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

[Jawnadelphia]

^BPG/Wilmington is definitely regaining the momentum we were seeing in Downtown prior to the pandemic, and even picking up. Dare I say, it is "red-hot." However, lets be clear, this is residential development and office conversion to residential. The office market still stinks, with large vacancies in two of the largest buildings in the CBD (1201 N. Market, and the old Hercules Building).

Within the past 5 years, BPG has started to convert office space in the heart of the city to its luxury apartment brands. First, with DuPont Building (Hotel duPont/office building) - which converted a large section of the building into "101 Dupont Place" - 198 units (https://101dupontplace.com/) and now BPG is pushing forward with a nearly total residential conversion of the Nemours Building next door - which will total 355 apartments upon completion (referred to the article above). Between "DuPont Place" and "The Standard" - which the Nemours Building residential portion will be called, the total units count rises to 553.
See here: https://delawarebusinesstimes.com/news/bpg-market-west/
The Standard: https://residethestandard.com/

The Nemours Building aka The Standard (and 101 Dupont Place on the far right):


But that's just the start. After the new Crosby Hill apartment tower completed, 203 units, BPG immediately jumped over to their latest 317 N. Market Street project, which will bring another 61 units. (And these projects come off the heels of BPG's recent Lincoln Square conversion project and The Cooper.

Crosby Hill - 517 N. Shipley Street:




The Cooper - 200 block of Market Street:


Lincoln Square - 300 block of Market Street:


317 N. Market Street (across the street from Lincoln Square):






8th and Orange parking lot - closure, site/environment clean-up, next project. Larger 12-15 floors planned ... looks like now we now for certain what is planned here:





^The Residences at Mid-Town Park also in photo here (ivory/brown metal panels building - completed in summer 2018).


^Maker's Alley bar - is nestled up against The Residences at Mid-Town Park, and will be a neighbor for the new tower at 8th and Orange:

We learned last month that BPG has bought most of the block at 600 N. King Street - and has plans to fill in this block with a new apartment building - which will largely complete a re-built/renovated 600 block of N. Market and N. King Streets (Market Street side with the Bardea restaurants and apartments above).

600 block of King Street:


600 block of Market Street:


Next this leads us to a BPG offshoot developer - 9SDC projects - who has jumped into the Downtown redevelopment craze in recent years/months. I'm not certain if this company is totally independent of BPG, but they have picked up what BPG started at Downtown locations along the 800 block of N. Market Street and 900 block of N. Tatnall:

801 Market Street: Collection of 16 apartments and 17,000 square feet of commercial space.



^The building on the left was totally renovated into apartments by BPG in recent years, and incorporated into their "MKT Place" brand of apartments.

A listing of 9SDC projects on-going or recently completed Downtown are listed here - https://9sdc.com/realestate

-West 9th Street: Collection of 16 apartments and 7 retail suites on the 200 block of W 9th Street.

-15 Girard Street: Collection of 12 residential apartments on the 800 block of N Tatnall Street.

-212 West 9th Street: Collection of 9 residential apartments and 4,000 square feet of commercial space.

-Tatnall West: Collection of 19 apartments and 3 retail suites on the 800 block of N. Tatnall.

Another beautiful restoration Downtown in recent years is seen here, at the old Warner Theater building which closed in 1976, and had fallen on hard times as rundown apartments. This building is directly across the street from BPG's new 101 DuPont Place and The Standard developments.

Here is The Warner:


If that wasn't enough - there are a number of smaller MKT Place - BPG projects along Market Street that I did not add to this list because it's too tough to keep up with them. But walk along Market Street or 9th Street, and anything with the MKT sign is a newer renovation/BPG apt.

Summary of the last 5 years - Downtown Wilmington

The Residences at Mid-town Park - 200 units (2018)
The Cooper - 92 units (2022)
101 Dupont Place - 198 units (2021)
Crosby Hill - 203 units (2023)
Lincoln Square - 41 units (2022)
901 N. Market Tower - 82 units (2023)
-the big "901" sign building

The Saville - 42 units (2022) - see below
The Warner - ~25 units (2022)

Under construction:
The Standard (Nemours Building) - 355 units (2023)
All of the 9SDC projects listed above (2023-24)
317 N. Market Street - 61 units (2024)
8th and Orange - 200+ units (~2025)???
617 N. King Street - ~60 units (~2026)???
913 N. Market Street - 54 units (2024)
-we also learned last month that a NY developer had finally obtained financing to complete the office to apt conversion of this high-rise Downtown (next to the 901 N. Market Tower).
Brick building in center:


Finally, a NJ developer bought this older apartment building Downtown and has recently completed a renovation to new apartments, The Saville at the 500 block of N. King Street:


---

And I'll add this list fails to mention some of the other terrific new additions and restorations completed in recent years:

-The Quoin - boutique hotel/restaurant/basement and rooftop bars
-DECO - food hall in the 101 Dupont Place building
-The Chancery Market - food hall in the old Hercules Buildings
-Two Hotel long-stay building conversions
...and I'm sure others I am forgetting to mention!

