by Alan J. Heavens, Inquirer Real Estate Writer
Armed with evidence of increasing demand for new and larger high-rise condominiums in Center City, Carl Dranoff has shifted gears on plans for his One Riverside development at 25th and Locust Streets.
Instead of 147 luxury rental apartments, the 22-story, $100 million-plus building will have 88 condos, including two penthouses, that he said will be priced at $700,000 to $4 million.
Groundbreaking for One Riverside is scheduled early next year, "depending on permit issuance, which is hard to predict," said Marianne Harris, Dranoff Properties' sales and marketing director.
If that schedule holds, the first buyers will move in by late summer 2016, she said.
One Riverside will be the first from-the-ground-up high-rise condo building started since the financial crisis derailed the 2004-08 construction boom, which produced nearly 2,500 new units, according to Dranoff's calculations.
Tom Scannapieco, developer of 1701 Rittenhouse Square Street, is set to break ground in the spring on a $150 million, 26-story, 40-unit condo tower at Fifth and Walnut Streets scheduled to open in 2017. Pre-sales of that building are in the multimillions of dollars, he said.
Scannapieco was able to sell out 1701 Rittenhouse, albeit more slowly than he anticipated. But many other high-rises, including 10 Rittenhouse - which Dranoff was brought in by lender iStar Financial to finish and sell - navigated troubled waters until the economy began to improve.
In recent years, developers, including Dranoff, had shifted to building high- and mid-rise luxury apartment buildings to take advantage of demographic changes in the real estate market. Apartment development continues in Center City, spurred by demand and continued reluctance by lenders to finance major for-sale projects.
Dranoff announced the change Wednesday at an invitation-only dinner for real estate agents at Sbraga in Symphony House at Broad and Pine Streets, the developer's first ground-up luxury condo high-rise.
Yet Dranoff said his experience at 10 Rittenhouse, where condo prices topped an unprecedented $1,000-plus per square foot as the market was just starting to recover, convinced him that taking One Riverside condo would meet a demand.
"There is a scarcity of this kind of product on the market," he said. "At 10 Rittenhouse, we continue disappointing buyers looking for new and larger condominiums."
Economist Kevin Gillen said market indicators suggest that "now looks like a great time for multifamily development to shift from rentals to owner-occupied condos."
Rents had experienced exceptional growth since the housing downturn and subsequent recession, Gillen said, as house and condo prices fell.
"Now that housing is recovering and rents have peaked out, the cost of owning is practically equivalent to renting, and also offers the additional benefits of home equity and asset appreciation," he said.
Many households have shifted from owning to renting, or have just continued to rent, since third-quarter 2007, when the housing bubble burst in the eight-county Philadelphia region, and "current fundamentals indicate that the pendulum has begun to swing the other way," Gillen said.
Demand for larger condos, a trend that started in Manhattan, spurred Dranoff to limit One Riverside to seven one-bedroom units, which he described as either starter homes or "nanny suites" for providers of child care to families in larger units.
The larger units (two-, three-, and four-bedroom) have more square footage to accommodate families with children or visiting grandchildren, he said.
The trend was already noteworthy in the Philadelphia market, though. For example, Weichert Realtors agent Susan Yannessa said today's buyers at Beaver Hill condominiums in Jenkintown included families with two or three children that prefer the units to single-family homes.
The 16 four-bedroom, 41/2-bath units planned for One Riverside range from 1,964 to 2,497 square feet - about the size of typical detached house in both city and suburbs. Dranoff says he expects that his buyers will be a mix of city dwellers and suburbanites.
One Riverside also will have 110 underground parking spaces and a private park to complement adjacent Schuylkill River Park.
"I've learned that people, especially those from the suburbs, want open space," said Dranoff, adding that all units would have terraces and balconies.
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/ldzdbvv
www.omegare.com
Thursday, September 4, 2014
CBRE Global Investors Fund Acquires Retail Asset in Pennsylvania Area
by Steve Lubetkin, GlobeSt.com
A fund advised by CBRE Global Investors has acquired a single-tenant grocery asset in King of Prussia, near Philadelphia.
Located at 1 Village Drive in King of Prussia, Penn., the trophy-quality grocery property has a 25-year ground lease with Wegmans for a 147,456 sq. ft. store. Constructed in 2012, the store is a prototypical design for the dominant grocer, which has 83 stores across the Northeast and is one of the largest private companies in the United States.
