Brandywine Realty Trust is putting open space on a
pedestal in University City. Literally.
The developer unveils Monday its Cira Green plaza, a
1.25-acre, publicly accessible expanse of grass and paved walkways atop a
95-foot-high parking structure just west of the Schuylkill.
Its opening marks the latest chapter in Brandywine's bid
to remake a huge swath of central Philadelphia around 30th Street Station - an
area bordering the campus of Drexel University up to the riverbanks opposite
the Philadelphia Museum of Art - as the once-suburban company solidifies its
urban presence.
The redevelopment "could be one of the largest-scale
real estate undertakings in the United States," Brandywine chief executive
Jerry Sweeney said. "If you imagine what the city could look like in 10
years, it's completely different from what it looks like today."
The plaza-topped parking structure sits within a site
Brandywine calls Cira South, between Evo, its 33-story student-focused
apartment tower, and the 49-story FMC Tower it is constructing as headquarters
for the chemicals giant.
The $13 million Cira Green, which offers panoramic views
of the Center City skyline, will be open to all via elevator, and Evo residents
will have direct access from the eighth floor of their building. Workers in
some of the FMC Tower's upper-story offices and occupants of the building's
high-end dwellings above will be able to peer down at the plaza.
Matt Bergheiser, executive director of the University
City District business association, likened the approach to his group's
streetscape-improvement efforts, including the Porch at 30th Street, a dining
area beside the train station.
"It's taking an asset that maybe people hadn't
thought of and thinking about it differently," Bergheiser said. "It's
creating a unique space."
The plaza's debut comes about 10 years after Brandywine
completed Cira Centre, its first 30th Street Station-area building. When the
developer began work on the Cesar Pelli-designed structure on property secured
from Amtrak in 2001, its holdings were limited to suburbs ringing Philadelphia,
such as its headquarters' Radnor environs.
Since then, Brandywine has snapped up seven trophy
high-rises in the city, making it the city's biggest office landlord.
Its ongoing work around 30th Street Station, meanwhile,
has benefited from the area's designation as a Keystone Opportunity Zone, which
gives companies with offices there breaks on some city and state taxes in
return for creating jobs or making large investments. Brandywine's projects
include redevelopment of a former post office distribution plant into
government offices and construction of the Evo and FMC projects where a postal
annex building once stood.
The Cira Green site, on a floodplain and over train
tracks, could not have accommodated underground parking for the new residents
and office workers. Instead, Brandywine built the 1,600-parking-space structure
and capped it with the green roof.
But Cira Green doesn't cap Brandywine's ambitions for the
area. The company also is a partner in a $5.25 million planning study into the
future of 175 acres between Walnut and Spring Garden Streets that could involve
a massive new development over the expansive rail yards east of Drexel's
campus.
The "30th Street Station District Plan"
participants - which include Amtrak and Drexel, among others - are set to
unveil in December their latest outline for what would be a dense new
neighborhood of homes and offices over the yards, said Natalie Shieh, the
plan's project director.
"It's a great benefit to have Brandywine as a
partner," Shieh said. "Their vision, paired with their experience of
actually getting projects off the ground, is just of tremendous value to our
planning study."
Brandywine also submitted a proposal to lead development
of Drexel's "Innovation Neighborhood," the university's plan to
develop 12 acres it owns, mostly between 30th and 32d Streets and from Market
Street to the rail yards, Sweeney said.
That land sits next to 25,000 square feet owned by
Brandywine behind 30th Street Station, where a Cira II had once been planned.
If Brandywine is awarded the contract, that parcel could
be incorporated into its overall scheme for the project, which would include
offices, labs, university buildings, dormitories, and shops, Sweeney said.
Drexel spokeswoman Niki Gianakaris said the university
would not comment on the project during its developer-selection process. She
could not give a completion date for it.
Said Sweeney: "Whether it's Brandywine or someone
else, the Innovation Neighborhood will be successful. It has all the
ingredients for that. And it's only going to make everything we've already
invested in better."
Source: Philly.com
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