Philadelphia Suburban Development Corp. has put up for sale what is considered one of the largest development sites along South Broad Street.

The 3.46-acre parcel at 3200 S. Broad St. sits near FDR Park, across from the Wells Fargo Center and the new Live! Casino & Hotel. It is also in proximity to the South Quarter Crossing project, which involves the redevelopment of two retail centers into a 1-million-square-foot mixed-use community.

Zoned for residential use, the property is being marketed to local, regional and national builders, said Ken Wellar of Rittenhouse Realty Advisors, who has the listing.

“We do think there is a lack of product and higher-end product down there,” Wellar said. “There is such demand for homes.”

Additional residential at the far end of South Broad Street would be consistent with a growing trend of development happening near entertainment and arena districts as people consider them as amenities. In many cases, property values can rise as a result of being close to a stadium and the other ancillary uses that come with them.

Stadium districts across the United States are increasingly incorporating more mixed-use development with the addition of residential, retail, restaurants, hotels and outdoor spaces. These efforts attempt to create a neighborhood around these sports facilities and help finance stadiums by establishing other generators of revenue beyond ticket and event sales.

A recent example in Philadelphia came last year when the 76ers proposed a new basketball arena for Penn’s Landing. In addition to the stadium, plans included apartments, a new school, retail and commercial space as well as two museums.

Philadelphia’s stadium district has not ventured much beyond the sports facilities, the Live! Casino & Hotel, and the Xfinity Live! bar and restaurant.

“From 20,000 feet, it’s important to look at this perspective,” said Mark R. Nicoletti, president and CEO of PSDC. “With most new development on hold in many large cities, strong well-capitalized developers can pick and choose the best opportunities. This flight to quality is especially driving interest in sports and entertainment districts and getting our site national attention. That said, the record-high crime rates in Philly are also driving home buyers towards a flight to safety. Packer Park is probably the safest neighborhood in the city and might be the best example of a community working with their police district to proactively control crime.”

No price has been set for the property. PSDC paid $2.4 million for the site in 2001, according to Philadelphia property records.

This is just one of several properties that PSDC is trying to unload. The company put up for sale last January essentially all of its Philadelphia real estate, which totals 2 million square feet across 100 different buildings in Philadelphia. The company has said it intends to put the funds it reaps from those sales into new development in Malvern, Lansdale and Warrington.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia land sites for sale or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia land sites for sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

More than a year after Goldenberg Group proposed a new $150 million mixed-use development at the site of a former Philadelphia health center at Broad and Lombard streets, the sale of the property has not closed and the project’s timing remains unknown.

The Blue Bell development firm announced in October 2019 its plan to build a two-phased project at 500 S. Broad St. that would eventually cover a block with 300,000 square feet of multifamily space and renovate the existing 55,800-square-foot, 1950s health center, creating room for the University of the Arts along with retail and other components.

“We are still planning a dynamic mixed-use development that includes residential, student housing, hospitality, restaurants and grocery,” said David Mercuris, senior vice president at Goldenberg. “Covid-19’s impact on these sectors has slowed the development timeline and we are working with PIDC and the city to adjust the timing of the project. We remain committed to bringing nothing less than a world class project to Philadelphia.”

Until Goldenberg sorts out final details with the city, it doesn’t have a firm timeframe on when the project might commence, Mercuris said.

Aside from Goldenberg, which has completed retail and multifamily projects in the suburbs and Philadelphia, the project team includes Harvey and Robert Spear, which operate E-Z Park and own adjacent surface parking lots; and Badger Group, which is also a Blue Bell-based real estate company.

In January 2020, Goldenberg entered into an agreement of sale to buy the property from the city, said Jessica Calter, spokeswoman for Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.

While construction activity has continued during the coronavirus, it hasn’t been unusual for developers to pause projects or revaluate them as a result of the pandemic. Many are waiting to get more clarity on what demand drivers will remain post-pandemic and during an economic recovery.

The site Goldenberg has locked up consists of two parcels totaling nearly 40,000 square feet. One property is at 500-508 S. Broad St. and totals 25,620 square feet. The other site is at 508-510 S. Broad St. and totals 13,980 square feet. It is zoned CMX-4. Goldenberg was expected to pay $16.1 million to buy the combined parcels in a transaction initially scheduled to close last year.

“Since then, they have continued through the diligence process,” Calter said in an email. “The project is a mixed-use development with components of residential including student housing, grocery, and hospitality. With tenants in these sectors significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the timing of the project has been impacted. The city and Goldenberg Group are working on reevaluating the timeline but there have been no significant changes to the project.”

Goldenberg’s plans on the development started in July 2017 when the city decided to put the health center property up for sale and issued a request for qualifications from interested parties. The city ultimately selected Goldenberg from a total of five responses.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia land sites for sale or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia land sites for sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

PRDC Properties anticipates breaking ground this spring on 650 Fairmount, a $100 million mixed-use project that will continue to reshape a part of Philadelphia that has seen an onslaught of development activity over the last decade.

When completed, the project will usher in a dramatic change to a nearly 5-acre parcel and create a new community in a part of the city that straddles both the Northern Liberties and West Poplar neighborhoods.

PRDC is undertaking a similarly transformative mixed-use development in Bridgeport, a small community on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery County. That proposed $150 million project, with a mix of apartments, townhouses and retail, is as ambitious as 650 Fairmount and is just getting underway.

