs in the area – the CCD report states that while our suburbs have just 0.9 jobs per acre, Center City boasts an impressive 203 jobs per acre. This remarkable density allows workers to eschew long, car-focused commutes and find jobs reachable by low-carbon emitting means of transit.

 

As one might suspect, the CCD report also states that the location and layout of different neighborhoods influences their residents’ commuting patterns. For instance, the close proximity of Center City’s residential and business areas means that fewer than one quarter of its residents drive to work. On the other hand, residents of Fairmount, who are near Downtown but have fewer public transit options, are the most likely to bike to work, while Chinatown residents, many of whom live right above their businesses, are the most likely to walk to work.

 

This map from the CCD Report shows the rate of car-free commuters in Center City. 75% or more of residents in Light Green areas do not use a car to get to work. Yellow areas indicate 50-75% and Orange areas under 50% of resident car-free commuters. (Image courtesy of C.C.D.)
This map from the CCD Report shows the rate of car-free commuters in Center City. 75% or more of residents in Light Green areas do not use a car to get to work. Yellow areas indicate 50-75% and Orange areas under 50% of resident car-free commuters. (Image courtesy of C.C.D.)

 

So what does all this information mean for the city of Philadelphia and its future development? According to Jerry Sweeny, President and CEO of the mega-developer Brandywine Realty Trust, a whole lot. He argues that access to solid transit systems is now a benchmark requirement for smart commercial real estate investment. At a recent forum on development, Sweeny said “There is no question that properties that have access to more than one form of transportation will perform better through peaks and valleys in economic cycles.” After years of market instability, this statement clearly suggests good things for Philadelphia’s continued development.

 

Of course, this transit-based growth is dependent on our civic leaders maintaining and expanding support for SEPTA, bike lanes, sidewalks and the other transit options that allow Philadelphians to make their green commutes. Like all perks of urban life, it’s something we cannot take for granted.

Boardwalk Blazes New Path Along Schuylkill

Posted on by Solo Team

When completed in 2014, the Schuylkill River Trail’s boardwalk will serve not only as a new corridor for pedestrians, cyclists and other visitors along enjoying the river, but will also offer users exciting new ways to experience Philadelphia’s forgotten waterfront spaces and vistas.

 

At about 2000 feet long and 15 feet wide, the new Schuylkill River Trail Boardwalk (pictured under construction on the left) runs just adjacent to the riverbank, seemingly floating above the Schuylkill as it connects the old trail head at Locust Street to a new one currently under construction under the South Street Bridge. Indeed, once complete, the boardwalk will allow residents of South Philadelphia easier access the Schuylkill River Trail while also avoiding dangerous active freight rail lines that run along Center City’s lower Schuylkill waterfront.

 

Lane Fike, director of capital programs at the Schuylkill River Development Corporation, recently told Philly.com that project is on track to be completed in August of 2014. In addition to the benefits it will bring Center City, the boardwalk will also serve as an important part of a $60 million project (funded with federal stimulus dollars) that aims to create bike paths running some 90 miles along the Schuylkill River from Philadelphia to Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

 

A rendering of the Schuylkill Riverbanks Trail Boardwalk (image by Schuylkill Banks)

 

Perhaps what’s most exciting though about the boardwalk on the Schuylkill Riverbanks Trail isn’t just the new bike and jogging space, but rather in brand new vistas and experiences it will afford visitors. The Schuylkill River is so heavily managed that can be hard to experience the natural surroundings of this green space; However, this project’s organic shape and position over the river will allow visitors to connect with the Schuylkill River in dynamic new ways.

 

We are of course always delighted to share with you and our clients projects like this, which take Philadelphia’s degraded, post-industrial spaces and breathe new life into them.

New Park To Honor Hidden Local History

Posted on by Solo Team

Just steps from the traffic and big box retailers of Delaware Avenue sits Washington Avenue Green, a small waterfront park whose newly proposed redesign would transform one of the site’s crumbling piers into a public space honoring a hidden chapter of Philadelphia’s immigrant heritage.

