PHILADELPHIA | The Carson @ 501 Spring Garden Street | 153 FT | 13 FLOORS

[mcgrath618]

Not quite NoLibs, not quite Center City.

Title: 501 Spring Garden Street
Project: Residential/Ground floor retail
Architect: BLT
Developer: Neal and Victor Rodin
Location: 501 E Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA
District: North Philadelphia
Neighborhood: Northern Liberties/Poplar
Floors: 13 Floors
Height: 153 Feet




Construction Webcam


CDR Submission
https://www.phila.gov/media/20200219...ge-Final-1.pdf

[summersm343]

Nice! Build it! Great project for this area.

[fairmounter]

Yes! This project will be great for that portion of Spring Garden and the larger area overall. Not feeling the one story retail though. Maybe they're leaving it open to future construction of a second tower? It also looks like the developer isn't using any of that huge roof space as outdoor amenity. Missed opportunity imo

[SEFTA]

This is great! Re; the single storey space, I always feel, can be "densified" later but still utilized, and still keep the street wall.

[Redddog]

I just walked by this yesterday. The impact this building will have on that area will be amazing.

So psyched for this.

[3rd&Brown]

It's firmly NoLibs.

NoLibs is North of Spring Garden, South of Girard.

East boundary is debatable (Front vs Columbus vs the River), west boundary, at least when I was on the zoning committee, was 6th Street though I remember seeing projects as far west as 8th presented to us.

The disputed streets in that area are 7th and 8th. The NLNA would say that's East Poplar and every one who lives in Northern Liberties would agree. Developers would argue it's Northern Liberties for obvious reasons.

Being on the north side of Spring Garden at 5th puts it firmly in the zone.

[Nanyika]

Where and what is the Northern Liberties? A historical note: When it was a separate township until 1854, the Northern Liberties legally began on the north side of Vine Street. More practically, the marshes and creek called Pegg's Run, which later became Willow Street, was the physical barrier separating NL from the extended grid of the city. It was only after the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the city demolished almost the entire southern portion of the Northern Liberties in order to build a poorly thought-out low-rise industrial district, that the feeling began to arise that NL was restricted merely to the area north of Spring Garden. Someday, hopefully, when the southern NL is restored to more productive uses, this project at 5th and Spring Garden will once again be in the heart of the Northern Liberties.

[Justin7]

^ For what it's worth, Google Maps has NL stretching down to the highway spaghetti at Callowhill, which makes sense as far as contemporary neighborhood barriers go.

[Jayfar]

I think this is a Neal Rodin project. [EDIT: Confirmed] The LLC named is listed at the same address and suite number as he.

Most remember Rodin as the developer of the mixed-use Rodin Square with Whole Foods at 22nd & Spring Garden St, but many of us recall him less fondly as the developer who successfully pursued (through then-owner Live Nation) a hardship application allowing demolition of most of the historic Boyd Theatre, with plans to construct a new iPic theater. When the iPic project subsequently fell through, Live Nation instead sold the Boyd to Pearl Properties.

Name: R Investment Twenty One LLC
Entity Number 6747437
Entity Type Limited Liability Company
Status Active
Citizenship Domestic
Entity Creation Date 07/24/2018
Effective Date 07/24/2018
State Of Inc PA
Address 1617 JOHN F KENNEDY BOULEVARD, SUITE 1840 PHILADELPHIA PA 19103 Philadelphia

[DeltaNerd]

This is certain a step to help bright up Spring Garden Street. Hoping the 43, 57 and MFL get a boost from this as well. Also more green space would be nice too!

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

I think this is a Neal Rodin project. [EDIT: Confirmed] The LLC named is listed at the same address and suite number as he.

Most remember Rodin as the developer of the mixed-use Rodin Square with Whole Foods at 22nd & Spring Garden St, but many of us recall him less fondly as the developer who successfully pursued (through then-owner Live Nation) a hardship application allowing demolition of most of the historic Boyd Theatre, with plans to construct a new iPic theater. When the iPic project subsequently fell through, Live Nation instead sold the Boyd to Pearl Properties.

