Friday, June 19, 2015

10 years of lessons as Dranoff's Center City condo project breaks ground



It was 10 years ago when Carl Dranoff made a daring move to construct a condominium tower on South Broad Street.


Not only was South Broad uncharted territory for a high-end residential building - some units at Dranoff’s Symphony House were going for more than $1 million at the time - but so was the Center City condominium market. It was early in Philadelphia’s condo development boom and selling condos that catered to the luxury buyer was seen as a gamble.

Symphony House, a $125 million, 32-story condo development, ended up being a success and Dranoff is ready to strike again with One Riverside.
One Riverside broke ground yesterday. Notice the projects in the background across the Schuylkill River in University City that are also under development, such as FMC Tower and Evo.

Dranoff and his Dranoff Properties Inc., banking on a resurgence of Center City’s condo market — at least at the high end, held an official ground breaking on Wednesday of One Riverside, an $85 million, 22-story condominium development at Locust Street and 25th Street in the Fitler Square neighborhood of Philadelphia.

At first Dranoff thought One Riverside should have been an apartment building only to change his mind and make it condos.

So far, it appears that Dranoff is hitting the market right.

Of One Riverside’s 82 residences, Dranoff has so far rung up $30 million in sales on about half of them. Many of the buyers are combining more than one unit to create large-scale residences. That’s not cheap considering the condos run from $700,000 to $4 million at the very high end.

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