PHILADELPHIA | 1001 S. Broad Street Phase I | 180 FT | 14 FLOORS

[eixample]

For what it's worth, I also saw the drilling but only on the lot across 13th Street next to the U-haul place. Nothing going on either lot since. It seems weird that there'd be movement on both sites at the same time.

[mcgrath618]

https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate...-20200810.html

All told, the August proposals would produce 3,600 new apartments — just slightly less than all the housing units that were approved in 2019. September’s agenda is likely to bring another bumper crop of apartments, including a thousand units in Northern Liberties alone. Among those angling for a hearing is developer Bart Blatstein, who has a new plan for his sprawling site at Broad and Washington, this time a 14-story apartment building.

It’s clear that the impending demise of the 10-year abatement is what’s driving these applications, but how many of these projects are likely to be built? Interest rates are now near zero, making it cheap to borrow. But are banks and investors really willing to gamble on speculative rental housing in Philadelphia?

Based on interviews with developers, urban planners and industry experts, the answer is a qualified yes. Not every pretty rendering submitted to the design review board will turn into an actual building. And the bigger projects, such as the 461-unit enclave on the former Festival Pier, will probably be built in phases. As long as developers produce construction drawings and obtain a building permit before the end of 2020, they are locked in under the 10-year abatement, even if they don’t actually start digging right away.

Given all the talk about people fleeing cities for the suburbs to escape the pandemic, developers here remain surprisingly bullish about Philadelphia’s future.

Can he just sell the lot already? It’s obvious he’s just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

One of the best opportunities for development in this city and Blatstein has wasted it time and time again.

[summersm343]

I'll take 14 floors! Sounds much more realistic here. Hopefully Blatstein can get it done this time.

[cardeza]

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate...-20200810.html



Can he just sell the lot already? It’s obvious he’s just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

One of the best opportunities for development in this city and Blatstein has wasted it time and time again.

I am truly baffled by the people who talk about long term migration trends coming out of the COVID crisis. This is a bad situation that will eventually expire due to a vaccine or due to natural causes, it is not a permanent fixture of life so the idea that people are going to make permanent decisions to relocate based on this pandemic makes little sense to me. In addition, the spread is worse in less dense southern cities than it is in the older NE rust belt cities currently. Is anyone talking about people fleeing Austin, Houston or Atlanta?

[eixample]

Originally Posted by cardeza

I am truly baffled by the people who talk about long term migration trends coming out of the COVID crisis. This is a bad situation that will eventually expire due to a vaccine or due to natural causes, it is not a permanent fixture of life so the idea that people are going to make permanent decisions to relocate based on this pandemic makes little sense to me. In addition, the spread is worse in less dense southern cities than it is in the older NE rust belt cities currently. Is anyone talking about people fleeing Austin, Houston or Atlanta?

The idea is that employers and employees might get a vision of an alternate world during these months/year and decide that it is better than the 2019 world we were in. For employers, they may decide that more jobs can be done work from home some portion of the time or even 100%. And for employees, they can pick a different place to live if they only go into work once per week, once per month or never. These are just (supposed) accelerations of telecommuting or WFH phenomenon that have already been percolating for awhile.

I agree in that a lot of the discussion is silly. It is premature and difficult to know what places are going to be desirable while the pandemic is going on and many of the predictions largely conform to people's prior beliefs (the urbanists think that cities will benefit while the people who have been betting on the demise of cities for decades have been predicting the opposite). However, even if Covid creates little effects at the margin, it could have a prolonged effect on residential and office markets especially in super high cost areas like Silicon Valley and Manhattan.

[Milksteak]

Originally Posted by eixample

The idea is that employers and employees might get a vision of an alternate world during these months/year and decide that it is better than the 2019 world we were in. For employers, they may decide that more jobs can be done work from home some portion of the time or even 100%. And for employees, they can pick a different place to live if they only go into work once per week, once per month or never. These are just (supposed) accelerations of telecommuting or WFH phenomenon that have already been percolating for awhile.

I agree in that a lot of the discussion is silly. It is premature and difficult to know what places are going to be desirable while the pandemic is going on and many of the predictions largely conform to people's prior beliefs (the urbanists think that cities will benefit while the people who have been betting on the demise of cities for decades have been predicting the opposite). However, even if Covid creates little effects at the margin, it could have a prolonged effect on residential and office markets especially in super high cost areas like Silicon Valley and Manhattan.

Remember when everybody (many on this board) were saying that the suburbs were dying and doomed to become endless streets of abandoned strip malls and boarded up colonials? This is the same discussion with a different flavor, it's overreaction to the current trend. Millennials were moving to the city, then in a shock move, some of them moved back to the suburbs!

