PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by Flyers2001

Penn Tower is still on schedule to come down in approx 10-12 months according to my source.

If that's true, I can't imagine them taking it down unless they were planning to start construction of its replacement soon after.

[christof]

Originally Posted by Kidphilly

I have heard "rumors" (albeit from people in the business but nothing substanative) that they could be looking longer term to relocate the Hospital and school to the other side of the river. Will see if I can dig up anything additional but that might fit in with their longer term vision around 30th street station

Drexel does not own Hahnemann. Drexel's medical school is located in Queen's Lane. There is talk of have some new labs / offices / classrooms built for medicine / health research in the Innovation neighborhood.

What Drexel Medicine needs right now is a naming donor. So if you have $100-$250MM to donate for the honor of having a medical school named after you, this is your moment...

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by christof

What Drexel Medicine needs right now is a naming donor. So if you have $100-$250MM to donate for the honor of having a medical school named after you, this is your moment...

Man, that's tempting. And didn't they just remove Earle Mack's name from the law school so they can find a bigger naming donation for that? Decisions, decisions.

[josef]

Originally Posted by bucks native

SEPTA

“Many riders are showing a great interest in service improvements, and we welcome those suggestions.”

Email your submissions by August 31 to [email protected].

^ Dear god, do this people. Make noise about what you feel is important.

[cafeguy]

Originally Posted by christof

Drexel does not own Hahnemann. Drexel's medical school is located in Queen's Lane. There is talk of have some new labs / offices / classrooms built for medicine / health research in the Innovation neighborhood.

What Drexel Medicine needs right now is a naming donor. So if you have $100-$250MM to donate for the honor of having a medical school named after you, this is your moment...

Drexel 100% owns Hahnemann. Drexel even owns the academy of science in philly! They are becoming a power house!!!! They also have their queen lane campus. I think the queen lane campus is not a hospital, but just classes while hahnemann is both. I took classes in hahnemann and there are research labs there. As far as any John Fry plans go, however... hahnemann has never been mentioned in their big plans yet. As for a donor... Kimmel just donated $110 million to Jefferson, making it the 5th largest donation ever to a medical college..... i don't think anyone else is gonna be stepping up any tmie soon to do something similar with hahnemann.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drexel_University_College_of_Medicine#MCP_Hahnemann_University

[cafeguy]

Originally Posted by josef

^ Dear god, do this people. Make noise about what you feel is important.

My top 7 wish list for Septa/Patco:

1. Rapid bus line cultural corridor.

2. Lightrail from franklin square down collumbus blvd.

3. Extension of the patco all the way to 30th st station.

4. Navy yard extension

5. Turn some of the regional rail lines... like the one going to manyunk... its a "every 15 minute" subway-like line and re-open spring garden and girard stops for access to this "subway".

6. Some sort of "greater center city bus loop" to make getting from south philly to fishtown much faster and easier.

7. absolute REAL TIME bus and train positions. There is still a delay in this!

[tsarstruck]

Great overview of major projects, with context, in City Paper today. Not much news, but a bit more about the Divine Lorraine:

As an apartment building, the Divine Lorraine would contain 127 rental units costing residents $1,500 a month. A hotel project would consist of guest rooms on five floors and two floors of banquet or meeting space, Blumenfeld said.

[josef]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

My top 7 wish list for Septa/Patco:

1. Rapid bus line cultural corridor.

2. Lightrail from franklin square down collumbus blvd.

3. Extension of the patco all the way to 30th st station.

4. Navy yard extension

5. Turn some of the regional rail lines... like the one going to manyunk... its a "every 15 minute" subway-like line and re-open spring garden and girard stops for access to this "subway".

6. Some sort of "greater center city bus loop" to make getting from south philly to fishtown much faster and easier.

7. absolute REAL TIME bus and train positions. There is still a delay in this!

Lots of good ideas. I would urge you to write this in an email to [email protected].

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

Drexel 100% owns Hahnemann. Drexel even owns the academy of science in philly! They are becoming a power house!!!!

