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| Plans call for two apartment towers and a supermarket on a vacant lot near the defunct Divine Lorraine Hotel on 13th Street. (Cope Linder Architects via PlanPhilly) |
Clues have been popping up for months that something big
may be coming to the large, long-vacant, fenced-off lot at 13th and Fairmount,
behind the old Divine Lorraine Hotel. This week, the lights should come on when
developers with RAL Companies of New York present their proposals to the
Planning Commission, and two City Council committees consider bills that would
grant the project various exemptions related to loading and curb cuts.
In an interview with PlanPhilly last week, Robert Levine
and his son, Spencer, of RAL, said they’ve been talking about the project with
city officials and a number of community groups for more than a year. Those
discussions have led, so far, to plans for two apartment towers and a
supermarket on Ridge Avenue. Preliminary site plans — the Levines stressed that
the proposal is in flux — also show a small group of townhomes at the corner of
13th and Wallace streets, to be built in a future phase of construction.
At this point, the plans include approximately 480
apartments with 580 parking spaces shared between the residents and the
supermarket customers. The project would reach a maximum height of 221 feet on
the western tower and contain 83,000 square feet of retail space. The
apartments would be placed above the parking structure on the fifth floor, and
the developers plan to claim a floor-area bonus for open space on the site. The
complex will have 168 bicycle parking spaces.
The Levines said they’re talking with a number of
potential tenants for the supermarket space but declined to identify potential
operators. They said they expect specifics to evolve as they go through the
Planning Commission and Civic Design Review process.
Robert Levine said that the company started as an
architectural firm in the early 1980s, began doing its own development in the
1990s, and, since 2008, has taken over and completed a number of projects that
fell apart because of recession-related financing issues. The group’s work has
been focused mainly in New York—they compared the Fairmount Ave. proposal to a
residential conversion they did at One Brooklyn Bridge Park — but they’ve also
built projects in Colorado, Florida, Puerto Rico, and France.
The 1300 Fairmount project is a sort of takeover too, in
slow motion. The last time developers had plans for the site was back in 2006,
when developer Michael Treacy proposed an overhaul of the Divine Lorraine Hotel
that included the vacant land just east of it. When Treacy went into debt, the
property was acquired by Amalgamated Bank of New York, a union-run bank that
RAL has partnered with in the past. The bank sold the Divine Lorraine to Eric
Blumenfeld and sought out RAL to develop the rest of the land.
The Levines also said that Alan Greenberger, the deputy
mayor for economic development, made it clear that the Divine Lorraine must be
respected. They say they’ve set their building back from that corner and
organized the site so that the vacant hotel maintains its grandeur.
“From an architectural standpoint, we understand and
recognize the importance of the Divine Lorraine to Philadelphia,” Spencer
Levine said.
They also said that their priorities at 1300 Fairmount
have been responding to needs in the surrounding area, particularly for fresh
food, and trying to balance the residential character of the neighborhood with
the now-dimmed commercial vibrancy of Ridge Avenue's past. The entrance to the
residential towers will face Fairmount Ave., and the commercial properties will
face Ridge.
“It’s noteworthy that we’re really focusing our
residential toward the residential fabric …” said Spencer Levine. “We want to
make sure that this becomes part of the neighborhood …”
Last week, the state granted Eric Blumenfeld a $3.5
million grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP). For the
1300 Fairmount project, RAL is shooting a bit higher: RAL has applied for a
RACP grant worth $15 million. Robert Levine said they’d also consider seeking
federal New Market Tax Credits.
The site, Levine said, is a “hole in the doughnut.” It’s
been empty for years, and needs significant public support in order to be
developed.
“This is an expensive project to build in an area that
has certain limitations,” Levine said. “... Yes, we will pursue what is
reasonable and appropriate, but it is a necessity here.”
The scale of the proposed development is largely
consistent with the CMX-4 zoning of the site. In addition to tax incentives and
grants, RAL is seeking a small change to the zoning code that allows a larger
curb cut for the supermarket. Council is also considering a bill that would
strike part of Melon Street from Park Avenue to Ridge and give it to the
developers. The developers will need a special exception from the zoning board
for above-ground parking.
The Levines said they’ve been impressed with city
officials’ help navigating the project. And those conversations have led to
more potential work here: the Nutter administration also convinced RAL to
respond to a Request for Proposals for the development of the Festival Pier, on
the Central Delaware waterfront.
Source: Philly.com
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