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For his first construction project in Fishtown, Roland
Kassis has hired architect Morris Adjmi to make a former brewery into a
boutique hotel with a new addition, shown in the rendering
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Every changing neighborhood in Philadelphia seems to have
one: a developer who dominates the scene.
In Northern Liberties, it's Bart Blatstein. In Newbold,
it's John Longacre. In Point Breeze, it's Ori Feibush. On South Broad Street,
it's Carl Dranoff. They amassed their real estate holdings when the
neighborhoods were cheap, then became the masters of their destinies when the
places emerged, Sleeping Beauty-like, from slumber.
Now, it's Fishtown's turn, and Roland Kassis is the
reigning developer. Over 25 years, Kassis estimates, his company, Domani
Developers, has collected a million square feet of property, mainly in old
manufacturing buildings along Frankford Avenue, the neighborhood's commercial
spine. That's almost as much space as the Comcast Tower holds.
Kassis, 44, who was born in Lebanon, raised in Liberia,
and speaks French, exhibits the same manic energy and insatiable appetite for
abandoned factories as the other neighborhood titans, but he has a sensibility
more in tune with Fishtown's arty, DIY, tattoo-and-vintage-loving culture. He
not only nurtured a yoga studio on Frankford Avenue, he practices there and
eschews meat. It's hard to imagine many other Philadelphia developers chanting
"Om."
Having already populated Frankford Avenue's eclectic
buildings with a beer garden, La Colombe super-cafe, vintage clothing stores,
an edgy hair salon, Web designers, and upscale BBQ and cheesesteak restaurants,
Kassis is attempting his first new construction project, a boutique hotel a
half-block north of Girard Avenue next to Frankford Hall. Its inspiration comes
from the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section. Kassis has even hired
the Wythe's New York architect, Morris Adjmi.
Williamsburg was already on its way to becoming the
capital of millennial-dom when the Wythe opened in 2012, but the hotel provided
it with a groovy clubhouse for art happenings and exhibits. Kassis said he
envisioned his hotel filling a similar niche and plans to include meeting
rooms, party space, and a jazz club, as well as a spa and rooftop pool. He has
already secured the blessing of the Fishtown Neighborhood Association, and will
seek a package of variances from the Zoning Board on April 1.
Only a few years ago, any hotel in an old working-class
neighborhood like Fishtown, never mind one of the high-end variety, would have
been unimaginable, despite the convenience of a Market-Frankford El stop and an
I-95 exit. But Fishtown is having its Williamsburg moment, and, as Kassis
persuasively argued, travelers are increasingly seeking out distinctive
lodgings in such undiscovered locations.
"When I travel, I always stay in boutique
hotels," he said.
His hotel is likely to accelerate the process of
smoothing out Fishtown's rough edges. Until now, Kassis' developments have
subscribed to an aesthetic that might be called "ruin preservation."
The Frankford Hall beer garden and the former warehouse now occupied by La
Colombe are typical of the light-dusting approach. Other than scraping away
some flaking brick, shoring up the intricate wooden roof trusses, and adding
reclaimed wood and casement windows, he left the rugged buildings pretty much
as-is.
With the hotel, Kassis plans to clean up another
spectacular relic, a former brewery with tall, vaulted ceilings. But he is
having Adjmi design a new, six-story structure on the empty lot next door.
Adjmi, who got his start working with the Italian
architect Aldo Rossi on his acclaimed Scholastic building in Soho, has
perfected a style that might be called nouveau industrial. Constructed with
heavy I-beams, or things made to look like I-beams, his designs appear to be
the descendants of great factory buildings. Because of their family resemblance
to those tough old workhorses, his designs are tailor-made for neighborhoods
such as Fishtown and Williamsburg, struggling to hold on to a bit of their
gritty heritage.
Ironically, Adjmi has already designed an I-beam-style
facade for an 11th Street building that is part of the mixed-use, East Market
development. But what appears to be steel in those renderings is actually
painted concrete.
In Fishtown, Adjmi said he hoped to use the real thing,
either steel or aluminum, to outline a grid of casement-style windows. Except
for the arched windows at the top - a nod to the brewery - the design looks a
lot like his handsome condo building on Manhattan's Bowery. Although the
Fishtown design is still evolving, Adjmi promises that the Shepard Fairey mural
on the brewery's north wall will be left visible in the hallway of the hotel.
Adjmi's new-old balance should be well received in
Fishtown. Philadelphia's changing neighborhoods have always had a hard time
holding on to their sense of authenticity: First, we discover them. Then, we
wreck them. The restrained nod to Fishtown's DNA at least promises to make the
change feel less disruptive.
It's also nice to see a project that doesn't involve more
rowhouses. Neighborhoods need buildings of varying scales offering varying
uses. It can't be all bars, restaurants, and houses. Besides the hotel, Kassis
is also renovating two actual factories, putting a total of 87 apartments in
the former Chesterman and A.J. Reach buildings near Palmer Park.
As Fishtown develops, the challenge will be to manage the
growing demand for parking, especially to support the nightlife on Frankford
Avenue. To provide 100 parking spots for the hotel and its events spaces,
Kassis plans to take over a large vacant lot on Front Street north of Thompson
Street. It's the least appealing part of the project.
The parking is required under the zoning code because
Kassis intends to include restaurant and banquet spaces in the hotel, but the
neighborhood has also made parking a condition of its support for the project.
It's a shame Kassis chose to sacrifice a prime site on Front Street just as
that corridor is beginning to show signs of a commercial rebound. The lot
creates a big black hole of inactivity on the street, destroying the continuity
so necessary to sustain retail.
Because parking lots seem to stick around forever, the
local neighborhood association, South Kensington Community Partners, is still
weighing whether to support Kassis' plan. It's a real dilemma, because without
the approval, the hotel can't be built and the Frankford Avenue lot will sit
empty. Eventually, the two neighborhoods - Fishtown and South Kensington - will
have to work out a more sustainable solution, perhaps a garage with
ground-floor retail.
As the neighborhood's dominant property owner, maybe
Kassis even knows a location where one can be built.
Source: Philly.com
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