Actually, Drexel owns neither Hahnemann University Hospital nor the Academy of Natural Sciences. Both are AFFILIATED with Drexel, but neither is owned by Drexel. Hahnemann University Hospital is owned by Tenet Healthcare:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hahnemann_University_Hospital

And the Academy of Natural Sciences is still an independent nonprofit with its own board of trustees:

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/...natural-sciences-to-become.html?page=all

[summersm343]

Drexel does not own Hahnemann

Even if they did, moving the ENTIRE hospital? Seems like a bit of a stretch and a little counter productive since North Broad Street certainly needs Hahnemann more than University City does.

Now, I think the idea is to move their Med campus from Northwest Philly to University City Innovation Neighborhood and expand it.

[AbortedWalrus]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Drexel does not own Hahnemann

Even if they did, moving the ENTIRE hospital? Seems like a bit of a stretch and a little counter productive since North Broad Street certainly needs Hahnemann more than University City does.

Now, I think the idea is to move their Med campus from Northwest Philly to University City Innovation Neighborhood and expand it.

Blumenfeld is actively trying to convince Drexel to move their med school to Broad and Spring Garden. He mentioned it at the SGCDC meeting. It's a great spot for it, really. It's close to their existing facilities, there are two huge empty lots there (one of which he owns, in front of the Stevens Administrative Building). Drexel has a lot of buildings related to their med school/health on north broad already, but a lot of them are shabby. It makes more sense to move their med school there than UCity because the land is probably cheaper and it's closer to their existing facilities. Blumenfeld went on to say he wanted to buy B. Franklin High and convert it to housing for the med school.

From the minutes of the recent meeting:

Eric is trying to encourage Drexel to move its Medical School from the old Tasty Cake factory on the edge of East Falls, to North Broad St. to help
consolidate the North Broad St. Corridor and make it more vibrant.

[cafeguy]

I guess I stand corrected regarding what drexel owns... but doesn't subsidiary mean that it is its own entity but run by Drexel? Like, Centocor is its own company by owned and run by its parent, Johnson and Johnson.

Regardless... if they moved the queen lane campus to spring garden and broad, that would BLOW up the area. It would be an amazing addition. 1000 more students living, eating, going to class... even more researchers and faculty and administrative staff! Wow.... but something tells me they wouldn't really want to move away from their "suburban" location.

[AbortedWalrus]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

I guess I stand corrected regarding what drexel owns... but doesn't subsidiary mean that it is its own entity but run by Drexel? Like, Centocor is its own company by owned and run by its parent, Johnson and Johnson.

Regardless... if they moved the queen lane campus to spring garden and broad, that would BLOW up the area. It would be an amazing addition. 1000 more students living, eating, going to class... even more researchers and faculty and administrative staff! Wow.... but something tells me they wouldn't really want to move away from their "suburban" location.

I dunno, those students, faculty, and researchers probably would like to be closer to center city and transit options I would imagine. Much more convenient for people to get to that location, and much more to do in that location.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

I guess I stand corrected regarding what drexel owns... but doesn't subsidiary mean that it is its own entity but run by Drexel? Like, Centocor is its own company by owned and run by its parent, Johnson and Johnson.

Yeah, that Philadelphia Business Journal article does kind of muddle it. You're correct that in the corporate context, a "subsidiary" is usually wholly owned by, and a part of, the parent company (as in the Centocor/J&J example you cited). But while the article refers to the Academy of Natural Sciences as a "subsidiary" of Drexel, it also makes clear that the Academy really isn't a subsidiary as that term is normally used:

Once the agreement is formalized in the next two months, the Academy will become a subsidiary of Drexel and be known as Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The Academy will continue to be overseen by its own board as a nonprofit affiliate of Drexel. It will also remain a separate nonprofit. Its $51 million endowment will be managed by Drexel, though remain dedicated to the Academy.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/...natural-sciences-to-become.html?page=all

So it's really more like a management services agreement between the Academy and Drexel, and not the actual acquisition of the Academy by Drexel (at least the way I read and interpret it).

[hammersklavier]

There is definitely heavy-duty drilling work going on at the CITC site.

[sayitaintso]

Originally Posted by josef

Lots of good ideas. I would urge you to write this in an email to [email protected].

Here is what i just sent in a quick incoherent ramble


To whom it may concern:


All Subway lines -- Headways--10 minutes outside of rush hour should be cut to every 5 minutes and 20minutes!! after midnight is unacceptable bring down to 5-6x per hour. This new program is a success let’s add to its popularity by making it permanent and more convenient.

Regional Rail -- More frequent service. 1x per hour on weekend is a disgrace for a city of our size. Run it more frequently 3x per hour and it becomes a real option resulting in ridership increases.
For stations inside the city limits there should be subway like headways: 6x per hour during workday and min 3x per hour other. Create crossovers at city limits to allow trains to head back in other direction.

In Center City Buses should only stop every 2 or 3 blocks. There is no need to stop every corner. It slows everything down and makes traffic much worse. If you want to get off on 15th and Walnut and the bus on stops on 16th it won’t kill anyone to walk an additional block. They are already doing a lot of walking if they use SEPTA in the first place!

Same for the trolleys on Baltimore Ave. There is no need to stop every corner. The maps should be updated with dedicated stops every 5 blocks once it comes out of the tunnel. Then no one is more than 2.5 blocks from a desired destination. Again the added speed and reduced traffic are a welcome convenience for this slight change.


On a infrastructure related note we need at least 2 more subway lines and probably four. I wish someone would take charge and work on a practical 20 year plan that utilizes public private partnerships and federal funding.

1) We need a central circulator .

2) New line running up front all the way to Alleghany. Allegheny to Fairmount Park and back down 33rd to the museum and then down the parkway back to Broad

A new line up 7th from Pattison to Allegheny. Looping underneath Pattison to broad and back up. Across Allegheny to Broad and back down

A new line up 21st from Pattison to Allegheny. Looping underneath Pattison to broad and back up. Across Allegheny to Broad and back down

This should not be all that difficult to achieve over the next 20 years using a PPP structure

[christof]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

Drexel 100% owns Hahnemann. Drexel even owns the academy of science in philly! They are becoming a power house!!!! They also have their queen lane campus. I think the queen lane campus is not a hospital, but just classes while hahnemann is both. I took classes in hahnemann and there are research labs there. As far as any John Fry plans go, however... hahnemann has never been mentioned in their big plans yet. As for a donor... Kimmel just donated $110 million to Jefferson, making it the 5th largest donation ever to a medical college..... i don't think anyone else is gonna be stepping up any tmie soon to do something similar with hahnemann.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drexel_University_College_of_Medicine#MCP_Hahnemann_University

Drexel owns the medical school. It DOES NOT own the hospital. Hahnemann Hospital is owned by Tenet...

[philly13]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

Man, that's tempting. And didn't they just remove Earle Mack's name from the law school so they can find a bigger naming donation for that? Decisions, decisions.

I read somewhere that Earl Mack never paid the full amount he promised, so they are looking for another donor. Sort of related, apparently Drexel's law school is one of the worst in the nation too, so they could probably use a new donor sooner rather than later.

[DIESELPOLO]

As a Drexel alum, I say get out of the law school biz as gracefully as you can. Honestly. I mean, no need to cite statistics about the evolution of that profession.

[shadowbat2]

Originally Posted by Flyers2001

Penn Tower is still on schedule to come down in approx 10-12 months according to my source.

When you say Penn Tower do you mean the whole thing, or just the garage?

I can clearly see the garage being closed off and demod once the new underground garage is complete past CHOP's south campus within that 10-12 month timeframe.

But from what I understand, they cant empty Penn Tower yet because they need to find a new home for all the facilities that are housed there. I'm sure GarCastle can explain it much better, but I remember him saying the CAM complex still can't fit everything hence this proposal above the new garage that was mentioned before.

I also read about Penn signing leases in Centre Square so maybe that's part of the "empty out" process?


^Looking at this, it does appear that the project could be built in phases, seeing that the building divides into two towers. Meaning the section at the rear could (theoretically) be built where the Penn Tower garage is and the front built later after Penn Tower itself is demolished....

GarCastle, you know what's up with that?

Also is that a footbridge to U-City station I see?