PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[jjv007]

Originally Posted by allovertown

Thanks! It also looks like you managed to streamline the process of adding new threads to our subforum. It seems like you were able to add the 702 Sansom thread immediately. Thanks again for all the work you do.

Yeah I noticed, it usually takes a few days or weeks. Thanks for the work Summers

[City Wide]

Originally Posted by allovertown

Thanks! It also looks like you managed to streamline the process of adding new threads to our subforum. It seems like you were able to add the 702 Sansom thread immediately. Thanks again for all the work you do.

I'll second the "thanks"!!

[CCGuy]

And another- Thanks Summers! Philly deserves its own upper level link. Was always annoying to go through the regional link to get to Philly. Thanks again for all you do. I appreciate it!

[summersm343]

Report: Philly saw 20 percent increase in new construction in 2016

Since we don't cover all of the smaller projects going on the city, since it would be nearly impossible to cover everything. Scroll down to the map on the bottom of this link to check out all of the zoning/construction permits in the last 5 years in the city. It's jaw-dropping:
http://philly.curbed.com/2017/1/26/14400236/philadelphia-new-construction-trends

[1487]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Report: Philly saw 20 percent increase in new construction in 2016

Since we don't cover all of the smaller projects going on the city, since it would be nearly impossible to cover everything. Scroll down to the map on the bottom of this link to check out all of the zoning/construction permits in the last 5 years in the city. It's jaw-dropping:
http://philly.curbed.com/2017/1/26/14400236/philadelphia-new-construction-trends

That study says 5 high rise permits have been issued in 2017 already. Not sure what they are but 2 would be the hotel on broad and the new Penn medicine building near the Colkett research building. Oh, I think the Broad and Washington building counts as well.

[jjv007]

Originally Posted by 1487

That study says 5 high rise permits have been issued in 2017 already. Not sure what they are but 2 would be the hotel on broad and the new Penn medicine building near the Colkett research building. Oh, I think the Broad and Washington building counts as well.

The fifth is the Transit Terminal Tower

[summersm343]

Phila. Energy Solutions CEO calls for public-private partnership to drive energy hub

Stakeholders in the initiative to transform Greater Philadelphia into an energy hub have plotted their next step forward —a commercial energy hub development company.

Speaking at a Keystone Energy Forum focused on the energy hub initiative, Philadelphia Energy Solutions CEO and Chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action team Phil Rinaldi said the development company could help turn the action team’s goals into a reality.

“The time for just talking and advocating is coming to an end,” Rinaldi said at the forum, held in partnership with Steamfitters Local Union 420 Friday afternoon. “We need a more actionable kind of environment.”

A public-private partnership based around the hub initiative — which aims to use the region’s proximity to the Marcellus Shale to drive pipeline construction, manufacturing growth and an increase in business at the city’s ports — could catalyze that action, Rinaldi said.

Progress in taking the energy hub plans from the drawing board to shovels in the ground has partially been stalled by a slump in energy prices that has dragged down the industry’s growth. It’s also faced pushback from environmental advocacy groups concerned about the impact pipeline construction, as well as the fracking process necessary to extract natural gas from the shale, could have on the environment and water sources.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/...utions-rinaldi-energy-hub-in-philly.html

[EastSideHBG]

Why Philly's new buildings come wrapped in glass and retail
Updated: JANUARY 27, 2017 — 2:07 PM EST
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/retail/Retail-driving-many-city-projects.html

[Daario]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

Why Philly's new buildings come wrapped in glass and retail
Updated: JANUARY 27, 2017 — 2:07 PM EST
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/retail/Retail-driving-many-city-projects.html

While I'm a big fan of glass being incorporated with modern architecture, I'm still wary because of the negative effects it has on bird migrations. I remember as a child helping my mom find dead birds around UPenn's campus for her research. I don't know if engineers have put bird window strikes into thought when designing windows, or nothing has worked yet.

Regardless, it's always stuck in my mind whenever I see towers like the FMC or CHOP building go up. While I'm a huge fan of the design(especially the FMC Tower), I hope they find a way to lessen bird deaths.

Here's a NatGeo article on the topic. I honestly don't know if the situation has gotten better: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...-glass-window-collision-animals-science/

[Philly-Drew]

Originally Posted by Daario

While I'm a big fan of glass being incorporated with modern architecture, I'm still wary because of the negative effects it has on bird migrations.

Daario, you bring up a good point. We have a neighbor with glass panels on her deck, and we find a couple of dead birds each year on the ground because they snap their necks hitting the panels in flight.

[summersm343]

Philly's top landlord: Despite good intent, City Council drives jobs away

Add Jerry Sweeney, CEO at Brandywine Realty Trust, which owns most of the high-rise offices in Center City and University City, to the business people who say Philadelphia's progressive wage and hiring initatives are doing more harm than good to the city's slow-grow workforce.