Will some business leave the city? Yes. Will some stay? Yep. Are cities as we know it doomed? No. Remote work isn't new, it's not like companies didn't know this was a possibility. Even my 80% remote company has multiple outposts scattered throughout the country - honestly it's nice going in every once in a while.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by eixample

The idea is that employers and employees might get a vision of an alternate world during these months/year and decide that it is better than the 2019 world we were in. For employers, they may decide that more jobs can be done work from home some portion of the time or even 100%. And for employees, they can pick a different place to live if they only go into work once per week, once per month or never. These are just (supposed) accelerations of telecommuting or WFH phenomenon that have already been percolating for awhile.

I agree in that a lot of the discussion is silly. It is premature and difficult to know what places are going to be desirable while the pandemic is going on and many of the predictions largely conform to people's prior beliefs (the urbanists think that cities will benefit while the people who have been betting on the demise of cities for decades have been predicting the opposite). However, even if Covid creates little effects at the margin, it could have a prolonged effect on residential and office markets especially in super high cost areas like Silicon Valley and Manhattan.

The part of this supposition that never made sense to me is the idea that what is tying people to the city is proximity to their jobs. I work with soooo many people who commute from the suburbs and have so many friends who live in the city and commute to an office park in the suburbs for work.

To me it seems like proximity to work is generally less of a factor than just generally where you want to live. Some people prefer the city to the suburbs and some vice versa, and these preferences to don't seem to change when the location of your job does.

Maybe for a city like Columbus, Ohio or something a loss of jobs in the city will mean less desire to live in the city. But I just don't think that's a big factor for Philly where already a lot of our jobs aren't in the city core and most who live here likely have reasons greater than proximity to their job for wanting to live here.

[cardeza]

Originally Posted by eixample

The idea is that employers and employees might get a vision of an alternate world during these months/year and decide that it is better than the 2019 world we were in. For employers, they may decide that more jobs can be done work from home some portion of the time or even 100%. And for employees, they can pick a different place to live if they only go into work once per week, once per month or never. These are just (supposed) accelerations of telecommuting or WFH phenomenon that have already been percolating for awhile.

I agree in that a lot of the discussion is silly. It is premature and difficult to know what places are going to be desirable while the pandemic is going on and many of the predictions largely conform to people's prior beliefs (the urbanists think that cities will benefit while the people who have been betting on the demise of cities for decades have been predicting the opposite). However, even if Covid creates little effects at the margin, it could have a prolonged effect on residential and office markets especially in super high cost areas like Silicon Valley and Manhattan.

I agree with the teleworking changes but those changes dont automatically mean people will start vacating cities. I think the success of teleworking will lead to lasting changes well after COVID. But the notion of mass exodus to the suburbs because people dont want to be near other people seems a bit much to me. No matter where you live things are very different in a COVID world and its not like life is normal in the burbs, they still face restrictions at schools, in stores, in parks, etc.

[cardeza]

Originally Posted by Milksteak

Remember when everybody (many on this board) were saying that the suburbs were dying and doomed to become endless streets of abandoned strip malls and boarded up colonials? This is the same discussion with a different flavor, it's overreaction to the current trend. Millennials were moving to the city, then in a shock move, some of them moved back to the suburbs!

Will some business leave the city? Yes. Will some stay? Yep. Are cities as we know it doomed? No. Remote work isn't new, it's not like companies didn't know this was a possibility. Even my 80% remote company has multiple outposts scattered throughout the country - honestly it's nice going in every once in a while.

remote work is going to change the office market (not likely for the better) in general and it doesn't matter if the office properties are urban or suburban. I think the demand for office rental space is going to decline in general and you will less new construction and lower rates. I dont think its a matter of business "leaving the city" as much as it is businesses downsizing their footprints inside and outside of the city.

[PurpleWhiteOut]

Originally Posted by allovertown

But I just don't think that's a big factor for Philly where already a lot of our jobs aren't in the city core and most who live here likely have reasons greater than proximity to their job for wanting to live here.

Yeah, this is my point of view as well. I don't want to prolong this topic too much, but over the last decade, Philly has made a big name for itself in the live/play category, and has always lagged in the work section. When it comes to live/play, if you have to work at home I imagine many people will WANT to live in the city so they can go out for dinner/drinks etc. rather than being trapped in a suburban house 24/7 with no amenities. Sure, the pandemic might accelerate some decisions that people were already thinking about anyway, but I can't imagine that anyone who prefers suburban living isn't ALREADY living in the suburbs and commuting in. On the flip side a large amount of my friends now won't have to commute OUT to the suburbs either, and very anecdotally nobody I know IRL in the millenial age group has made any lifestyle changes from this situation. On top of that, Philly had been lacking in jobs that now people could potentially get without having to LIVE in the NY/Boston/DC regions, but could take Amtrak trips in every once in a while.

