PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[summersm343]

Delayed For Years, Apartment Building Finally Moving on Dauphin Street





Read more here:
http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phill...dauphin-street

[summersm343]

Penn Data Science Building - Corner of 34th and Chestnut



Read more here:
https://www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/f...g_overview.php

[Knight Hospitaller]

^ Awesome. Diagonal from my law school. I've been wondering when that surface lot next to the garage would fill in. It was the last big hole in an area totally transformed since I studied there in the 90s. Even in uncertain times, we can count on university endowments to keep shovels in the ground (at least unless/until the Big Ed bubble bursts).

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Penn Data Science Building - Corner of 34th and Chestnut

Love to see that hole filled in, and I love the use, but man that is not a very attractive building. It's obviously a preliminary massing and not a real design per se, but a blank wall facing 34th? Come on... I also hoped we'd see something a bit bigger at this location, something a little more ambitious. Seems a prime corner for a high-rise.

[mcgrath618]

Yeah this is right next to a subway station (almost) this should be twice the size for the location AT LEAST.

[Vince_]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Love to see that hole filled in, and I love the use, but man that is not a very attractive building. It's obviously a preliminary massing and not a real design per se, but a blank wall facing 34th? Come on... I also hoped we'd see something a bit bigger at this location, something a little more ambitious. Seems a prime corner for a high-rise.

I'm pretty they're keeping the garage which is that blank wall on 34th. The building would fit between the garage and Chestnut. Of course I'd love to see a tower but Penn has really been doing an amazing job at filling gaps, which is more important than a tower.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by Vince_

I'm pretty they're keeping the garage which is that blank wall on 34th. The building would fit between the garage and Chestnut. Of course I'd love to see a tower but Penn has really been doing an amazing job at filling gaps, which is more important than a tower.

Ah that makes sense.

[Knight Hospitaller]

^ Yeah, it's just a crummy rendering. It's a rather slender lot so it won't have much of a 34th Street facade. I hope it looks better too, which shouldn't be difficult, given the crude sketch here. Height would be nice, but this is perfectly in keeping with the neighborhood's recent additions and enough to mask the garage completely.

[PurpleWhiteOut]

To me, it looks like the colored in portion encompasses the whole building, but it does look like the shape and size of the garage. Do you think they'll end up converting the garage structure into the building? To me, just the parking lot alone seems too small for what they're planning. It looks like the sketch has the garage doors and holes filled in, which makes me think they're going to use the structure to save money.

[Knight Hospitaller]

^ Something that horrific never crossed my mind.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

To me, it looks like the colored in portion encompasses the whole building, but it does look like the shape and size of the garage. Do you think they'll end up converting the garage structure into the building? To me, just the parking lot alone seems too small for what they're planning. It looks like the sketch has the garage doors and holes filled in, which makes me think they're going to use the structure to save money.

Don't think that's the plan. The Data Science Building will have only 80,000 square feet of space. And I think Penn's plan has always been to just fill in the parking lot space, while leaving the parking garage as is. That's also what the drawing seems to indicate. I think the garage is the only other building that's colored in because it's adjacent to the planned building, and none of the buildings in the drawing show any detail such as windows, doors, or other openings.

[City Wide]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

To me, it looks like the colored in portion encompasses the whole building, but it does look like the shape and size of the garage. Do you think they'll end up converting the garage structure into the building? To me, just the parking lot alone seems too small for what they're planning. It looks like the sketch has the garage doors and holes filled in, which makes me think they're going to use the structure to save money.

A couple of years ago I helped a friend who teaches at Drexel to measure this lot so the students could use in their make believe world as students in architecture. Because the lot is so long you don't sense its width. Anyways, having done all that, I think that would be a great location for a tower; it could have other uses on the first 3 or 4 floors. But I just spent my last million on face masks, so I can't swing building it myself

The garage has at least half if not all its floors built on a slope. I can't see any practical way to reuse this garage for anything other then cars and storage. It's a tinker toy garage so it might be cheaper to just take it apart, like they did at 37th & Market St. then to spend alot on repurposing it. Does Penn have other parking in the area?

[DudeGuy]

There is a ton of construction activity going on in Center City right now. Notably, the Canopy Hotel in the old Girard building on 12th is humming along and looks fairly close to completion.

[Urbanthusiat]

Company buying bankrupt PES refinery promises 18,000 jobs in next 10 years

This would be huge. I'm always skeptical of these job projections but even if it's half that number, I'd say that's pretty good for us. It's a prime site for this kind of use.

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Company buying bankrupt PES refinery promises 18,000 jobs in next 10 years

This would be huge. I'm always skeptical of these job projections but even if it's half that number, I'd say that's pretty good for us. It's a prime site for this kind of use.

Great plan! Hope it comes to fruition. This section of the city needs to be cleaned up and this seems like the perfect plan honestly. Hope it happens!

