Electric Factory building up for sale

by Natalie Kostelni Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
The building that houses the famed Electric Factory, a popular concert venue that has been around for more than four decades, is up for sale and could possibly trade for around $17 million, according to estimates.

The property sits in the Callowhill neighborhood of Philadelphia, which has increasingly been grabbing interest from investors and developers who have been buying buildings for conversions or moving forward with new construction. The area has also been referred to as Spring Arts and includes the Chinatown North section of the city. Regardless of the name, the renewed interest in the area is bring driven by several factors including the core of Center City stretching its boundaries and pushing northward, the availability of older industrial buildings ripe for redevelopment as well as the phased transformation of the Reading Viaduct into an elevated park.

Some of the projects underway include:

The conversion of 990 Spring Garden St. into creative work space;
The redevelopment of a five-story, 72,000-square-foot building at 915 Spring Garden St. into creative office space;
A proposed conversion of 900-934 Callowhill St. into apartments;
The construction of Eastern Tower, a signature mixed-use complex at 1001 Vine St.; and
The Philadelphia Bar Association is proposing a more than $40 million project at 8th and Vine streets.
Complementing these and other projects in the area is a continued march of development activity along the North Broad Street corridor. Interest in the area is expected to continue and reshape what had been one of the city's manufacturing centers.

“The Callowhill neighborhood will continue to attract new residents and businesses with its funky blend of industrial/commercial/residential living and working opportunities,” said a 2013 Philadelphia Planning Commission analysis of the area. “Former industrial buildings and historic structures will be rehabilitated and new development will be integrated with the existing scale and historic industrial character of the neighborhood."

While there is a dearth of green spaces in that neighborhood as a result of its industrial past, the Reading Viaduct elevated park is expected to fill a void of recreational space as well as encourage new development and attract additional 1,775 households and 340 jobs to the Callowhill neighborhood, the planning commission predicted.
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