PHILADELPHIA-CAMDEN-WILMINGTON-ATLANTIC CITY-READING | Metro Development Thread

[domodeez]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

Sounds like we will need a new Wilmington high rise thread soon, there was a zoning meeting last night for a 22-story apartment building for Downtown. Another BPG jawn. Hope to see some renderings soon!

Fascinating. At the intersection of 12th and Orange. Both are car sewers at that location. Could use some public investment toward traffic calming. Great to see ground up residential planned for this location and for one or more surface parking lots to bite the dust.

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by domodeez

Fascinating. At the intersection of 12th and Orange. Both are car sewers at that location. Could use some public investment toward traffic calming. Great to see ground up residential planned for this location and for one or more surface parking lots to bite the dust.

Yep! If a mod could link this new thread to the Philly page, I'd appreciated it!

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...0#post10233500

[jonesrmj]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

Sounds like we will need a new Wilmington high rise thread soon, there was a zoning meeting last night for a 22-story apartment building for Downtown. Another BPG jawn. Hope to see some renderings soon!

Wow, that's great to hear!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time we got a high rise in Wilmington over 20 floors was the River Tower at Christiana Landing (27 floors) in 2007.

I am curious about how well the job market has been in Wilmington since WFH really took off. Same with the crime rates. From what I understand, crime did get worse in most cities during covid, but has since been slowly declining again.

And how is the job scene in Wilmington now? From what I remember before covid, it was consolidating and I imagine WFH may have accelerated that. But then again, this is just based on observations and I haven't really been "in the know" for a while.

Does anybody have some data on this?

[domodeez]

Originally Posted by jonesrmj

Wow, that's great to hear!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time we got a high rise in Wilmington over 20 floors was the River Tower at Christiana Landing (27 floors) in 2007.

I am curious about how well the job market has been in Wilmington since WFH really took off. Same with the crime rates. From what I understand, crime did get worse in most cities during covid, but has since been slowly declining again.

And how is the job scene in Wilmington now? From what I remember before covid, it was consolidating and I imagine WFH may have accelerated that. But then again, this is just based on observations and I haven't really been "in the know" for a while.

Does anybody have some data on this?

Office vacancy rate in Wilmington CBD is 25-35% depending on which source you reference. Higher than pre-COVID but it’s been elevated for about 15 years. It’ll take quite a few more years for the office vacancy rate to come back down to healthy levels as many of the problem properties are not easily convertible to residential.

[Jawnadelphia]

To echo domodeez, there's still some large office vacancies, and Morris James leaving the WSFS Building in early 2025 for Avenue North doesn't help. But the Nemours, Brandywine, 901-903 N. Market Street buildings have been (or are in the process) converted to residentials.
Incyte's decision to move hundreds of jobs downtown to Rodney Square should have a great impact.
Crime - seems to be similar to other big cities in the region, the homicide spikes during the Covid years are down.
BPG said they have another 1,000 apartments in the pipeline for Wilmington, so it seems the "luxury apartment" market is booming.

Jones:
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time we got a high rise in Wilmington over 20 floors was the River Tower at Christiana Landing (27 floors) in 2007."

-You are correct.

[iamdjmichael]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

To echo domodeez, there's still some large office vacancies, and Morris James leaving the WSFS Building in early 2025 for Avenue North doesn't help. But the Nemours, Brandywine, 901-903 N. Market Street buildings have been (or are in the process) converted to residentials.
Incyte's decision to move hundreds of jobs downtown to Rodney Square should have a great impact.
Crime - seems to be similar to other big cities in the region, the homicide spikes during the Covid years are down.
BPG said they have another 1,000 apartments in the pipeline for Wilmington, so it seems the "luxury apartment" market is booming.

Jones:
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time we got a high rise in Wilmington over 20 floors was the River Tower at Christiana Landing (27 floors) in 2007."

-You are correct.

I REALLY wish I was able to see those designs and locations for the other projects

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by iamdjmichael

I REALLY wish I was able to see those designs and locations for the other projects

1) Phase two for The Press.
2) The 1122 Orange project.
3) BPG bought most of the 600 block of N. King Street. The building in the center there was demo'ed by BPG earlier this year.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7418...5409&entry=ttu
4) The weird building at 601 Delaware Avenue was demolished last month, and the parking lot is being remediated for a "high-rise" development.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7491...5409&entry=ttu

So those 4 right there, I'm confident in.

[domodeez]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

Yep! If a mod could link this new thread to the Philly page, I'd appreciated it!

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...0#post10233500

Posted this on the project page and also cross-posting here because the article includes updates on some additional Wilmington developments…


Article from today in the Delaware Business Times:

https://delawarebusinesstimes.com/ne...orange-street/

The plan is to redevelop a small parking lot on the corner of Orange and Market streets into a 231-unit complex with a four-story office annex building. The annex building will connect to the neighboring I.M. Pei building at 1105 N. Market Street bought by BPG in 2007.

…

Plans filed with city officials show that the Orange Street project would include a small coffee lounge and coworking space, as well as 2,500 square feet of outdoor amenity space to include a fire pit, grill and dog run.