Go Wilmington! (also, this list does not include anything from The Riverfront or other areas of the city).

[iheartphilly]

delete

[iheartphilly]

Anyone know what sidewalk tree this is next to the outdoor dining space? Thanks!

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by iheartphilly

Anyone know what sidewalk tree this is next to the outdoor dining space? Thanks!

Some sort of Columnar tree, maybe a Tulip tree? Looks like there are white flowers popping out on it.

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

Some sort of Columnar tree, maybe a Tulip tree? Looks like there are white flowers popping out on it.

Thanks...I think that's the wind blowing and it's the underside of the leaves that appears as flowers. But, I think I found out what it is: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-robur-fastigiata/

[summersm343]

'For us, this is Philly': Avelo Airlines CEO banking on convenience of Wilmington with 9 new routes

Avelo Airlines plans to launch nine new routes out of Wilmington Airport in Delaware over the next two weeks, more than doubling its presence in the region as the startup looks to provide a more cost-effective and convenient alternative for customers.

CEO Andrew Levy told the Business Journal that the airline sees the long-term potential of the New Castle County airport, which is one of its five bases, to be another hub for air travel in the region.

“We view it as a much bigger opportunity than anybody else has seen it for… We believe that we're going to make this work and work really, really well,” Levy said.

Avelo initially targeted the Wilmington Airport (ILG) because of the cheaper, less crowded alternative to Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) that it provides for travelers. The airport’s location off of the I-95 corridor also offers convenience of access for those driving in from Philadelphia.

Avelo launched its inaugural nonstop routes from ILG to five destinations in Florida in February. The routes, which carry passengers to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach, have performed well in their first few months, according to Levy. Avelo's entry marked the return of commercial flights out of Wilmington after Frontier Airlines ended service at the airport in spring 2022.

Since Avelo's launch at ILG in February, the airline has carried more than 50,000 passengers at the airport on more than 400 flights. Avelo had a 94% load factor — or the percentage of how many available seats were filled — in its first full month of operation.

Levy expects the airline to see similar success in June and July.

In April, Avelo furthered its investment into Delaware by announcing nine new routes that will commence next week. Flights to Nashville; Raleigh; Wilmington, North Carolina; and the Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina, area will commence on June 22, while routes to Charleston, Daytona Beach and Myrtle Beach will start on June 23. The Wilmington to Nashville route, as an example, is offered twice a week on Sundays and Thursdays.

Flights to the Melbourne and Cocoa Beach area in Florida and the Savannah, Georgia, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, area will begin the following week on June 28. Flights on these nine routes start at between $29 and $49.

“I think that's quite different than, let's say, Frontier, who had a huge presence in Philly, a big presence in Trenton, and this was another way to add to that. Well, for us, this is Philly. This is the only place that we want to serve,” he said.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...-ceo-andrew-levy-wilmington-airport.html

[summersm343]

Carvertise moves to expanded Wilmington HQ as revenue, headcount balloon

Carvertise's new headquarters in Wilmington is a $1.2 million, 15,000-square-foot space along the riverfront, a "colossal change" from the industrial space the rideshare advertising company occupied for years that "couldn't get any more bare bones," CEO Mac Macleod said.

The company grew to the tune of 55% in 2022, a pace Macleod plans to keep in the coming years. It was part of the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the country in 2022, boasting 218% revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. Macleod decline to disclose revenue figures. The nine-year-old company pays drivers, typically ridshare drivers, to wrap their cars in advertisements, effectively creating marketing campaigns for clients like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Wawa and DraftKings.

The lease at 974 Justison St. is for 10 years and the space has the capacity to hold 150 employees, something Macleod equated to buying big shoes that you need to grow into over time. Headcount has jumped from 20 employees in 2021 to what Macleod said will be 60 by the end of this year.

Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...new-wilmington-hq-swarm-advertising.html

[Marcos]

Originally Posted by Jawnadelphia

And I'll add this list fails to mention some of the other terrific new additions and restorations completed in recent years:

-The Quoin - boutique hotel/restaurant/basement and rooftop bars
-DECO - food hall in the 101 Dupont Place building
-The Chancery Market - food hall in the old Hercules Buildings
-Two Hotel long-stay building conversions
...and I'm sure others I am forgetting to mention!

I'd add the Torbert Street Social, an old stable converted in 2019-20 into a super cool small out of the way tavern with a beautiful & huge outdoor area all tucked in an alley behind Mikimotos & the Washington Street Alehouse. Also, attached to the Ale House was a deli until it moved out & it recently opened back up as 'Great Big Jerk' Jamaican joint, haven't tried it yet but it sure smells good

Regarding the Chancery Market, it looks like they've finally gotten started on outdoor access to the bar, they blew the wall out behind the bar which until now has only faced inside towards the food court. It's amazing how nice the landscaping looks already, they planted a TON of trees, bushes, grass & other plants in and around that structure. The outdoor fireplace looks ready to go for fall & I'm pretty sure there's a bandstand out there.

[Aether]

Just wondering, if im correct in this we've hade what, 3 tower cranes go up recently? hopefully with 2 or 3 more on the way soon over the summer? Thats awesome

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by Marcos

I'd add the Torbert Street Social, an old stable converted in 2019-20 into a super cool small out of the way tavern with a beautiful & huge outdoor area all tucked in an alley behind Mikimotos & the Washington Street Alehouse. Also, attached to the Ale House was a deli until it moved out & it recently opened back up as 'Great Big Jerk' Jamaican joint, haven't tried it yet but it sure smells good

Regarding the Chancery Market, it looks like they've finally gotten started on outdoor access to the bar, they blew the wall out behind the bar which until now has only faced inside towards the food court. It's amazing how nice the landscaping looks already, they planted a TON of trees, bushes, grass & other plants in and around that structure. The outdoor fireplace looks ready to go for fall & I'm pretty sure there's a bandstand out there.

Absolutely, I've been meaning to try the new chicken place out, thanks for the reminder. I was at Chancery's new outdoor space a few weekends ago, very nice spot (decent crowd on a weekend night, I hope they get some business on weeknights).

More Wilmington updates - outside of the Downtown area this time -

First on the Riverfront (Riverfront East):

1) The River House is nearing completion, they added signage to the front and side of the building. The website is taking rental applications - so the first tenants should be moving in soon. https://www.liveriverhouse.com/






2) The Luxor is rapidly approaching completion as well. Right off Market Street, next to the Christina Landing towers. https://luxorwilmingtonapartments.com/




Happy Valley - nestled between I-95, Brandywine Park and Delaware Avenue, Happy Valley is one of Wilmington's oldest neighborhoods and a very quaint part of the city. You don't see a lot of new developments here--there just isn't a lot of space, and the old row houses are well maintained. But here's a new proposal for a now vacant doctor's office and parking lot.

Just showing off the neighborhood:


Here's the plan:


Current building and parking lot:


Speaking of another area of the city where you don't see a lot of new development is Forty Acres - it's a well maintained, beautiful area of Wilmington, and the Nimby's are absolutely rabid when it comes to keeping their neighborhood the same (it's sort of Wilmington's Society Hill type of vibe when it comes to the old heads, who don't want any sort of new development). But this development was able to get approved, after meeting the demands of the neighborhoods.

The Lofts at Shallcross (24 - 2 bedroom luxury apartments):





Along Brandywine Creek - Capano's gigantic "The Falls" continues up in the tony The Highlands section of the city. Building #4 has topped out, and most of the amenities for the whole complex are completed - including this cool spot for a pool between buildings 2 and 3.





Building #4:


Finally, I wanted to check-in on the massive and vitally important - The Flats - affordable housing rebuild project. The NY Times had a brilliant story on the neighborhood and the project back in 2014, if interested, please read it here - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/reale...s-up-a-delaware-housing-development.html - but this project is about a 15 year development to completely redo/rebuild an affordable housing neighborhood (453 housing units in total). AND get this -- affordable housing can be attractive and safe and pleasant! The Flats is sort of perfectly located between the wealthy Wawaset neighborhood just to the north, and historically working class but historically stable - Little Italy and Union Park Gardens section of the city. In this little bubble of wealth, stability, and community (a lot of these families have been living in this area for 100 years) - The Flats - will thrive again.