Name: R Investment Twenty One LLC
Entity Number 6747437
Entity Type Limited Liability Company
Status Active
Citizenship Domestic
Entity Creation Date 07/24/2018
Effective Date 07/24/2018
State Of Inc PA
Address 1617 JOHN F KENNEDY BOULEVARD, SUITE 1840 PHILADELPHIA PA 19103 Philadelphia

Confirmation from the Inquirer since I posted:

Apartments planned at Northern Liberties strip mall by group behind Whole Foods building near Art Museum | Philly.com

The plans by father-and-son development team Neal and Victor Rodin for 501-39 Spring Garden St. — now home to a Dollar General store and other retailers — call for 382 apartments and 60,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, said attorney Matthew McClure, who is representing the Rodins on the project.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Nanyika

Where and what is the Northern Liberties? A historical note: When it was a separate township until 1854, the Northern Liberties legally began on the north side of Vine Street. More practically, the marshes and creek called Pegg's Run, which later became Willow Street, was the physical barrier separating NL from the extended grid of the city. It was only after the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the city demolished almost the entire southern portion of the Northern Liberties in order to build a poorly thought-out low-rise industrial district, that the feeling began to arise that NL was restricted merely to the area north of Spring Garden. Someday, hopefully, when the southern NL is restored to more productive uses, this project at 5th and Spring Garden will once again be in the heart of the Northern Liberties.

Interesting.

For what it's worth, I believe the NLNA has jurisdiction as the RCO over the industrial area in question. For sure, the NLNA was the RCO that advised on the Target/Yards development. It (the NLNA) is very much interested in filling in the gaps between it and Old City.

Those gaps are very much psychological more than anything else. For sure, when I lived at 3rd&Brown I walked to Old City regularly. It's not even 10ish minutes on foot to 3rd&Arch from 3rd&Brown...but it "feels" further than that.

[3rd&Brown]

Also, given this development team, fingers crossed the retail is a Whole Foods or Whole Foods 365.

Very often these developers have existing relationships with the same commercial companies and just slot them in their buildings wherever they go up. Or even, the company goes to the developer and says...based on demographics we want a store in this area, but there is no appropriate space for us. Can you build one?

For sure, even though Fishtown has surpassed Northern Liberties as the "hot" neighborhood, Northern Liberties has become super dense and by far has higher family incomes. That's what's prompting companies like Target, Starbucks, Orange Theory, Heirloom to poke around the area.

[Philly-Drew]

As a long time resident of Northern Liberties (20+ years) I also acknowledge this parcel is absolutely Northern Liberties.

Mcgrath618, you do a lot of good things for this website and I truly appreciate it. However, your note above “Not quite NoLibs, not quite Center City.” is incorrect and misleading.

Although I was never on the NLNA board, I’ve been to plenty of meetings and know some of the people that are. It makes me wonder if I actually know 3rd&Brown from the neighborhood but we just never discussed this website.

Anyway, from what I’ve observed in those meetings as well as from various self-promotional neighborhood literature (neighborhood calendar, booklets, events, etc), and from living with long time Northern Liberties locals, the general thought is that Norhern Liberties boundaries include the industrial area up to Callowhill, to 6th, to Girard, to the river. But the “neighborhood” part of northern liberties stops at Spring Garden, at least for now. New residential development in the industrial area would obviously extend the “neighborhood” south.

That means Target, Yards Brewery, Silk City, City Fitness, etc are all in Northern Liberties.

[Philly-Drew]

Regarding some of the local promotional material distributed over the years, I found a 48 page glossy, thick page bound book (about 5"x4") which was distributed throughout the neighborhood in 2006. It's a fun piece which includes many neighborhood informational nuggets.

While certainly not an official map (I doubt one actually exists) it does provide insight on how the residents identified the neighborhood boundaries, at least at that time.

[reparcsyks]

Might be my new favorite based on what it's replacing. Next let's get rid of the car wash down the street on Spring Garden.