The project, which includes $70 million in construction costs, continues building on BPG’s housing development in Wilmington, most notably along the city’s main street. Recent projects like Humble Park in the Lower Market community in the south, the 355-unit complex The Standard in the repurposed Nemours building in the north and the Press to the west all add up to a more than $200 million in investments.

…

BPG plans for projects like The Press to be open in the summer of 2025, while Humble Park is slated to be open at the end of 2024. Recently, the company celebrated placing the final beam on the six-story Humble Park.

[Urbanthusiat]

Plans for apartments in Collinswood: https://www.inquirer.com/business/do...-20240708.html

Seems like a great project, with excess parking for people visiting downtown, affordable senior apartments in one building, market rate in the other, and near transit. Hopefully the NIMBYs don't kill it, Collinswood could use more people living downtown to go to the shops.

[domodeez]

With this, the Delaware Law School relocation to downtown Wilmington should have just about all the funding it needs to proceed 👍

https://www.delawareonline.com/story...l/74352151007/

Signed into law June 30 by Gov. John Carney, Delaware’s billion-dollar bond bill is sending tens of millions of dollars to downtown Wilmington through a litany of curious appropriations, some buried deep within the epilogue section of the omnibus spending legislation.

There’s more than $18 million to renovate an office building the state purchased in January from Alpha Technologies.

There’s $10 million more for a renovation of a building within the expansive and largely vacant Bracebridge complex, planned as a future home of Widener University’s law school, and other college’s operations.

And, there are unspecified millions of dollars more to fund the pharmaceutical company Incyte’s move into still another of the Bracebridge complex’s office buildings.

The Incyte money adds to $14.8 million that Delaware’s economic development office awarded the company in May for its long-planned relocation of its Pennsylvania satellite office into Wilmington.

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Plans for apartments in Collinswood: https://www.inquirer.com/business/do...-20240708.html

Seems like a great project, with excess parking for people visiting downtown, affordable senior apartments in one building, market rate in the other, and near transit. Hopefully the NIMBYs don't kill it, Collinswood could use more people living downtown to go to the shops.

This would be amazing for Collingswood. It's already a super cool town. This would be a huge boost. It's unbelievable to me that ANYONE would think otherwise. What is wrong with people?

[EastSideHBG]

SEPTA issues Request for Proposal regarding apartments and parking garage along the Schuylkill River in Conshohocken

SEPTA has released a Request for Proposal or RFP (view here) that seeks a developer to redevelop the SEPTA-owned property at 101 Washington Street in Conshohocken with apartments and a parking garage. The RFP is mostly legal language and does not require a specific number of apartments to be constructed above the parking structure that would serve the train station and the apartment community.
https://morethanthecurve.com/septa-i...-conshohocken/

[PHLtoNYC]

Hopefully the owners do this right. More residential and less parking lots.

Neshaminy Mall buyers plan to demolish half of it for redevelopment
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...velopment.html

The Neshaminy Mall’s new owners plan to demolish about half of the property and redevelop the site with a mix of uses that will complement the remaining retail.

Paramount and Edgewater are considering various redevelopment strategies but plan to keep the Boscov’s department store, AMC movie theater, Barnes & Noble bookstore and free-standing restaurants Uno Chicago Grill and On The Border Mexican Grill. The remainder of the retail property is about 20% occupied and would be razed, Paramount Realty Principal Maurice Zekaria said.

Zekaria estimated as much as 500,000 square feet of the 1.1 million-square-foot mall is ticketed for demolition.

[EastSideHBG]

Single family home in Borough of Conshohocken sells for just over $1 million
https://morethanthecurve.com/single-...ver-1-million/

[Knight Hospitaller]

Being a millionaire used to mean something.

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Being a millionaire used to mean something.

It's wild. And it's Conshy. Cool place, sure, but is it really THAT cool?! I have mixed feelings about this "progress"

[UrbanRevival]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

It's wild. And it's Conshy. Cool place, sure, but is it really THAT cool?! I have mixed feelings about this "progress"

The Philly 'burbs have definitely gotten a bit frenzied price-wise, but it's still far more tame than the absolute insanity you see in the Boston, NYC and DC areas or out West. As bad as it's gotten everywhere, the housing/income ratio is still, believe it or not, pretty darn favorable in the Philly area, even in the 'burbs.

The region median only just hit 400K in June, so the value is definitely still here, especially as a large East Coast metro. I'd expect more solid increases in the years to come as more people seek the kind of value Philly has to offer comparatively.

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by UrbanRevival

The Philly 'burbs have definitely gotten a bit frenzied price-wise, but it's still far more tame than the absolute insanity you see in the Boston, NYC and DC areas or out West. As bad as it's gotten everywhere, the housing/income ratio is still, believe it or not, pretty darn favorable in the Philly area, even in the 'burbs.

The region median only just hit 400K in June, so the value is definitely still here, especially as a large East Coast metro. I'd expect more solid increases in the years to come as more people seek the kind of value Philly has to offer comparatively.

Agree. Although Chester, Montgomery, Bucks are considerably higher than region median, notably Chester County, which is approaching $600k (Chester County market is intense, although for good reason).

I think some are just surprised that the Philly burbs increased so dramatically so quickly (secret is out, and a shortage of new housing isn't helping).