PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[700 Level]

Originally Posted by TonyTone

Dangerous argument there, that's what toll roads were supposed to be as well.

Tolls were supposed to stay on the road until the road was paid off, as we see that did not happen.

Valid point. We Pennsylvanians are still paying a "temporary" 18% tax on liquor, a tax commonly referred to as the Johnstown Flood Liquor Tax.

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Yeah sure, but we have so much data and technology it could be adopted quite easily. Just like how the parking permit situation works. If X percent of property owners on your street agree to permit the block, the city does it.

Then, PECO schedules the work and all the rate payers on the block pay the surcharge for a pre-defined period of time. The city could also tack on it's work and do other utility repair and replacement at the same time.

I believe we talked about how New York allows residents to put money up for improvements on their block.

I think trusting companies and the state to do something with a slush fund has been proven not to be done correctly, sadly to say.

Your system could work though kind of like the PGW repair program where you pay a certain amount per year to have your furnace or pipes repaired or replaced.

[summersm343]

Permits Issued For 47-Unit Building At 1118 North Front Street In Northern Liberties

Site on the left (parking lot):

Permits have been issued for the construction of a seven-story, 47-unit building at 1118 North Front Street near the confluence of Northern Liberties and Fishtown. The building will rise on the west side of the block between West Wildey Street and Girard Avenue, just to the south of the Girard Avenue Station on the Market-Frankford Line. The structure will take up a footprint of 6,920 square feet and will hold 44,090 square feet of interior space, with just over 900 square feet per average unit. The property will also offer ground-level commercial space, which will positively contribute to the local commercial corridor. The building will be fully sprinkled. Permits list Michael Prifti as the design professional and US Construction Inc. as the contractor. Construction costs are stated at $7.04 million.

Read/view more here:
https://phillyyimby.com/2021/10/permits-...rthern-liberties-north-philadelphia.html

[PHLtoNYC]

Temple University endowment increases 28% on strong financial performance

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...ty-endowment-value-climbs-28-fiscal.html

Not quite development, but the endowments for Penn, Drexel, and Temple have substantially increased year-over-year. A good sign for their future growth.

Penn: $20.5B
Drexel: $1.1B
Temple: $873M

I'm sure opinions on endowments vary, but these 3 schools are tapping into their alum / connections very well. (Penn always has).

[ScreamShatter]

Temple has made great progress. A decade back, the endowment was around $150m-$200m, I believe. Kudos to them.

[SEFTA]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

How great would it have been if they had included about 50 billion in the infrastructure bill to start the ball rolling with nationwide utility burial? Talk about good politics if you could have citizens nationwide, rural suburban urban, see ugly power lines dissappear over a few days time. That is exactly the kind of taxpayer benefit that people can actually see and feel and would go a long way in creating good will towards the governement that made it happen.

How many billions are lost due to power outages that would have been prevented by burying utilities?
Sitting at a light. I count the poles
each an entire tree
WTF!
Makes me wonder what LOBBYISTS are preventing these lines from being buried.

[Mayormccheese]

Originally Posted by SEFTA

How many billions are lost due to power outages that would have been prevented by burying utilities?
Sitting at a light. I count the poles
each an entire tree
WTF!
Makes me wonder what LOBBYISTS are preventing these lines from being buried.

I think burying power lines is a bigger and more expensive project that we might realize especially in a city like Philadelphia. I don’t think we have the underground mapped out and would require unprecedented communication between city, state and federal departments as well as private entities. Nobody has the will to do that let alone the money.

[summersm343]

Permits Issued For Dilworth House At 223 South 6th Street

Current site:


Rendering:


Rendering:


Massing:

Permits have been issued for Dilworth House, an 11-story development set to stand at 223 South 6th Street in Society Hill, Center City. Designed by Cope Linder Architects, the new building will offer 10 residential units, all ultra-luxury condominiums. The project will contain 56,634 square feet of interior space and include 20 valet-served parking spades situated underground, set to be accessed from Randolph Street. Construction costs are estimated at $7.5 million as per the permit.

Read/view more here:
https://phillyyimby.com/2021/10/permits-...33-south-6th-street-in-society-hill.html

[TonyTone]

Wowwwwwww, that is a very beautiful tower and it fits the area.

We defiantly have big money flowing through Philly.

[GtownFriend]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Permits Issued For Dilworth House At 223 South 6th Street

Wondering about the definition of "skyscraper" from the front page of the SkyScraperPage: "minimum 12 floors or 35 meters / 115 feet in height"?

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by GtownFriend

Wondering about the definition of "skyscraper" from the front page of the SkyScraperPage: "minimum 12 floors or 35 meters / 115 feet in height"?

We had a separate thread open for this project already, as previous iterations had this being anywhere from 12 to 16 floors in total. Now that it's officially 11 floors, I just closed that thread down, and any news about this project can be posted in this thread here.

We do not start a thread or keep a separate thread for a project unless it's 12 floors or taller.

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by summersm343

We had a separate thread open for this project already, as previous iterations had this being anywhere from 12 to 16 floors in total. Now that it's officially 11 floors, I just closed that thread down, and any news about this project can be posted in this thread here.

We do not start a thread or keep a separate thread for a project unless it's 12 floors or taller.

Any reasons for the floor decrease?

Either way, finally! Building looks great, good infill, build it! I wonder if prices will approach record breaking territory?