[summersm343]

30 Units + Retail Under Construction at 528-40 W Oxford St





Read more here:
http://www.rising.realestate/30-unit...40fQLYwTgv7AFI

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Company buying bankrupt PES refinery promises 18,000 jobs in next 10 years

This would be huge. I'm always skeptical of these job projections but even if it's half that number, I'd say that's pretty good for us. It's a prime site for this kind of use.

This is the perfect example of the city's screwed up tax policy.

Council is quoted stating extending the Keystone Opportunity Zone status (i.e. no taxes) at the site will increase revenue by an incremental 10+ MM per year.

So the question is, why not focus on reducing business taxes EVERYWHERE in Philadelphia? Why just these zones? If bypassing or reducing these taxes increases revenue, then just do it for everyone.

[cardeza]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

This is the perfect example of the city's screwed up tax policy.

Council is quoted stating extending the Keystone Opportunity Zone status (i.e. no taxes) at the site will increase revenue by an incremental 10+ MM per year.

So the question is, why not focus on reducing business taxes EVERYWHERE in Philadelphia? Why just these zones? If bypassing or reducing these taxes increases revenue, then just do it for everyone.

The KOZ is a state program, hence the name. And it was designed to spur development in less than desirable vacant or industrial sites. Your "options" don't really make sense. Granting tax breaks to something that does not exist yet is nothing like cutting EXISTING revenue across the board. It's not an either or. The KOZ is like the abatement, a carrot to encourage something to be built that supposedly otherwise would not be built. If taxes weren't actually connected to real money everyone (even liberals) would love to cut taxes. We were talking about street paving and there has been lots of gnashing of teeth about lack of street sweeping, both were reduced under Nutter when he was cutting the budget during and after the recession. Tax money pays for stuff. If we don't want stuff paid for, then by all means lets start slashing those taxes.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by cardeza

The KOZ is a state program, hence the name. And it was designed to spur development in less than desirable vacant or industrial sites. Your "options" don't really make sense. Granting tax breaks to something that does not exist yet is nothing like cutting EXISTING revenue across the board. It's not an either or. The KOZ is like the abatement, a carrot to encourage something to be built that supposedly otherwise would not be built. If taxes weren't actually connected to real money everyone (even liberals) would love to cut taxes. We were talking about street paving and there has been lots of gnashing of teeth about lack of street sweeping, both were reduced under Nutter when he was cutting the budget during and after the recession. Tax money pays for stuff. If we don't want stuff paid for, then by all means lets start slashing those taxes.

I've told you before. I'd be happy to cut the $125MM Kenney has added to the Police budget in the past 5 years that has got us a murder rate twice when he started. With a police force full of people who sit behind desks and in cars and don't even know how to walk a beat and meet their constituents, or potentially don't even care about them.

See there. These aren't hypothetical cuts I'm talking about in theory. Real things. Like you don't know how to spend money you don't get it.

Not that difficult.

Also. KOZs take a lot of companies and reshuffle them within the city. (Glaxo Smith Kline, Dechert, FMC). So don't give me that BS.

They wouldn't be motivated to move a few blocks in the first place if we had sensible tax policy. That could even mean incrementally increasing some taxes while reducing others that don't make sense.

I've said it a million times. I'd be okay if incremental increases in property taxes were used to decrease wage or business taxes. (In the past), property taxes were artificially low and high business taxes had an outsized effect on job growth. Increase one, decrease another, with net net overall positive effect on growth and tax revenue.

But you can talk about your hypothetical tropes. I'm talking real solutions.

[cardeza]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I've told you before. I'd be happy to cut the $125MM Kenney has added to the Police budget in the past 5 years that has got us a murder rate twice when he started. With a police force full of people who sit behind desks and in cars and don't even know how to walk a beat and meet their constituents, or potentially don't even care about them.

See there. These aren't hypothetical cuts I'm talking about in theory. Real things. Like you don't know how to spend money you don't get it.

Not that difficult.

Also. KOZs take a lot of companies and reshuffle them within the city. (Glaxo Smith Kline, Dechert, FMC). So don't give me that BS.

They wouldn't be motivated to move a few blocks in the first place if we had sensible tax policy. That could even mean incrementally increasing some taxes while reducing others that don't make sense.

I've said it a million times. I'd be okay if incremental increases in property taxes were used to decrease wage or business taxes. (In the past), property taxes were artificially low and high business taxes had an outsized effect on job growth. Increase one, decrease another, with net net overall positive effect on growth and tax revenue.

But you can talk about your hypothetical tropes. I'm talking real solutions.

The KOZ is a state program that exists inside and outside of the city. It is not a city controlled tax break program. I believe Council has to approve the locations but the program is not administered by the City.

You are right, it's all simple. Cut 125m from the police in spite of having a unionized workforce you can't fire. Not sure how I missed the easy with which these things can be solved. Only takes a few keystrokes!