PHILADELPHIA | Schuylkill Yards Future Phases | 1,095 - 375 FT | 70 - 28 FLOORS

[boxbot]

Originally Posted by gttx

BUT, what if Drexel lands a Trump Tower as part of this development? WHAT THEN?????

Most of Trump's towers are licensing deals. He puts his name to an existing project as opposed to building something. Whatever Trump's brand once was, it is now toxic. I doubt anyone is going to want his name on anything for a very long time.

[jjv007]

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

Also, as a reminder, [B

no politics.[/B]

Yup, though there was none on the last couple pages.

[summersm343]

Article on this from Hidden City

http://hiddencityphila.org/2016/03/s...uylkill-yards/

[wanderer34]

Hate to use an old naval term, but you guys will have to belay my last when it comes to the "underground bus station". I believe that the bus station on Schuylkill and Arch will be just as good, if not bigger than the Port Authority in NYC.

I never knew that there would be a bus station with the project when I posted about having a bus station included, although an underground bus station would be an ambitious project. Hopefully, this will draw a lot of the NJ Transit buses that currently run on Market East (both the city buses and the coaches) and redirect them into the Vine St Expwy, making Market Street less congested than what it already is.

And while SY is at it, make a second bus station somewhere on Independence Mall for NJT buses. The National Constitution Center would be perfect for this location, since it has a loading area for charter buses, why not provide some NJT bus service for that place and make it an eastern terminus for NJT bus service while making the 30th St area the main bus terminus.

[jjv007]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Article on this from Hidden City

http://hiddencityphila.org/2016/03/s...uylkill-yards/

Article was a good read and had some interesting tidbits. It was mentioned that the time frame for Schuylkill Yards is 14 years and the tallest building is supposed to rise up 950 ft. Still so many variables at this point though.

[el don]

http://drexel.edu/now/archive/2016/March/OrrisQA/

[wanderer34]

I've already seen what the latter plans of the Schuylkill Yards plans look like, and so far so good!!! A mostly residential area north of Arch St, bike trails including a bike and pedestrian bridge linking the SY to the Art Museum, tons of retail, and Drexel Park, which is currently only one city block. I'd love to see the rail yards further covered up from Spring Garden to Arch Sts personally. After all, it's not an air rights project for nothing!!!

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by PhillyPhlyr

Thought they wanted to be taller than Comcast? Lets hope they decide to go real big! On the plus side it's good to hear it's included in the first development phase.

I hope Brandywine can keep the original supertall to their original height. We already have one too many 900+ footers in the city already and it's time to bring Philly into the supertall era (sorry CITC, the spire just isn't good enough and rip ACC). Just stick to the original plan as far as towers are concerned and I'm gonna be a major backer of this project!!!

[gttx]

Originally Posted by wanderer34

I hope Brandywine can keep the original supertall to their original height. We already have one too many 900+ footers in the city already and it's time to bring Philly into the supertall era (sorry CITC, the spire just isn't good enough and rip ACC). Just stick to the original plan as far as towers are concerned and I'm gonna be a major backer of this project!!!

The district plan also shows a supertall (of indeterminate size) over the Northeast Corridor, just north of Arch Street. Although who knows if/when that will happen.

[Kidphilly]

Originally Posted by gttx

The district plan also shows a supertall (of indeterminate size) over the Northeast Corridor, just north of Arch Street. Although who knows if/when that will happen.

what the open house all they would say is only one plot was for a building that could be > 700 feet

it would increase in height toward 30th street station

[philatonian]

PayPal is pulling out of Charlotte and said their backups were Arizona and Florida. If Philadelphia wants to be on the innovation map, we need to be on the radar for these kinds of decisions. Drexel's Schuylkill Yards looks great on paper, but what is it doing to field the tenants that would fuel its construction?

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by wanderer34

I hope Brandywine can keep the original supertall to their original height. We already have one too many 900+ footers in the city already and it's time to bring Philly into the supertall era (sorry CITC, the spire just isn't good enough and rip ACC). Just stick to the original plan as far as towers are concerned and I'm gonna be a major backer of this project!!!

The upper roof of CITC is about 1000 feet, the spire is only about half of the narrow part.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by philatonian

PayPal is pulling out of Charlotte and said their backups were Arizona and Florida. If Philadelphia wants to be on the innovation map, we need to be on the radar for these kinds of decisions.

Am I correct in understanding that this Paypal thing is a back office processing center? Or is it a tech development center? Or both?

Because if it's just a processing center, I don't think we have lost this opportunity because we lack the tech credentials of Arizona or Florida or Charlotte. Nor do I imagine landing this facility would put us on the "innovation map". It seems to me Paypal is maybe just looking for the cheapest non-religious extremist state in which to put a back-office processing center that doesn't really require a local population with high level tech skills.

As I understand it, processing centers usually employ largely workers with clerical and lower end tech skills, in places they can afford to live, like North Dakota and Guam.

It'd be nice to get jobs like this for the less skilled in our region, but hosting back office processing is not an indication of a region's innovative prowess, so far as I know.