Council's resolution blocking employers from asking workers their past pay
"had the right motivation: to increase awareness of wage equity," says Sweeney. But Brandywine's own HR pros found the Philly law "fraught with with both practical implementation ambiguities and significant risk for future legal actions or non-hired employee claims... I wish Council took a more pragmatic approach" by talking to HR and job-search pros, he added.

"Philadelphia was not attacking the overriding problem. That problem is we don't have enough jobs."

"That problem is caused by an arcane tax structure that stifles companies from growing in the city and prevents companies from moving into the city," Sweeney continues. "There is already a 20 to 30% [higher expense] premium for companies to do business in the city of Philadelphia versus other places in the region.

"That's why our job growth has been anemic compared to other places in the country and why, even in these stronger economic times, we have the lowest job growth rate among the 25 major cities in the United States.

"My hope is that the city would finally have the chutzpah to substantively address its adversarial tax structure to one that encourages job growth, company formation/retention and growing public revenues through economic expansion, not by overtaxing a shrinking job base.

"On a daily basis our city has almost 40% of all residents commuting outside the city to work-- an unconscionably high percentage and a true harbinger of future job loss," since workers tend to migrate closer to jobs.

"A disciplined public policy approach to grow our job base would send the business community and our neighborhoods exactly the right message that Philadelphia is open for business and welcomes new jobs.

"Legislation like this, while well intended, just adds to the morass of complicating public policy that complicates our efforts to grow jobs."

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-p...-City-Council-well-intentioned-but-.html

[summersm343]

‘Philadelphia: An Incomplete Revival’

A new report researched and produced by Center City District/Central Philadelphia Development Corporation and released today offers an explanation of how and why the city has lagged in job growth and has one of the highest urban poverty rates, despite more than two decades of vibrant growth and development in Center City and University City.

Philadelphia: An Incomplete Revival documents how Philadelphia’s nearly unique reliance on wage and business taxes to finance the lion’s share of local government has inhibited job creation across the city, pushed residents to the suburbs, shortchanged schools and resulted in the highest poverty rate among the nation’s 25 most populous counties. While peer cities such as New York, Boston, and Washington, D. C. have forged ahead, replacing jobs lost to de-industrialization and surpassing their 1970 employment levels, Philadelphia still has 26% fewer jobs than it had in 1970 and has not yet regained its 1990 job level. The report suggests that a plan for comprehensive tax reform offers a path to more robust, inclusive and citywide growth.

Last summer, both the Pennsylvania House and Senate overwhelmingly passed HB 1871, a bipartisan effort that will provide Philadelphia with the flexibility to assess properties used for business purposes up to 15% higher than residential properties, so long as all the incremental revenues raised are used to lower the City’s wage and business taxes.

The constitutional amendment, if passed again in the current session in Harrisburg, will provide a framework that enables Philadelphia to implement the recommendations of two previous tax commissions, while ensuring no gap opens in the City’s budget. The goal is to get the wage tax below 3% for the first time in 50 years and cut the net income portion of the Business Income and Receipts Tax (BIRT) in half. This can lower barriers to employment growth, reduce poverty and help Philadelphia participate in the more dynamic job growth that most major cities already are enjoying.

Read more and view the report here:
http://www.centercityphila.org/pressroom/prelease013017.php

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by summersm343

‘Philadelphia: An Incomplete Revival’



Read more and view the report here:
http://www.centercityphila.org/pressroom/prelease013017.php

God let's hope this happens.

[Redddog]

It seems like such a no brainer.

Politicians should never be allowed to be in charge of politics.

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

God let's hope this happens.

I've been following Philadelphia politics and development closely for more than a decade now - always thinking that the massive elephant in the room (tax burden) would sooner than later take center stage. With the tale end of the Street Admin, the full 8 years of Nutter, and now the early stages of Kenney - the Mayors and City Council really don't seem to care about this issue in any sort of meaningful way. It seems to constantly be discussed everywhere around the city - CCD to all the Chamber of Commerce and Development Corporations and even to the corporate halls - except in the ONLY place that actually matters: City Council chamber.

It's complicated stuff to reconfigure tax codes/burdens involving thousands of moving parts and high level, deeply bureaucratic machinations - you wonder, simply, if our lackluster city council just isn't smart enough to produce a thoughtful proposal. Like a high school student stuck over a complex Calculus problem - after a few minutes of struggle, they shrug their shoulders, walk away and go order a pizza.

[jjv007]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Philly's top landlord: Despite good intent, City Council drives jobs away



http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-p...-City-Council-well-intentioned-but-.html

The law itself doesn't seem to be bad in the right circumstances, but you don't pass this kind of legislation unless the city is booming with jobs. Philly's doing kind of mediocre right now, and stuff like this makes it harder to grow the workforce. Beautifully said by the Brandywine CEO.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Londonee

I've been following Philadelphia politics and development closely for more than a decade now - always thinking that the massive elephant in the room (tax burden) would sooner than later take center stage. With the tale end of the Street Admin, the full 8 years of Nutter, and now the early stages of Kenney - the Mayors and City Council really don't seem to care about this issue in any sort of meaningful way. It seems to constantly be discussed everywhere around the city - CCD to all the Chamber of Commerce and Development Corporations and even to the corporate halls - except in the ONLY place that actually matters: City Council chamber.

