PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by Tatts

Well, to be real for a moment, Betterment is 20 people and BBG is one suite--part of a floor. And neither will ever be big employers; it's not the nature of either business. Betterment's hook is robo financial advice--automating in order to keep costs down by NOT hiring people.

but as I mentioned in a previous post, all these small firms taking up small bits of office space then create the need for larger office buildings because companies like Comcast can't put their overflow into them. They then start to see the wisdom of consolidating their far flung fractured workforce and build. It's these small companies that really drive the market. when they push the occupancy rates to around 90% of the market's stock, that's when new buildings go up. keep 'em coming!

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

but as I mentioned in a previous post, all these small firms taking up small bits of office space then create the need for larger office buildings because companies like Comcast can't put their overflow into them. They then start to see the wisdom of consolidating their far flung fractured workforce and build. It's these small companies that really drive the market. when they push the occupancy rates to around 90% of the market's stock, that's when new buildings go up. keep 'em coming!

Yep, and just to pile on the good news and highlight this point even more:

Medical Guardian, a provider of medical alert systems, completed a 13,000-square-foot expansion at 1818 Market St. in Philadelphia, bringing its headquarters to a total of 35,600 square feet over the 11th and 12th floor. The company plans to add 100 new jobs this year.

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...ht-in.html?iana=hpmvp_phil_news_headline

Even office leasing companies see the potential in these small office leases, which make up most of the leasing in Philly.

Chicago-based Truss launched its online office listing service Jan. 29 in Philadelphia, its ninth market, the company announced. Restricted to blocks of 10K SF or less, Truss launched with roughly 80% of all available small spaces in the city, and the company expects to reach 100% in months, then add the Philly suburbs (including South Jersey) by June, co-founder Tom Smith said. “Very quickly after launching, because of the tenant demand we see, we tend to get from 80% to full market coverage within a few months," Smith told Bisnow. "Because it’s free and non-exclusive, no one wants to miss out.” Truss already has at least 400 blocks of space listed on its site, in addition to 20 coworking locations from various operators. Among those operators is 1776, with which Truss has partnered to both highlight the operator's space for interested businesses and find private office blocks for 1776 members ready to graduate to a private office. “[Philadelphia was among] our first 10 [markets] because it’s a top-10 real estate market, and we actually see a lot of incubation and entrepreneurial activity in Philly that we don’t see in some other markets,” Smith said.

https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/news...?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

[summersm343]

All of these small company relocation and expansions are great honestly. Why? Because they fill up chunks of office space.

If we can get a large company to consolidate office space or expand into a new building like 1301 Market, then I'm confident the space they leave behind in whatever office building/s they're in now would be filled by these smaller companies locating to the city and expanding.

That may be the best way for Philly to add new commercial space, without a major company relocation from the burbs or outside of the area.

[therealdawk]

Philly gets PITTCON this year. It's a huge laboratory science convention. Well over 10K will attend,. My company will be there and they sent a promo email which linked to the conference homepage.

I'm probably the only one who cared but I was bothered by the skyline photo they used. This pic has to be at least three or four years old, no?

Philly Skyline photo at bottom of PITTCON page

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by summersm343

If we can get a large company to consolidate office space or expand into a new building like 1301 Market, then I'm confident the space they leave behind in whatever office building/s they're in now would be filled by these smaller companies locating to the city and expanding.

is 1301 still happening?

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by therealdawk

Philly gets PITTCON this year. It's a huge laboratory science convention. Well over 10K will attend,. My company will be there and they sent a promo email which linked to the conference homepage.

I'm probably the only one who cared but I was bothered by the skyline photo they used. This pic has to be at least three or four years old, no?

Philly Skyline photo at bottom of PITTCON page

Hahahaha!!!! That's more or less a FAKE website for Pittcon, NOT the official Pittcon site – in fact they even misspell Pittsburgh as Pittsburg in the top of the page title and elsewhere on the page.

"Disclaimer: This website provides independent information to the visitors about the conference, venue, dates etc. We provide help to book the best hotels and accommodation near the conference venue to the participants, and are not directly associated with any conference."

Here is the real PITTCON site: https://pittcon.org

…and here, at the real PITTCON site, is a page explaining why they chose to hold their conference here (No skyline pics, but a lot of love for Philly): https://pittcon.org/why-philadelphia/

Also the real PITTCON site has a warning on their hotel booking page:

WARNING: IMPORTANT RESERVATION INFORMATION:
We have received reports that other companies are posing as official travel vendors for Pittcon 2019. Pittcon participants have encountered situations with travel vendors that were either unlicensed or went out of business after taking reservations and deposits, leaving individuals stranded without hotel rooms and transportation, and resulting in lost deposits. Pittcon only guarantees hotel room rates or availability made through onPeak (PittconHousing.com).

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

is 1301 still happening?

Still planned as far as I know. Assume they just haven't found an anchor tenant yet.

https://otpcorp.com/1301-market-street.html#scroll4

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Still planned as far as I know. Assume they just haven't found an anchor tenant yet.

https://otpcorp.com/1301-market-street.html#scroll4

I tried to get ahold of the developers and they never responded, other than to ask me why I was asking in the first place.

[iheartphilly]

^
Give them your street cred by telling them you are a high member of this forum...LOL. Seriously, never hurts to ask.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by iheartphilly

^
Give them your street cred by telling them you are a high member of this forum...LOL. Seriously, never hurts to ask.