King of Prussia is a premier suburban retail submarket in the Philadelphia MSA and one of the most trafficked retail destinations in the Northeast. Immediately adjacent to the property is a high-volume fortress mall. Located at the confluence of I-76 (PA Turnpike), Route 202 and Route 422, Wegmans has excellent accessibility to the affluent suburban townships in the Philadelphia MSA.
The Wegmans parcel is the initial phase of The Village at Valley Forge, a 101.55-acre mixed-use development that will include lifestyle retail, apartments, and office/medical office properties as well as a children’s hospital. Once the high-profile development is complete, Wegmans will be the anchor.
This is the fund’s second retail acquisition in the Northeast, having acquired Porter Square Galleria, an urban retail center in an irreplaceable location on a subway line in Cambridge, Mass., earlier this year.
www.omegare.com
A fund advised by CBRE Global Investors has acquired a single-tenant grocery asset in King of Prussia, near Philadelphia.
Located at 1 Village Drive in King of Prussia, Penn., the trophy-quality grocery property has a 25-year ground lease with Wegmans for a 147,456 sq. ft. store. Constructed in 2012, the store is a prototypical design for the dominant grocer, which has 83 stores across the Northeast and is one of the largest private companies in the United States.
King of Prussia is a premier suburban retail submarket in the Philadelphia MSA and one of the most trafficked retail destinations in the Northeast. Immediately adjacent to the property is a high-volume fortress mall. Located at the confluence of I-76 (PA Turnpike), Route 202 and Route 422, Wegmans has excellent accessibility to the affluent suburban townships in the Philadelphia MSA.
The Wegmans parcel is the initial phase of The Village at Valley Forge, a 101.55-acre mixed-use development that will include lifestyle retail, apartments, and office/medical office properties as well as a children’s hospital. Once the high-profile development is complete, Wegmans will be the anchor.
This is the fund’s second retail acquisition in the Northeast, having acquired Porter Square Galleria, an urban retail center in an irreplaceable location on a subway line in Cambridge, Mass., earlier this year.
www.omegare.com
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Hillside Manor Apts Sold for $10.2M
PT Real Estate Capital has sold the Hillside Manor Apartments at 1120 Ward St. in Chester, PA to LP Developers for $10.15 million, or about $47,000 per unit.
The 216-unit multifamily community is comprised of 54 quad-style buildings constructed in 1955 on eight acres in the Lower Delaware County submarket of Philadelphia. The two-bedroom apartments bring in average rents of $750 per month, and feature walk-in closets and renovated kitchens, as well as private yards and driveways for each unit.
The seller, specializing in distressed assets, acquired the property in May 2012 for $3.4 million in an REO sale. At the time the property was just 40 percent occupied.
www.omegare.com
The 216-unit multifamily community is comprised of 54 quad-style buildings constructed in 1955 on eight acres in the Lower Delaware County submarket of Philadelphia. The two-bedroom apartments bring in average rents of $750 per month, and feature walk-in closets and renovated kitchens, as well as private yards and driveways for each unit.
The seller, specializing in distressed assets, acquired the property in May 2012 for $3.4 million in an REO sale. At the time the property was just 40 percent occupied.
www.omegare.com
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Post Brothers Polishes Shoe Factory into LEED Silver MF Property
Post Brothers Apartments has completed a $42 million renovation and rehabilitation of the 106-year old Goldtex shoe factory, covering the original structure at 12th and Vine Streets in an energy-efficient envelope that gives it a modern, sleek appearance. The rebuild also positions the property for pending certification as the city’s first LEED Silver multifamily property with more than 100 units.
“We put an entirely new envelope on the building that made it look modern, but more importantly made it extremely energy efficient,” Michael Pestronk, Post Brothers founder and CEO tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. “We achieved rents there that are equivalent of those on Rittenhouse Square, by having a product that is much better than anything anyone else has to offer.” Rents average $2,500 a month, and apartments are about 800 square feet.
GoldTex Apartments, 12th and Vine Streets, Philadelphia, PA
The Goldtex factory opened in 1908, the same year Henry Ford produced his first Model T and the Chicago Cubs won their last World Series. Philadelphia City Hall – only a half-mile from the factory – was still the tallest building in the world.
One of the most-watched adaptive reuse projects in the city’s recent history, the Goldtex apartments are completely leased. The building, in an area known as the “Loft District,” features 163 class A units with gym, pool and community patio on the roof.
In some places, designers intentionally left exposed graffiti that had been spray painted during the building’s years of disuse, giving the building an urban edge. Hallway signage was designed by Steve Powers, a noted local muralist.
Rooftop amenities at the Goldtex in Philadelphia include gym, pool and community patio.