 

The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) recently released a series of plans for the proposed updates to Washington Avenue Green’s Pier 53 (seen as it is today on the left). When completed in the summer of 2014, the restored pier will pay homage to the site’s former life as the Washington Avenue Immigration Station, which from 1873-1915 served as the main entry point for immigrants arriving in Philadelphia. During that time the station at Pier 53 accepted nearly one million immigrants, mostly from Eastern and Southern Europe, whose labor fueled Philadelphia’s booming industrial economy and whose rich cultural heritage has so deeply shaped the character of our city.

 

While none of the original Washington Avenue Immigration Station remains, the new park will speak to the site’s history thanks to the work of artist Jody Pinto, who has been commissioned to create a piece that evokes Pier 53’s special place in Philadelphia history.

 

Above is a rendering of the new Pier 53 at Washington Avenue Green (image by Applied Ecological Services, Inc.)

 

Just as the plans for the new space celebrate the past of course, they also serve as a very real investment in the social and ecological future of both the project’s surrounding neighborhood and the Delaware River waterfront. Despite its charm and family-friendly streets, Pennsport (where the Washington Avenue Green is located) has limited green space, an issue that this redesign would immediately remedy. Furthermore, other successful riverside parks like Old City’s Race Street Pier and Fishtown’s Penn Treaty Park have shown people’s interest in the industrial and post-industrial spaces along the Delaware River. The redesigned Pier 53 would then add new parkland to Pennsport while also attracting much needed foot and bicycle traffic to the area.

 

Finally, the changes to Pier 53 and Washington Avenue Gardens will have an additional focus on creating a restorative landscape, as the proposal’s longterm goal aims to return much needed wetlands to the Delaware Riverfront. These new riparian spaces will improve the area’s natural beauty, ecological diversity and water quality, brining benefits for years to come.

 

We eagerly await to see how this plan, and its goal of connecting the Delaware Riverfront’s legacy of immigration with its green future, will change a wonderful and deeply historic part of South Philadelphia.

Proposed Tower May Change Popular Parks

Posted on by Solo Team

Once a barren stretch of muddy river water and broken concrete, over the past decade Center City’s Schuylkill riverfront has been transformed into one of the city’s most popular green spaces. A proposed new apartment tower however might radically alter this series of parks, which attracts more than one million visitors annually.

 

One Riverside, as the project is called, is being proposed by Center City mega-developer Dranoff Properties Inc.. The $85 million, 21 story tower is to be located on the site of what is currently a surface parking lot on 25th and Locust (pictured left), and would feature 167 apartments, 5 penthouses and a large retail space on the ground floor. The plans for One Riverside are sparking big controversy however, as its positioning perpendicular to 25th Street would in effect separate the Schuylkill River Park from the Riverbanks Park, compromising the area’s urban vistas and successful connectivity.

 

Indeed, One Riverside’s design seems to represent a classic irony of real estate – when a space becomes popular, it draws developers whose projects ultimately alter the very space and success that they seek to capitalize on.

 

The parks along the Schuylkill attract joggers and walkers, residents and office workers throughout the year.
The parks along the Schuylkill attract joggers and walkers, residents and office workers throughout the year.

 

For their part, local residents are especially concerned about One Riverside. Along with the issues associated with increased density, the tower would seriously effect the neighboring Schuylkill River Park Community Garden by blocking light and adding other plant stresses. Center City Residents Association (CCRA) is therefore cautioning against the current design, saying “the project has generated considerable comment from our members, most of which has been unfavorable. There is particular concern over the project’s impact on the…Community Gardens and the potential effect on neighborhood traffic.” CCRA President Jeffrey Braff acknowledges though that the project likely won’t need zoning variances, and that his organization has “little leverage other than the power of compelling arguments.”

 

While One Riverside has bristled the CCRA, Carl Dranoff, the project’s developer, argues the building’s new retail will bring big benefits to the green space. Dranoff recently spoke with the Philadelphia Business Journal, arguing that currently “There’s no place to get a bottle of water, a bagel, a sandwich when you are using the park. (One Riverside’s retail space) will tremendously activate and make (the parks) more attractive.” That kind of amenity could indeed go a long way towards winning over skeptics.

 

This project ultimately seems to speak to the give and take of Philadelphia’s amazing redevelopment: balancing the need for more vertical living against the continued development of popular new green spaces is the kind of problem many post-industrial cities would dream of having. It’s also an issue that one project is unlikely to put to rest.