In all seriousness, that's pretty much the jist of what I said. I was basically like, "hey, I represent a website that collects info on construction projects and skyscrapers in the Philly area, do you guys have any info for me, etc." They never responded after that. Looks like SSP doesn't have as much streetcred as we may have thought.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

In all seriousness, that's pretty much the jist of what I said. I was basically like, "hey, I represent a website that collects info on construction projects and skyscrapers in the Philly area, do you guys have any info for me, etc." They never responded after that. Looks like SSP doesn't have as much streetcred as we may have thought.

First rule of SSP - don't talk about SSP

[therealdawk]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

Hahahaha!!!! That's more or less a FAKE website for Pittcon, NOT the official Pittcon site – in fact they even misspell Pittsburgh as Pittsburg in the top of the page title and elsewhere on the page.

"Disclaimer: This website provides independent information to the visitors about the conference, venue, dates etc. We provide help to book the best hotels and accommodation near the conference venue to the participants, and are not directly associated with any conference."

Here is the real PITTCON site: https://pittcon.org

…and here, at the real PITTCON site, is a page explaining why they chose to hold their conference here (No skyline pics, but a lot of love for Philly): https://pittcon.org/why-philadelphia/

Also the real PITTCON site has a warning on their hotel booking page:

WARNING: IMPORTANT RESERVATION INFORMATION:
We have received reports that other companies are posing as official travel vendors for Pittcon 2019. Pittcon participants have encountered situations with travel vendors that were either unlicensed or went out of business after taking reservations and deposits, leaving individuals stranded without hotel rooms and transportation, and resulting in lost deposits. Pittcon only guarantees hotel room rates or availability made through onPeak (PittconHousing.com).

Oh wow, that's incredible. Thanks! So someone in our marketing department sent a link for a Pittcon knockoff site. I wonder if I should tell them.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by therealdawk

Oh wow, that's incredible. Thanks! So someone in our marketing department sent a link for a Pittcon knockoff site. I wonder if I should tell them.

You should also tip off the real Pittcon to register the domain pittcon2020.org (still available) for next year's convention, before these clowns do. That's how the imposters' site almost (if only they could spell Pittsburgh) made themselves credible this year.

I love the awkward wording just above the fake site's disclaimer:
FOR YOUR DOUBTS AND QUERIES. GET IN TOUCH
[email protected]

[Aaamazarite]

Time to needlessly get your hopes up--

A national real estate company that's been sitting on a pretty decent property just took out a $405 Million mortgage against it. Might not mean much because they could be applying the funds somewhere else in the country BUT the property next door to this particular one is currently under contract which would make it a substantially large parcel if combined. Could be preparations for something big. I'll keep following it and keep you all posted as this just happened a couple of weeks ago.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by Aaamazarite

Time to needlessly get your hopes up--

A national real estate company that's been sitting on a pretty decent property just took out a $405 Million mortgage against it. Might not mean much because they could be applying the funds somewhere else in the country BUT the property next door to this particular one is currently under contract which would make it a substantially large parcel if combined. Could be preparations for something big. I'll keep following it and keep you all posted as this just happened a couple of weeks ago.

I will take a shot in the dark and say 8th and Market. I know it used to be treated as two separate parcels and now is considered just one, and that Goldstien planned on doing SOMETHING soon.
Not sure though. Could be something else.

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Still planned as far as I know. Assume they just haven't found an anchor tenant yet.

https://otpcorp.com/1301-market-street.html#scroll4

It's annoying that this building is designed to be 547 feet tall. That's 1 foot short of city hall / billy penn statue. We're long past that hurdle. Ed Bacon is dead. Build it taller.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

It's annoying that this building is designed to be 547 feet tall. That's 1 foot short of city hall / billy penn statue. We're long past that hurdle. Ed Bacon is dead. Build it taller.

What's the difference? There are so many taller buildings now and that barrier is long dead. I doubt that had anything to do with their reasoning when selecting height. Honestly, if it was reduced to 500 ft but that moved up the timeframe for beginning, I'd be just as happy.

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by jsbrook

What's the difference? There are so many taller buildings now and that barrier is long dead. I doubt that had anything to do with their reasoning when selecting height. Honestly, if it was reduced to 500 ft but that moved up the timeframe for beginning, I'd be just as happy.

I don't know for sure, but it can't be a coincidence that it's just one foot shy. I get that it's really close to city hall, but come on, if you're going to do it then do it right and not take city hall into account at all, just build it as high as it needs to go. The W hotel is just as close, and the world didn't end because it went taller.
And as impatient as I think most of us are for another major office building not associated with Comcast, including me, a 500-footer that is ready to go now is not necessarily better than a 600-footer a year from now. they could be redesigning the building to be taller because they have found a major tenant who needs the additional space (*pure conjecture / wishful thinking*).

[Aaamazarite]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

I don't know for sure, but it can't be a coincidence that it's just one foot shy. I get that it's really close to city hall, but come on, if you're going to do it then do it right and not take city hall into account at all, just build it as high as it needs to go. The W hotel is just as close, and the world didn't end because it went taller.
And as impatient as I think most of us are for another major office building not associated with Comcast, including me, a 500-footer that is ready to go now is not necessarily better than a 600-footer a year from now. they could be redesigning the building to be taller because they have found a major tenant who needs the additional space (*pure conjecture / wishful thinking*).

1301 Market is within a zoning overlay district that preserves the view of City Hall from the Art Museum steps. The height limit in that particular spot is 499'

[jsbrook]

Edit: comment no longer relevant.