The Flats is now in phases IV-V, and should be totally built out in a few more years.












More info here - https://woodlawntrustees.com/the-flats/

[Knight Hospitaller]

Kudos to the Flats for avoiding the dehumanizing vibe!

[Urbanthusiat]

Developer wants to convert old Pottstown warehouse into apartments

Nice to see some revitalization (hopefully) happening in Pottstown.

[Urbanthusiat]

With the release of the May employment data I decided to take another dive to see how Philly is doing relative to the rest of the Northeast. Short answer is that Philly has been kicking ass since Covid and has been the most successful large Northeast city in its economic recovery. For one, we've passed 3.1 million jobs in the MSA for the first time ever, so that's cool. Philly has passed it's pre-pandemic peak employment by 2.27% while Boston, NYC, DC, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore all remain below their pre-pandemic peaks (some not by much). What really struck me is that Philadelphia has by far the most jobs added relative to proportional growth. We have 74,400 more jobs than we would if Philadelphia had grown proportionately with the rest of the dataset since March of 2020, which is well above the next highest MSA (New York with 19,100). Philly has managed to grow above average on a rate term, and with it being larger than most MSAs it's doing quite well on absolute numbers too. Trenton is also doing very well by these metrics, as well as some of the other smaller MSAs surrounding Philly, which has indirect benefits for us. If we sort this by % of pre-covid peak (as I have), we'll find Philadelphia, Trenton, Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Allentown, and Scranton MSAs all in the top 9 out of 33... We love to see it!

[PHLtoNYC]

^ Thanks for the sharing, I love reading these types of stats.

If only the local media would highlight these positives (I had to say it ).

[UrbanRevival]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

With the release of the May employment data I decided to take another dive to see how Philly is doing relative to the rest of the Northeast.

Awesome info! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

It's continually apparent that Philly is no longer the economic "laggard" of the Northeast Corridor, which is a HUGE shift in mindset for literally everyone. I noticed that the Philly area even added more year-over-year jobs than the fast-growing Atlanta area, for comparison. I can't recall that ever happening before.

And I honestly see this trend remaining the case for the foreseeable future with much greater affordability and incredible value for what the region offers compared to other major metros (including those increasingly in the formerly-cheap Sun Belt). Affordability was important before the economy was turned sideways by the pandemic, but it's reaching a tipping point more than ever now.

[chris08876]

Hey just a follow up on I-95, that section that was damaged is slated to reopen this weekend, which is good. Temporary fix but will get traffic flowing.

[Urbanthusiat]

A new vision for downtown Ardmore avoids tall buildings, more density, and less parking

[mcgrath618]

Confusing title, and only available to subscribers. Does the new zoning plan allow for more density or less?

[Justin7]

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

Confusing title, and only available to subscribers. Does the new zoning plan allow for more density or less?

The article is pretty confusing too, but:

And in May, the commission opted to set aside provisions in an earlier draft of the master plan that would have paved the way for taller buildings, more residential density, and fewer required parking spaces in downtown developments.

Here's a link to the actual master plan: https://www.lowermerion.org/departments/...nt/planning-division/ardmore-master-plan

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

With the release of the May employment data I decided to take another dive to see how Philly is doing relative to the rest of the Northeast. Short answer is that Philly has been kicking ass since Covid and has been the most successful large Northeast city in its economic recovery. For one, we've passed 3.1 million jobs in the MSA for the first time ever, so that's cool. Philly has passed it's pre-pandemic peak employment by 2.27% while Boston, NYC, DC, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore all remain below their pre-pandemic peaks (some not by much). What really struck me is that Philadelphia has by far the most jobs added relative to proportional growth. We have 74,400 more jobs than we would if Philadelphia had grown proportionately with the rest of the dataset since March of 2020, which is well above the next highest MSA (New York with 19,100). Philly has managed to grow above average on a rate term, and with it being larger than most MSAs it's doing quite well on absolute numbers too. Trenton is also doing very well by these metrics, as well as some of the other smaller MSAs surrounding Philly, which has indirect benefits for us. If we sort this by % of pre-covid peak (as I have), we'll find Philadelphia, Trenton, Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Allentown, and Scranton MSAs all in the top 9 out of 33... We love to see it!

I absolutely love these summaries. Thank you for compiling.

I have a question because I'm not sure how it works. If I work in NYC but live in PA, how do I get counted? Is my job counted in NYC?

If I get counted in NYC, I guarantee you its recovery is overstated and ours understated.