Finally, $110M development at 38th and Chestnut to get underway

Radnor Property Group and the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral is scheduled to officially break ground this Thursday on a long-awaited $110 million project at 38th and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia.

It will be called 38Chestnut.

Plans call for the construction of a 25-story, 287,000-square-foot residential tower that will have 276 market-rate apartments that will cater to graduate students and professionals. It sits a block away from the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.

The development will also include 30,000 square feet of commercial space in which half would be occupied as new offices for the cathedral and diocese. The other half would be a childcare center. A community center and improving the cathedral is also part of the plans. The Cathedral was designed in 1855 by Samuel Sloan and rebuilt in 1902 after a fire destroyed it.

In all, the mixed-use development will encompass roughly 300,000 square feet.

It is scheduled to be completed by summer 2015.

This milestone comes after litigation with the Preservation Alliance and the developer was settled in March. The lawsuit stopped the developer from moving forward with the project. However, the Preservation Alliance withdrew an appeal in the matter that cleared the way for Radnor Property of Wayne, Pa., to go ahead with it. The Preservation Alliance reached an agreement with the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral and Radnor Property that guarantees the long-term care and preservation of the historic cathedral building.

The project has long been in the planning stages.

Two years ago, the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral issued a request for proposals for ideas on developing its site in West Philadelphia and eventually selected Radnor Property. In June 2012, the developer received approval from the Philadelphia Historical Commission to raze two structures on the church’s property to make way for the new apartment tower and ancillary uses. The buildings, a parish house and rectory, were on the National Register of Historic Places and the Preservation Alliance of Philadelphia appealed the Historical Commission’s decision to grant permission to demolish the two structures, prompting the litigation.

The Episcopal Cathedral Center owns the land being developed. The project is owned by a limited partnership going under the name: 3737 Chestnut. Radnor Property is a general partner and the developer. Assurant Inc. of New York is co-general partner and providing financing for the development. First Niagara Bank and RBS Citizens is lining up the construction loans.

BLTa designed the project.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal