Developer Bart Blatstein is taking another crack at
turning the former Philadelphia Newspapers building into a hotel, with a nearly
$40 million development proposal.
In an application that surfaced this week for $5 million
in state money toward the project, Blatstein's Tower Investments proposes
transforming the North Broad Street building - for decades the home of the
Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News - into a 125-room boutique
hotel with a restaurant and meeting space.
The hotel, projected to cost $36.4 million to develop,
would aim to draw visitors northward from the nearby Pennsylvania Convention
Center to a part of Center City that has lagged other more rapidly revitalizing
areas, according to Blatstein's application for a grant from the state
Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.
"This project could be the keystone to spur one of
the most important redevelopment opportunities for the city and state at the
present time," the developers wrote in the document obtained this week by
a reporter.
A project schedule included in the application sets the
completion of its design phase this month, with construction beginning August
2016.
This Center City stretch along North Broad street has
only seen a smattering of redevelopment, such as the ongoing conversion of the
Thaddeus Stevens School building into residential lofts and the planned
transformation of the derelict Divine Loraine Hotel into apartments.
Despite the Hahnemann University Hospital complex and the
convention center, the area suffers from a lack of around-the-clock street
activity, Center City District President Paul Levy said.
"Anything that adds people, life, restaurants, would
be extremely good for North Broad Street," he said.
The proposal would salvage some of the work Blatstein had
done toward developing his proposed Provence Entertainment Complex, a casino
with 3,300 slot machines and 150 table games he had intended for the 1925 Art
Deco former Inquirer tower.
That plan began unraveling in November, when the
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board instead awarded the city's remaining casino
license to a development team building a resort in the stadium district at the
southern end of the city.
When dropping an appeal to the gaming board's decision,
Blatstein hinted he may sell the North Broad Street property, saying he had
encountered "significant interest" from potential buyers.
A reporter's numerous phone messages left with Blatstein
seeking details of his latest plans for the property, which he bought in
October 2011 for $22.7 million, were not returned.
Blatstein's application for the state grant would have
been received before a February 2015 deadline, said Jeffrey Sheridan, a
spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf. The state's decision on the grant request is not
expected before July, he said.
Source: Philly.com
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