[SEFTA]

Originally Posted by Mayormccheese

I think burying power lines is a bigger and more expensive project that we might realize especially in a city like Philadelphia. I don’t think we have the underground mapped out and would require unprecedented communication between city, state and federal departments as well as private entities. Nobody has the will to do that let alone the money.

It's infrastructure and the streets are sitting on who knows what.
One thing I do know is I'm sure they're all due for upgrades and replacements.
It's a matter of coordination. When pipes and sewers are replaced it should be coordinated with over head lines. These things are planned months, if not years in advance.
I'm so tired of hearing how this country can't do simple things while the rest of the free world is. It's inevitable this WILL all have to be sorted out and kicking the can down the street will nolonger be an option
"as long as it's not during my term"
A plan. Block by block over decades
BUT A PLAN
It's incompetence greed and apathy that is the problem.

[Inquizative]

Does anyone know what's happening at 4224 Baltimore Avenue? There was supposed to be construction of a 132-unit residential building. They appeared to start construction, cut down mature trees, put up cement barriers, some equipment showed up, then worked stopped for about 2 weeks. Worked resumed, but it appears they're smoothing things over to build a parking lot or something other than a foundation.

[therealdawk]

I thought this video clip was interesting. Action News recently did an investigative report on demolitions in the city that are resulting in unsafe neighboring structures. They specifically speak with a couple on Christian St in South Philly and a couple on 20th in Rittenhouse who both say that the demolition companies aren't assuming responsibility and their home owners insurance is telling them that their structural issues are not covered by their policies. So obviously lawyers are now involved to help these folks.

Sounds maddening and very frustrating.

https://6abc.com/feature/philadelphia-de...nt-and-licenses-of-inspections/11140415/

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by SEFTA

How many billions are lost due to power outages that would have been prevented by burying utilities?
Sitting at a light. I count the poles
each an entire tree
WTF!
Makes me wonder what LOBBYISTS are preventing these lines from being buried.

Most of the eyesore lines visible are communications lines for Verizon and Comcast. Power lines are relatively minimal and would be easy to bury especially in conjunction with a street paving and/or utility replacement project (like they are currently doing through all of CC replacing both gas and water lines).

So to answer your question the lobbying would come from one of the city’s most important and powerful employer. You want me to pay for $500mm in a wire burying project? Sure, but how about we relocate our HQ to NYC.

[das18]

My understanding is that we are quickly approaching an era where last mile data is handled wirelessly instead of via lines on poles. As cell and wifi speeds (and therefore capacity) increase it's becoming way more cost effective than laying, maintaining, and updating land lines. In some areas of the county this has already happened. Now obviously you will still have land lines going to the cell sites but there would be far fewer and most blocks would be free from communications wires. I think if you remove all but the top electric lines from the poles they would be far less of an eyesore. So perhaps the problem will abate somewhat in the next decade.

[SEFTA]

Originally Posted by Londonee

Most of the eyesore lines visible are communications lines for Verizon and Comcast. Power lines are relatively minimal and would be easy to bury especially in conjunction with a street paving and/or utility replacement project (like they are currently doing through all of CC replacing both gas and water lines).

So to answer your question the lobbying would come from one of the city’s most important and powerful employer. You want me to pay for $500mm in a wire burying project? Sure, but how about we relocate our HQ to NYC.

Yes, but this is not a Philly thing.
it's nationwide.
In hurricane areas, the lines are still above ground causing chaos with every storm and
blackouts, no clean water, heat, AC etc...
Then spend millions sending in armies of technicians.
They spend a fortune every year mangling mature trees that dare get in their lines way.
Then spend a fortune to replace them the same damn way.
Each wood pole is an entire tree!
Seems to me it's a system set up to fail because it's SOOO LUCRATIVE to repair!
It's ridiculous

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by SEFTA

Yes, but this is not a Philly thing.
it's nationwide.
In hurricane areas, the lines are still above ground causing chaos with every storm and
blackouts, no clean water, heat, AC etc...
Then spend millions sending in armies of technicians.
They spend a fortune every year mangling mature trees that dare get in their lines way.
Then spend a fortune to replace them the same damn way.
Each wood pole is an entire tree!
Seems to me it's a system set up to fail because it's SOOO LUCRATIVE to repair!
It's ridiculous

You also have to think about the companies that make money from repairing & cleaning up after storms.

States have contracts with different companies for cleanup/repair so imagine how many pockets they fill not to have lines put underground in certain areas.

[summersm343]

Historic Point Breeze (Newbold really) Church Turning into Apartments

Today we can share some good news about another historic house of worship, the True Gospel Tabernacle Family Church. This church, located at 1900 S. 16th St., was originally constructed around 1889, and was designed by Baily & Truscott for Saint Elizabeth’s (or Elisabeth’s) Episcopal Church. We found some scans of church programs from the early 20th century, but we weren’t able to learn much else about the history of the church, aside from the fact that the current congregation moved into the building in the late 1990s.

We don’t know this for sure, but we suspect that the True Gospel church is experiencing something like what we detailed above and are either folding and moving to a new location. We say this because we noticed that last week, permits were pulled to convert the building (really, the collection of buildings) into 45 apartments. Some of the existing structure looks like it will seamlessly convert to residential, while the chapel will likely pick up a new interior floor or two, to accomplish the density indicated by the permit.

Read/view more here:
https://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-philly/p...nt-breeze-church-turning-into-apartments