[SEFTA]

Originally Posted by Nanyika

Where and what is the Northern Liberties? A historical note: When it was a separate township until 1854, the Northern Liberties legally began on the north side of Vine Street. More practically, the marshes and creek called Pegg's Run, which later became Willow Street, was the physical barrier separating NL from the extended grid of the city. It was only after the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the city demolished almost the entire southern portion of the Northern Liberties in order to build a poorly thought-out low-rise industrial district, that the feeling began to arise that NL was restricted merely to the area north of Spring Garden. Someday, hopefully, when the southern NL is restored to more productive uses, this project at 5th and Spring Garden will once again be in the heart of the Northern Liberties.

That's very interesting. I've often wondered what's happened here.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Nanyika

Where and what is the Northern Liberties? A historical note: When it was a separate township until 1854, the Northern Liberties legally began on the north side of Vine Street. More practically, the marshes and creek called Pegg's Run, which later became Willow Street, was the physical barrier separating NL from the extended grid of the city. It was only after the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the city demolished almost the entire southern portion of the Northern Liberties in order to build a poorly thought-out low-rise industrial district, that the feeling began to arise that NL was restricted merely to the area north of Spring Garden. Someday, hopefully, when the southern NL is restored to more productive uses, this project at 5th and Spring Garden will once again be in the heart of the Northern Liberties.

Did anyone do anything right in the 60s or 70s?

Seems to me if Philadelphia simply refused to grant anyone a demolition permit between 1955 and 1985 or so this city would be in considerably better shape.

[summersm343]

Amazon grocery store headed to new Northern Liberties project

Link to article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

[kool-ski]

Amazon grocery store headed to new Northern Liberties project

By Natalie Kostelni – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
Sep 28, 2020, 3:56pm EDT

Amazon.com Inc. has signed a lease for one of its new grocery stores in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, according to sources familiar with the deal.

The online retailer has taken 40,000 square feet of 60,000 square feet that is proposed for a new apartment complex at 5th and Spring Garden streets, the sources says. The project calls for a 13-story building with 382 apartments and underground parking with 206 spaces, according to plans filed earlier this year with Philadelphia’s Civic Design Review. The retail portion that Amazon would anchor faces 6th Street at Spring Garden, the plans show.

A representative from Rodin Development, a Philadelphia real estate company that is proposing the project, couldn’t be reached for comment. Officials at Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.

The project at 5th and Spring Garden would rise on a site that involved five different owners and took six months to negotiate. Ken Mallin of MPN Realty arranged the deal between Rodin Development and the owners of the property, which is a small retail strip center.

The project, though not a carbon copy, is similar to another development Rodin completed in 2016 called Rodin Square. That $160 million development has a 10-story apartment component called Dalian on the Park at 500 N. 21st that has 293 rental units as well as a 500-vehicle parking facility. The 85,000-square-foot retail component of that development is leased to Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon. Other tenants are Santander Bank, Jefferson Hospital and CVS.

In its ongoing quest to expand its grocery footprint beyond Whole Foods, Amazon has narrowed down two other locations in the Philadelphia suburbs for its new chain of stores. The two locations that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has zeroed in are in Bucks County. One deal has Amazon leasing 36,000 square feet of a 49,000-square-foot former Giant at Creekview Center off Easton Road in Warrington. Another site is 41,000 square feet of a former Kmart at the Brookwood Shopping Center on Street Road in Bensalem.

Amazon been experimenting with a grocery concept that is different from its Whole Foods chain and unlike its Amazon Go, which is more like a convenience store with no cashier and more like a traditional grocery.

Rodin is finishing up the permitting process and it was unclear when the real estate company would proceed with the Northern Liberties project. It will add to an ongoing revitalization of that corner of Philadelphia that began nearly five years ago.

That’s when Alliance HSP began converting the former Destination Maternity headquarters into a mixed-use development anchored by Target and Yards Brewing Co. A 50-unit apartments complex called SoNo will round out that development and expected to be completed next year.