PHILADELPHIA | FMC Tower @ Cira Centre South | 736 FT | 49 FLOORS

[winxs]

But it doesn't show either of Cira South buildings.

[dirtyfrank]

Originally Posted by winxs

But it doesn't show either of Cira South buildings.

True but it does show what appears to be Cira 2?

[hammersklavier]

Don't forget that the Penn renders of the same area don't show Cira South either...in both cases, I think it's because the renderings were drawn before Brandywine Realty proposed Cira South (I don't think the Penn Connects website's been updated since 2007).

[Jes44]

Has anyone heard about Black Rock lately with respect to Cira Center II? I know that UPenn wants so many floors of Cira II and from what it sounds like, possibly the IRS because of its close proximity to the Old Post Office.

[bucks native]

.....but it might make sense for BlackRock and PNC to combine their presence in Philadelphia.

OR it might not.

June 18, 2009, 11:11am

PNC Financial ups its piece of BlackRock
Philadelphia Business Journal - by Patty Tascarella Special to the Business Journal

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is increasing its stake in BlackRock Inc. to help fund the New York-based international investment firm’s acquisition of Barclays Global Investors.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) entered into a definitive purchase agreement Tuesday to buy BGI from British bank Barclays for $13.5 billion, $6.6 billion in cash and the rest in stock.

According to an SEC filing by BlackRock Wednesday, Pittsburgh-based PNC (NYSENC), the fifth-largest bank in Philadelphia based on deposits, agreed to buy 3.6 million of BlackRock’s preferred shares at $140.60 per share.

PNC owns a third of BlackRock through a combination of common and preferred shares.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, creating one of the world’s largest money management firms with more than $2.7 trillion in assets under management and more than 9,000 employees.

Patty Tascarella is a reporter with the Pittsburgh Business Times.

[christof]

I wouldn't get too excited over PNC adding shares in BlackRock. PNC may be forced to sell these shares. PNC's loans - commercial real estate and otherwise, are increasingly defaulting. They may be the next bank on the brink.

[Plokoon11]

Man I want this tower to come up, maybe it can be the savior of development and allow other developers to begin proposals and construction, and motivation.

[Urban Jungle]

Originally Posted by christof

I wouldn't get too excited over PNC adding shares in BlackRock. PNC may be forced to sell these shares. PNC's loans - commercial real estate and otherwise, are increasingly defaulting. They may be the next bank on the brink.

I would like to know where you are gathering your facts regarding PNC Financial Services and their mortgage portfolios. I personally work for PNC and those accusations are very baseless.
In reality PNC did trade in subprime mortgages but did not rely on them anywhere near as heavily as banks such as Wachovia, Bank of America, Citigroup.
Although PNC was included in the overall "bailout" it was one of the many banks i.e Goldman Sachs, JPM that did not need the money. PNC decided to use that money to acquire National City Bank, a midwestern centralized bank and just about doubled their volume. PNC can now be identified as the ninth largest bank in the United States.

PNC & BlackRock have been doing business for some time and will remain stable as it always has.

[theWatusi]

Looks like they are working on some kind of parking structure. It appears to be the pre-cast variety and let's hope it's for the permanent structure in between the two towers and not some "temporary" lot. Also note that the former structure has not been 100% demoed. There still remains the structure about the train tracks.

[Plokoon11]

Great news this may be the only thing to look forward to thats possibly under construction this year!

[winxs]

@Watusi:> In one of the renderings that I saw, the north end of the parking garage served as the podium to the Chestnut St Tower. The Walnut St Tower was separated from the garage by what looked like a driveway and there was a green roof over the south end of the garage. I wish I could get a copy of that rendering. It was located in our Facility Engineers' office up on Roosevelt Blvd.

[theWatusi]

^ I see what your saying about the North tower being built over the parking garage, but that doesn't seem like that substantial of a foundation for a tower.

(those pictures were taken from Walnut St looking North)

[Urban Jungle]

This is great..is this project finally getting underway?

[hammersklavier]

I was wondering about the fact that they left the part of the structure that's right over the train tracks. My best guess, looking at it, is that they think that that structure is suitable for footing a skyscraper and they want to avoid the expense of both tearing down and rebuilding a base on top of train tracks. How did they build Cira 1 on top of the train tracks? Perhaps there's a connection between that plan and this.

Watusi, in my opinion Brandywine's going to build the parking podium, largely because that's Phase II (late-contemporaneous with the renovation of the Post Office) in their plans; the towers, remember, are Phase III, the last part of the project.


I also got a new laptop so my long sigil away from this site is over!

[Muji]

The garage is starting to come above "street" level.

[Jes44]

Would someone be kind enough to take some updated pics of the site and post on here? I saw on a different thread that Black Rock is still negotiating with the state and the city, is this true? Also, someone has said that the garage has been topped off as well?

[Muji]

I take back my comments about the garage being topped off. They just put up new "columns" in the past few days.

[Londonee]

It's such a shame that they are cutting cost corners and not capping the land immediately in front of these buildings...it's just a wasted opportunity to bring the city closer to the river...instead of this massive dead zone.

Cira Centre, though a pretty building, hasnt really done a nice job integrating itself with the surrounding area...it feels totally isolated. It's interesting that Brandywine went through the expense of capping those tracks on the East side of the building, directly across the street; and, instead of utilizing it for a nobler purpose, have an ugly surface parking lot there (which is just across the street from their multilevel parking garage). Not exactly the urban minded, high density planning that this neighborhood could use...

However the Post Office renovation is moving along quickly--hopefully the architects find a way to bring that building to life at the street level--it was for so long protected by a moat of loading bays, driveways, drop-offs, and fences.

Has Drexel released any further updates on the planned hotel in the neighborhood?

[phillyscooter]

Originally Posted by Muji

I take back my comments about the garage being topped off. They just put up new "columns" in the past few days.

this is an insane amount of parking for high density next to such a large transit hub....I just bummed that its so freakisly tall...

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by phillyscooter

this is an insane amount of parking for high density next to such a large transit hub....I just bummed that its so freakisly tall...

I hope that means they're anticipating the other two Cira Centre towers. It's amazing how much parking this city "needs" given every new parking garage/lot is within at most a block or two from a handful of other parking garages/lots.