Originally Posted by philatonian

Drexel's Schuylkill Yards looks great on paper, but what is it doing to field the tenants that would fuel its construction?

I don't think John Fry is envisioning Schuylkill Yards to be a gleaming complex of high rise back office processing factories. I think the point if the Schuylkill Yards is to be a place where innovation is created by cutting edge tech talent, not where that technology is operationalized by low level worker bees, which is what I think Paypal's center will be. The Schuylkill Yards buildings will likely be too expensive to profitably house space-gobbling back office operation warehouses. Back offices operation centers are normally best suited to buildings with few floors, enormous floor plates, huge parking aprons - i.e., buildings not typically suitable to CBD development sites like Schuylkill Yards is supposed to be.

Note: Regardless, Paypal deserves a lot of credit for airing their decision to pull out of NC for this reason. Hard to imagine a company like Exxon or GM would do likewise.

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

Am I correct in understanding that this Paypal thing is a back office processing center? Or is it a tech development center? Or both?

Because if it's just a processing center, I don't think we have lost this opportunity because we lack the tech credentials of Arizona or Florida or Charlotte. Nor do I imagine landing this facility would put us on the "innovation map". It seems to me Paypal is maybe just looking for the cheapest non-religious extremist state in which to put a back-office processing center that doesn't really require a local population with high level tech skills.

As I understand it, processing centers usually employ largely workers with lower end clerical skills, in places they can afford to live, like North Dakota and Guam.

It'd be nice to get jobs like this for the less skilled in our region, but hosting back office processing is not an indication of a region's innovative prowess, so far as I know.

I was thinking it might be a call center. But, I agree with you that we need more high skill IT jobs that pay well to be able to afford living in a big city. On a side note, I think CITC will have a ripple effect on the IT and Media Industry since that's what they do and the players that want a piece of Comcast would be smart to position themselves in Philly.

[MetaldDeth81]

Let us remember what Fry said, he envisions these developments as trying to be inclusive of existing neighboring residents. Landing a firm that contains a large amount of clerical work but a name like PayPal could go a long way to assuaging fears of pushing neighbors out. Not the flashiest way to get tech in, but does kill two birds.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by MetaldDeth81

Let us remember what Fry said, he envisions these developments as trying to be inclusive of existing neighboring residents. Landing a firm that contains a large amount of clerical work but a name like PayPal could go a long way to assuaging fears of pushing neighbors out. Not the flashiest way to get tech in, but does kill two birds.

Yeah, but it's too expensive to build these fantastic skyscrapers for low value-add operations centers with space requirements totally at odds with what is envisioned for this location.

Operations centers are better suited to generic buildings in light industrial parks with big building footprints. Not (thankfully) land use configurations that are being considered anywhere in University City. There are plenty of neighborhoods elsewhere in the city that could accommodate that kind of land use, but not Schuylkill Yards.

[jjv007]

It seems like the political restrictions of this forum are highly ill-defined. Posts I scarcely view as political are lashed out against while others that are clearly political are hardly given a thought.
While discussing a potential or theoretical move of PayPal to Philly, I think it's important to avoid talking about one's feelings regarding the reasons PayPal rejected Charlotte. That has nothing to do with the conversation as it pertains to Philadelphia and trying to squeeze in a personal opinion on gay rights laws in North Carolina or the US is fruitless and wrong in the context of this forum's purpose. I believe this sort of conversation should be condemned by the mods.
What say you, Summers and Hammer?

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by jjv007

It seems like the political restrictions of this forum are highly ill-defined. Posts I scarcely view as political are lashed out against while others that are clearly political are hardly given a thought.
While discussing a potential or theoretical move of PayPal to Philly, I think it's important to avoid talking about one's feelings regarding the reasons PayPal rejected Charlotte. That has nothing to do with the conversation as it pertains to Philadelphia and trying to squeeze in a personal opinion on gay rights laws in North Carolina or the US is fruitless and wrong in the context of this forum's purpose. I believe this sort of conversation should be condemned by the mods.
What say you, Summers and Hammer?

Thanks. Today's "religious extremism" comment ticked me off.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by jjv007

It seems like the political . . .

Jurisdicitional policy on civil rights, to the extent that it affects corporate relocation decisions, as it did in the Paypal case, seems like a legit topic to discuss on a development forum, in the same way that jurisdictional tax and regulatory policies are legit to discuss and debate. The fact that Pennsylvania is a relatively inclusive place vs., say, NC, would now appear to be a business advantage, probably one of the few we have.

If someone wants to argue that Paypal is wrong for leaving NC for this reason, or that PA should have more restrictive civil rights policies, go for it I say. Those arguments might be idiotic in my opinion, but it's all part of the conversation.

But if opinions on this are not a legitimate discussion topic, than neither are opinions on tax, regulatory, or incentive policy, which are equally political/ideological issues.

Maybe you are being just a tad touchy.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Thanks. Today's "religious extremism" comment ticked me off.

What exactly would you call someone who is against civil equality for gay people for religious reasons? Don't be ridiculous. What is happening in NC is not a political debate, it's straight up bigotry.