Perlman has been working on 650 Fairmount for the last three years, securing zoning approvals and making other arrangements to prepare it for development. PRDC came to 650 Fairmount around the same time the Philadelphia real estate company began the development of a 43-unit townhouse project nearby at 600 N. 5th St.

PRDC bought 650 Fairmount in 2017 for $16 million.

The project will rise on the site of the Fairmount Manor, a complex of 100 garden-style affordable apartments.

The design of 650 Fairmount aims to reconnect it to the surrounding community. As part of that, Marshall Street will be reopened from Green Street to Fairmount Avenue and road improvements will be made. A fence surrounding a portion of the current apartment complex will be removed.

The project will have 297 apartments, 107 townhouses, duplexes and triplexes, 221 parking spaces and 21,000 square feet of retail space.

The townhouses will be built in phases over four years and listed between $300,000 to $1.5 million. There will be 60 affordable rental units and 10 for-sale townhouses that will receive a builder subsidy.

“We designed it eight times before we got it right,” Perlman said. “It’s a mix of product that covers everything. When you can do that, your audience becomes much larger.”

The commercial space will be geared to the residents and neighborhood. So far, a dog day care and children’s day care have signed on as tenants. Restaurants and other service tenants are expected to be part of the mix.

The development isn’t the only one in the works in that part of Philadelphia, which has been a hotbed of development activity. Rodin Development has plans for a 13-story building with 382 apartments and underground parking with 206 spaces at 5th and Spring Garden streets. Alliance HSP built a 50-unit apartment building at Sono on the other side of 5th and Spring Garden.

Even with some competing projects, Perlman is certain 625 Fairmount will be a success. Inventory has been tight in Philadelphia and demand for larger spaces on the rise. Though on a much smaller scale, Perlman points to PRDC quickly selling out its townhome project on North 5th Street. “We do believe the market can support it,” he said.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia land sites for sale or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia land sites for sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Pennrose Properties has dramatically revamped its plans for a highly visible site at 8th and Vine streets in Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood after plans for the development of an Equal Justice Center fell through.

The Philadelphia real estate company is now exploring developing an affordable senior housing project on a portion of what is now a surface parking lot.

“Pennrose notified us that they are no longer moving forward with their project and so PRA canceled all of their rights and reservations to the site,” said Jamila Davis, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, or PRA. “Pennrose has been working with the community on a proposal to build a standalone affordable senior housing building on part of the site, utilizing their recent tax credit award.”

The redevelopment authority board would need to approve a new redevelopment agreement for the smaller project on just a portion of the parcel, Davis said. “For the remainder of the site, PRA is not planning to put out another RFP at this time because the community stakeholders requested that we work with them on a community-driven planning process,” she said.

Pennrose didn’t respond to requests for comment. The company did receive $1 million out of a $1.5 million request from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program for the development of the Equal Justice Center.

Those funds will go to the financial support of an Equal Justice Center but not in the new development of a building, said Jessica Hilburn-Holmes, executive director of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s philanthropic arm.

With those additional funds, a total of $5.5 million has been raised in RACP funds since 2015 for the endeavor, she said. So long as the foundation keeps the state updated on its plans, it can seek and receive extensions on the use of those funds, Hilburn-Holmes said.

“There’s a lot of activity at the Equal Justice Center that isn’t construction related,” Hilburn-Holmes said. “We pivoted from a physical manifestation of this goal to more virtual.”

In September, 14 civil legal aid agencies and social-service nonprofits, which were going to anchor the Equal Justice Center at 8th and Vine streets, decided to pull out of the project, citing the effect of the pandemic. The project was initially planned in 2017 as a $40 million, 160,000-square-foot mixed-use development.

In addition to the Equal Justice Center, the development called for 55 affordable housing units for senior citizens, another building containing market rate rentals, a small hotel, retail space and 181-space parking area.

The selection of Pennrose and the Equal Justice Center was controversial and pit two competing development teams and projects against each other.

The redevelopment authority request for proposals for the site in 2016. A team consisting of the Philadelphia Bar Association along with Pennrose and EZ Park put forward its proposal. Another venture involving Parkway Corp., Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. and Presbys Inspired Life, had proposed a mixed-use development consisting of 60 affordable senior housing units, 120 family housing units and 29,000 square feet of streetfront retail space reserved for small businesses, including a supermarket.

The redevelopment authority ultimately selected in 2017 the Pennrose team.

The bar foundation is pursuing several different fronts in keeping with its mission and pursuit of an Equal Justice Center. For example, it is going to do a data assessment of legal aid providers to find ways to improve the efficiency and collaboration. It wants to begin to enlist “Community Justice Navigators,” which other cities have to help guide someone through an issue before it reaches court. The organization would also like to establish a legal incubator that takes newly minted lawyers who have passed the bar and train them in the business of law to help small and micro businesses.

The foundation is also focused on establishing mobile units akin to a blood or book mobile that visit neighborhoods and provide services to residents. “The impetus for the project is to improve access to justice for Philadelphians,” she said. “There is a call for better access.”

That said, there are ongoing discussions about finding a location to house legal services, Hilburn-Holmes said. With the office market in flux, more options in existing buildings may come available that might work for the center.

“It’s still our goal in the end to have a physical location,” she said.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia land sites for sale or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia land sites for sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.