Backers of a plan to transform unused rail lines north of
Center City into an elevated park say it will draw private investment to
blighted areas.
That may already be happening at 990 Spring Garden, which
sits near a stretch of the planned Viaduct Rail Park that runs through a
rundown industrial district along Callowhill Street east of Broad.
Owners of the 88-year-old building, now mostly home to
city offices, are turning it into loft-style suites to attract creatively minded
companies and technology firms.
The revamp is part of a multi-property plan by Arts and
Crafts Holdings, whose principals include an engineer of eastern Center City's
revival.
Its first taker at 990 Spring Garden is Azavea, a
mapping-software developer that will move into a full floor of the building
early next year, says PernaFrederick Commercial Real Estate, which helped
broker the lease.
"I'm excited about the rail park," said Azavea
founder Robert Cheetham.
Arts and Crafts' plans are just one example of the real
estate activity along the proposed three-mile linear park, which takes New
York's High Line as an inspiration. It's happening even before the park's
backers, the Center City District and the Friends of the Rail Park group, have
finished raising money for its first phase.
There's good reason for the optimism: The High Line drew
about $2 billion in private investment by 2011, just six years after getting
its zoning approvals, then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the time.
"Everybody is now aware of what the High Line in New
York City represented in terms of stimulating investment," said Center
City District president and CEO Paul Levy.
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The Viaduct Rail Park's backers have raised about 60
percent of the $9.6 million needed for the project's first quarter-mile phase,
which would lay gravel and boarded paths on a section from near Broad and Noble
Streets to a junction just past 12th and Callowhill Streets.
Much of the remaining budget for that expanse, owned by
SEPTA, is expected to come from the state, Levy said.
It's likely areas traversed by the proposed park would be
targets for investment on their own. Some of the rails run just north of Center
City's revitalized core and west of increasingly affluent Northern Liberties.
Another section runs below grade near long-gentrified sections of the city's
Fairmount section.
Still, much of the development activity is concentrated
along the proposed park. At 21st and Hamilton Streets near the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Washington-based Dalian Development is investing about $130
million in a 10-story apartment complex across from a below-grade portion of
the former railway.
"If this can become High Line-esque, it's nothing
but upside," said Brady Nolan, Dalian's vice president for development.
Along the planned first phase of the park, meanwhile, the
owners of about 1.4 acres of parking lots between 12th and 13th Streets sought
a rezoning in September that could allow taller buildings there, said Sarah
McEneaney, president of the Callowhill Neighborhood Association.
But the most pronounced activity is along the proposed
park's eastern end by Arts and Crafts Holdings. The company is partly headed by
Craig Grossman, who helped lead the redevelopment of Center City's Midtown
Village along South 13th Street as the former Philadelphia chief for the late
New York developer Tony Goldman.
Grossman's involvement in Arts and Crafts was confirmed
by Azavea's Cheetham and others. He did not respond to an email seeking
comment.
He and partner Aaron Cohen, a Brandywine Realty Trust
alumnus, bought at least two other properties in addition to the seven-story
990 Spring Garden building, according to Arts and Crafts' website.
Those include a seven-story industrial building at 448 N.
10th St. built in the early 1900s for Haverford Cycle Co. and a six-story
manufacturing-turned-residential building at 1027 Ridge Ave.
The properties are near a three-quarter-mile section of
the planned rail park owned by Reading Co., with which the project's backers
have not yet begun negotiating.
Cohen said offices are planned at the old Haverford Cycle
building, but he declined to discuss the company's activities beyond 990 Spring
Garden.
He played down the importance of the rail park to his
company's plans.
"There are a lot of exciting things happening, but
most importantly, we think the building is an incredibly good fit for the
thriving creative class," he said.
Arts and Crafts' website is less ambiguous. "As the
proposed Rail Park expands, it will pass right behind this building," it
says in its description of the Haverford Cycle property.
Source: Philly.com
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