The fast-paced growth of Philadelphia's lower Spring Garden
neighborhood quickened Wednesday, with the official groundbreaking of a
massive, $160 million luxury apartment complex.
The project promises to further transform an area that 20
years ago was a dead zone, and that 20 years from now may be unrecognizable.
"It's overused in real estate," said Brady Nolan,
one of the developers, "but every great project must have three things:
location, location, and Whole Foods."
A big Whole Foods - twice the size of the current market
nearby - will anchor the building, just off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Also
included are a CVS drugstore and a branch of Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital.
The 14-story Rodin Square will sit northwest of the Rodin
Museum, close to the Barnes and green ball fields, an easy walk to a Callowhill
Street that in recent years has developed a restaurant row - Sabrina's Cafe, the
King of Tandoor Indian Restaurant, Doma, the Kite & Key, and the Rose
Tattoo.
The Free Library and Philadelphia Art Museum are steps away.
"I love the neighborhood," said Bob Wexler, a city
employee who has lived in the area since 1986, when it was largely undeveloped,
unknown, and ignored. "I love it because you can walk to Center City - and
all the rest nearby."
Edward Wallace, a retired electrician who moved to the
Parkway House in October, said he eats breakfast at Sabrina's in the morning
and watches the sun set over the Art Museum at night.
It can seem as if the neighborhood is under constant
construction, he said, though as a former tradesman he is not bothered by the
noise. "It's like a ballet out there with all the machines," he said.
Wallace and others said the growth has made parking hard to
find. And for years people have worried that rising property values could push
out older, less wealthy residents.
That hasn't slowed development.
The Granary, an apartment-and-retail complex that hosts
Pizzeria Vetri and Gyu-Katu Japanese BBQ, opened a year ago. The Center City
District recently celebrated the renovation of Sister Cities Park, set at Logan
Square in front of the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul.
A majestic Mormon temple, the first in Pennsylvania, is
rising at 18th and Vine Streets, and across the street plans are underway to
develop the Family Court building into a luxury hotel.
On Wednesday, two firms, Dalian Development and
International Financial Co., officially began work on Rodin Square, to include
293 luxury apartments, underground parking for a 55,000-square-foot Whole
Foods, and a parking garage for residents.
Other amenities will include a dog-washing room.
It will cover almost three acres on the site of the old Best
Western Hotel. That building was being torn down on Wednesday even as the
groundbreaking took place.
"If you went to heaven and asked God for the best site,
here it is," said Neal Rodin, chairman of International Financial Co., the
project's retail owner. "The apartments will feed off the retail, and the
retail will feed off the apartments."
On every street in the neighborhood, it seems, young mothers
push babies in strollers and people walk dogs. Students hang at nearby
Philadelphia Community College. Developer Bart Blatstein hopes to build a
Callowhill casino and retail complex, with the old Inquirer building on Broad
Street becoming a hotel.
It's a metamorphosis for what once was an industrial area,
home to trucking companies, tool corporations and storage businesses. Blocks
and blocks were covered by Baldwin Locomotive Works, the nation's top
train-maker.
Today, at 19th and Hamilton, stands Matthias Baldwin Park, a
green space composed of interlocking levels of plants, trees, and jutting stone
plinths.
The Barnes has risen on the site of what was the hulking,
notorious Youth Study Center.
"Look around," said Nolan, vice president of
Dalian Development, the project's residence owner. "It's a no-brainer,
from our point of view."
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is leasing 12,000
square feet to put doctors in the same place as apartment dwellers, an effort
to bring Jefferson to city neighborhoods.
"I'm an obstetrician, so I'm usually there at the
delivery, not the creation," said Stephen Klasko, the hospital system's
president, evoking laughter from 60 people at the groundbreaking. "Between
CVS, Whole Foods and Jefferson, there's going to be some darned healthy people
here."
Construction is expected to take two years.
"It's great for the neighborhood. It's great for the
parkway," Rodin said. "It's just going to pull the whole neighborhood
together."
Source: Philly.com
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