It's complicated stuff to reconfigure tax codes/burdens involving thousands of moving parts and high level, deeply bureaucratic machinations - you wonder, simply, if our lackluster city council just isn't smart enough to produce a thoughtful proposal. Like a high school student stuck over a complex Calculus problem - after a few minutes of struggle, they shrug their shoulders, walk away and go order a pizza.

Believe me. I know.

This issue drove me to NYC for better employment prospects. On the whole, I'd rather be in Philly, but there just weren't a lot of options in my field.

I still have a presence in Philly (rent out what was my primary residence and recently bought another to renovate) but would love to have the option to come back, full time, some day.

That being said, we do seem to be inching closer to resolution. What Kenney has that Nutter didn't is a coalition in city council.

If he approaches this in the right way, he can get it done.

Clarke either doesn't have the aptitude to understand this or the fortitude to get it done. He'd rather post complaints to his Facebook page about billboard revenue...so what happens vis a vis this topic is entirely dependent upon how Kenney manages Clarke.

Clarke is already trying to obstruct the soda revenue stream. He wasn't even for it. I say if he can't be a part of the solution he can't partake in the bounty when said things become law in spite of him.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by summersm343

‘Philadelphia: An Incomplete Revival’



Read more and view the report here:
http://www.centercityphila.org/pressroom/prelease013017.php

These articles all have it right...but isn't the constitutional amendment to tax commercial properties at different (higher) rate than residential (a measure with full backing by commercial real estate owners and the chamber of commerce) and a corresponding drop in the wage tax aimed at addressing all this? Let's hope it happens.

[summersm343]

I'll post this here since this has the potential to be pretty big, but it has been posted on the Lowrise/General Developments Thread also. This is one of the two RFP's for the parking lot at 8th and Vine. The proposal calls for an 8-10 story office building for legal aid organizations, plus a hotel and residential uses and likely structured parking:

Philadelphia Bar seeks $40M building to house legal aid organizations at 8th and Vine

The Philadelphia Bar Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Philadelphia Bar Association, is seeking to turn a parking lot at 8th and Vine streets into what Chancellor Deborah Gross calls a “first of its kind” $40 million facility that would house more than 20 legal nonprofits.

“I think this is a gamechanger,” Gross said. “As someone who has been a trustee with the Bar Foundation for 12 years, my focus has been helping legal nonprofits. And in a city with the highest poverty rate, this could really put Philadelphia on the map.”

Though she did not want to discuss specifics about the rest of the proposal, including the Bar’s partners, Gross said the RFP calls for a hotel, housing and parking.

The proposed 120,000 square feet building should be eight to 10 stories when completed. Gross said the Bar plans to pay for what could be between a $40 million and $60 million project with a combination of tax credits, loans, fundraising and funds from class action lawsuits. She said the loan will be paid down over time via rent.

PRA spokeswoman Jamilia Davis said the agency has so far received two responses and is hoping to have the selection complete in the next 30 to 60 days. At that juncture, the PRA board and City Council must each sign off before the selection is formalized.

Davis said specific information about the two proposals would not be made public until the PRA selects a winning bidder.

The Bar has been eyeing the plot of land for five years, with the help of developer Pennrose Properties, which has handled the matter on a pro bono basis, and architectural firm Wallace Roberts & Todd.

Gross said the Bar has looked at other properties but wants to see how the RFP plays out before exploring them. She said the Association liked the fact that 800-830 Vine was a city-owned property in close proximity to the U.S. District Courthouse, worker’s compensation court and the Bar Association’s headquarters at 11th and Market streets.

With between 20 and 30 legal nonprofits under the same roof, she said the organizations will be able to benefit from numerous efficiencies such as single client intake and shared personnel, equipment, software, conference rooms, event space and day care.

Agencies that could be part of the facility include Community Legal Services and Support Center for Child Advocates. Gross said the Bar has also met with law school officials — University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Drexel University — about having students frequent the facility to gain practical experience working with the legal aid organizations on client matters. She said the schools could even become tenants if they wish.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/...ladelphia-bar-seeks-40m-building-to.html

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by jsbrook

These articles all have it right...but isn't the constitutional amendment to tax commercial properties at different (higher) rate than residential (a measure with full backing by commercial real estate owners and the chamber of commerce) and a corresponding drop in the wage tax aimed at addressing all this? Let's hope it happens.

Bingo. City Council is still a problem in this city, but this ain't the 80s or even the 90s. There are plenty of intelligent motivated people in city council but they're not only forced to work around people like Clarke but they also have work with their hands tied behind their back by the state.

The open disdain with which the majority of those within the state legislature treat the city of Philadelphia is so counter productive. It really needs to change but unfortunately there are no signs that is happening any time soon. Pennsylvania really holds Philadelphia back. Passing that amendment should be no brainer, but you should never underestimate the stupidity of the Pennsylvania Legislature.