Graduate Hospital Grows Up

Posted on by Solo Team

Graduate Hospital, with its proximity to the Rittenhouse Square, downtown businesses and University City, has experienced remarkable growth over the past decade. However, new proposals are taking that growth in a bold new direction – upwards.

 

Philadelphia Real Estate Blog has reported that two new highrise developments (both slated for five stories) are being considered for Graduate Hospital. In an area this hot however, these first-of-their-kind projects may have a profound effect not just on the future of the neighborhood, but on Philadelphia’s  cityscape as well.

 

To understand what’s remarkable about these proposed highrises, it’s important to acknowledge certain aspects of Philadelphia’s architectural history. While New York City has hundreds of highrise apartment buildings, most of Philadelphia’s housing stock (with the exception of parts of Center City) is defined by two to three story rowhouses. This city-wide lack of verticality was created by numerous factors, including local economic history, population trends and, perhaps most famously, the Gentlemen’s Agreement that from 1901 thru 1987 kept developers from building any structure higher than the statue of William Penn that stands atop City Hall.

 

For its part, when Graduate Hospital began to rebound about a decade ago, developers initially found a seemingly inexhaustible supply of conversion-friendly rowhouses (along with plenty of empty lots) in the neighborhood. Years of construction though gobbled up most of the area’s available space; these new proposed highrises suggest then that we’ve reached a point where developers must now build up, rather than out, to provide more square footage in the neighborhood. With so much similar housing stock throughout the city, this scenario is likely to occur more and more as time, and urban redevelopment, goes on.

 

It should be said however what benefits developers does not always benefit communities. Highrises come with their own unique drawbacks, including loss of sunlight, stresses on parking and other issues associated with more vertical, denser neighborhoods. Furthermore, a continued emphasis on building in Graduate Hospital may come at the expense of less developed neighborhoods to the south and west as well.

 

In the end though, successfully building taller neighborhoods relies on more than just new buildings, but also anticipating an evolving needs of the affected community. A big part of this is ensuring residential development goes hand in hand with commercial and infrastructure development as well. To their credit, both of these new proposals have just these kinds of mixed-use elements. It’s incumbent on developers and leaders however to ensure that as communities reach upwards, they also reach inwards in order to shape a healthy, livable future.

Bike Share Program Coming to Philadelphia

Posted on by Solo Team

Philly.com has reported that the City will launch its first ever bicycle sharing program some time in 2014. With similar popular programs in cities like Paris, Montreal and Berlin, Philadelphians and visitors alike will soon join other global urbanites who all have the chance explore their city via rented bicycle.

 

Final program details have yet to be flushed out, but Philly.com author Katie Monroe affirms that Philadelphia will soon bring a pay-as-you-go style bikeshare with over 100 “docking locations” across the city where bicycles can be rented and parked. The new system will likely allow users to rent the bicycles for short periods of time (30 to 45 minutes), which is meant to encourage using the bikeshare program for transit rather than leisure.

 

Of course, bicycles are nothing new on the streets of Philadelphia. In a city laid out during the time of the horse and buggy and with few practical public transportation options, bicycles are a popular means of getting around the city. Indeed, just like the citizens of famously-bike friendly Amsterdam and Copenhagen use their cities’ pre-automobile scale to their advantage, so too do thousands of Philadelphia’s cyclists.

 

Packed bike racks demonstrate cycling’s popularity in Philadelphia.

 

For Philadelphia to realize its full potential as a great bicycling city though, let alone one with a successful bike sharing system, City Hall will need to step up and manage bicycling systems just as it does cars, pedestrians, trains and other forms of transit. In her fascinating article on the subject published last month, Philly.com architectural critic Inga Saffron notes that Mayor Nutter is well aware of this need, having already pledged “$3 million toward the (bikeshare program)…which would (ultimately) cost $8 million to $11 million to launch.” Saffron also reports that the city is taking active steps to decide the different spots throughout the city where this new fleet of  bicycles will be placed in Philadelphia’s already tight and congested streets.

 

Environmentally-friendly and budget conscious, we believe that bicycling is going to play a key role in Philadelphia’s future, and bikeshare program would be a critical component in that success. After all, if bikeshare programs can succeed on the hectic streets of New York City and unruly roundabouts of Washington, D.C., so too can they thrive in here Philadelphia!