At worst, I think it will be a wash, because people commute both ways in Philly anyway (city folks will do suburban jobs at home and suburban folks will do city jobs at home), or at best we'll catch people from HCOL cities who could do NY/Boston/DC jobs here and commute by train a few times a month. I personally don't see the negative effects being too strong when we were never a huge office city and a lot of our good jobs can't move in healthcare, education, and research. Maybe more of our legacy office buildings will someday convert to biotech/research space as that field grows? They'll always need physical space.

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

Yeah, this is my point of view as well. I don't want to prolong this topic too much, but over the last decade, Philly has made a big name for itself in the live/play category, and has always lagged in the work section. When it comes to live/play, if you have to work at home I imagine many people will WANT to live in the city so they can go out for dinner/drinks etc. rather than being trapped in a suburban house 24/7 with no amenities. Sure, the pandemic might accelerate some decisions that people were already thinking about anyway, but I can't imagine that anyone who prefers suburban living isn't ALREADY living in the suburbs and commuting in. On the flip side a large amount of my friends now won't have to commute OUT to the suburbs either, and very anecdotally nobody I know IRL in the millenial age group has made any lifestyle changes from this situation. On top of that, Philly had been lacking in jobs that now people could potentially get without having to LIVE in the NY/Boston/DC regions, but could take Amtrak trips in every once in a while.

At worst, I think it will be a wash, because people commute both ways in Philly anyway (city folks will do suburban jobs at home and suburban folks will do city jobs at home), or at best we'll catch people from HCOL cities who could do NY/Boston/DC jobs here and commute by train a few times a month. I personally don't see the negative effects being too strong when we were never a huge office city and a lot of our good jobs can't move in healthcare, education, and research. Maybe more of our legacy office buildings will someday convert to biotech/research space as that field grows? They'll always need physical space.

As one of those reverse commuters you mentioned, I have already had conversations with my bosses about wiorking from home 4 days a week even after we normalize.

This pandemic is (or has already)going to change the way businesses approach their employees and their office needs. Which is a good thing.

[Knight Hospitaller]

I have no problem with all the discussion about reverse commuting and working from home, but one might almost forget that this is the 1001 South Broad thread. That we really have nothing to say about that just proves what an empty suit Blatstein is.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

I have no problem with all the discussion about reverse commuting and working from home, but one might almost forget that this is the 1001 South Broad thread. That we really have nothing to say about that just proves what an empty suit Blatstein is.

I miss the city in the sky proposal. At least that was foolish enough to get some conversational juices flowing...

[summersm343]

Here’s the new proposal for this project:
http://www.hecphila.org/index_htm_fi...esentation.pdf

[Justin7]

Ugh, more above ground parking.

[New2Fishtown]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Here’s the new proposal for this project:
http://www.hecphila.org/index_htm_fi...esentation.pdf

You'd never know Bart was involved! This looks great! Great scale and density, retail on the major frontages, parking is effectively hidden, the pedestrian spaces look nice and break the block up a little bit. Far superior to Lincoln Square imho. Let's do it.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Here’s the new proposal for this project:
http://www.hecphila.org/index_htm_fi...esentation.pdf

Good lord that thing is a behemoth. I like the facade, but the massing is, well, massive.

[Vince_]

This looks fantastic. It reminds me of the new high end construction in DC and Boston. The scale is great and that block is huge and absolutely needs the cut through they added. My only question is how does this not have a rooftop bar/restaurant facing the skyline? It baffles me that more people don't take advantage of the view up from up there. Oh and 4 retail spots is a big deal to make this area less desolate.

[eixample]

As a somewhat nearby resident, my biggest hope for this this project has been that it will have a through way for pedestrians breaking up this massive block (the space between 13th and Broad is wider than an average city block). This kinda does, but it is covered the whole way and appears to be a truck/car sewer. I'm not even sure that there are sidewalks going all the way through from Carpenter to Washington. So that's not so good. I feel like they could have done a much better job on this aspect of the design and I believe it would add tremendously to the design for future residents, not just for neighbors. This is obviously is worlds' better than the last development, but overall it still doesn't seem all that well planned.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Anything is an improvement over the prior plan, but Bart loves bulk, it seems. I can see why so many different panel colors are needed to break it up.