The units feature 14-foot ceilings, solid quartz counters, induction cooktops, thermostatic showers and sustainably sourced hardwood floors. The entire building and all its ultra-efficient electricity systems are 100 percent powered by renewable energy.
The property has breathtaking views of the Philadelphia skyline from its roof, and the building now stands out among surrounding high-rises in its own right. The new exterior envelope contains four types of glass and solid aluminum, coloring the structure in blues and greens. The façade design obscures the loft column grid visible on similarly rehabilitated buildings. All these elements reflect light differently, creating a scintillating visual effect and an unmistakable appearance.
www.omegare.com
“We put an entirely new envelope on the building that made it look modern, but more importantly made it extremely energy efficient,” Michael Pestronk, Post Brothers founder and CEO tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. “We achieved rents there that are equivalent of those on Rittenhouse Square, by having a product that is much better than anything anyone else has to offer.” Rents average $2,500 a month, and apartments are about 800 square feet.
GoldTex Apartments, 12th and Vine Streets, Philadelphia, PA
The Goldtex factory opened in 1908, the same year Henry Ford produced his first Model T and the Chicago Cubs won their last World Series. Philadelphia City Hall – only a half-mile from the factory – was still the tallest building in the world.
One of the most-watched adaptive reuse projects in the city’s recent history, the Goldtex apartments are completely leased. The building, in an area known as the “Loft District,” features 163 class A units with gym, pool and community patio on the roof.
In some places, designers intentionally left exposed graffiti that had been spray painted during the building’s years of disuse, giving the building an urban edge. Hallway signage was designed by Steve Powers, a noted local muralist.
Rooftop amenities at the Goldtex in Philadelphia include gym, pool and community patio.
The units feature 14-foot ceilings, solid quartz counters, induction cooktops, thermostatic showers and sustainably sourced hardwood floors. The entire building and all its ultra-efficient electricity systems are 100 percent powered by renewable energy.
The property has breathtaking views of the Philadelphia skyline from its roof, and the building now stands out among surrounding high-rises in its own right. The new exterior envelope contains four types of glass and solid aluminum, coloring the structure in blues and greens. The façade design obscures the loft column grid visible on similarly rehabilitated buildings. All these elements reflect light differently, creating a scintillating visual effect and an unmistakable appearance.
www.omegare.com
Monday, September 1, 2014
Philadelphia Retail Deliveries, Construction and Inventory
During the second quarter 2014, eight retail buildings totaling 66,506 square feet were completed in the Philadelphia market. Over the past four quarters, a total of 1,197,460 square feet of retail space has been built in Philadelphia.
There was 203,783 square feet of retail space under construction at the end of the second quarter 2014.
Some of the notable 2014 deliveries include: 332 S Broad St, a 45,000-square-foot facility that delivered in first quarter 2014 and is now 100% occupied, and 1900 N 9th St, a 30,000-square-foot building that delivered in first quarter 2014 and is now 93% occupied.
Total retail inventory in the Philadelphia market area amounted to 498,222,528 square feet in 40,822 buildings and 2,549 centers as of the end of the second quarter 2014.
This trend is compared to U.S. National Retail deliveries and construction, which saw 522 buildings totaling 10.83 million square feet complete construction, with an additional 50 million square feet of retail space still under construction at the end of the second quarter. A 152,000-square-foot Wal-Mart delivered in the second quarter in the Minneapolis market, and a 155,361-square-foot building delivered in the San Antonio market back in the first quarter. Total retail inventory in the U.S. market totaled more than 1.38 million buildings at the end of the second quarter 2014.
www.omegare.com
There was 203,783 square feet of retail space under construction at the end of the second quarter 2014.
Some of the notable 2014 deliveries include: 332 S Broad St, a 45,000-square-foot facility that delivered in first quarter 2014 and is now 100% occupied, and 1900 N 9th St, a 30,000-square-foot building that delivered in first quarter 2014 and is now 93% occupied.
Total retail inventory in the Philadelphia market area amounted to 498,222,528 square feet in 40,822 buildings and 2,549 centers as of the end of the second quarter 2014.
This trend is compared to U.S. National Retail deliveries and construction, which saw 522 buildings totaling 10.83 million square feet complete construction, with an additional 50 million square feet of retail space still under construction at the end of the second quarter. A 152,000-square-foot Wal-Mart delivered in the second quarter in the Minneapolis market, and a 155,361-square-foot building delivered in the San Antonio market back in the first quarter. Total retail inventory in the U.S. market totaled more than 1.38 million buildings at the end of the second quarter 2014.
www.omegare.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
