To say that Brad and Larry Korman are enthusiastic about
their growing portfolio of "luxury long-stay" AKA properties may be
an understatement.
From the moment they greet a visitor in the lobby of AKA
Rittenhouse Square at 136 S. 18th St., the Kormans take turns talking about how
they have been taking the furnished, extended-stay-apartment model pioneered by
their father, Steven, to the heights of luxury living.
AKA isn't an acronym. They wanted something simple,
interesting, memorable, yet familiar. Due to open in the summer is AKA
University City at the FMC Tower at Cira Center South.
Beginning in the 1960s, with the Plaza (now Windsor
Suites) and its "pie-shaped" apartments on the Benjamin Franklin
Parkway, "Dad found a stay could last between a day and a year, and he
took the concept first to Korman Suites and then to Korman Communities,"
Larry Korman said.
"Dad has been our role model," Brad Korman
said, not just for the business but for philanthropic efforts throughout the
city.
Korman Communities Inc., with the brothers as co-CEOs,
emerged as a standalone company in 1995. Brother Mark G. Korman is president of
KCI Korman Commercial.
"It is the latest in the evolution of four
generations of our family," Larry Korman said. At AKA properties, renters
"pay half the price of a hotel for twice the space and are given an even
higher level of service and comfort."
"No one wants to be put into a box," Brad
Korman said, "which is why we created this luxury concept" for AKA,
with accommodations ranging from a day to a year. Suites go from $355 a night
for weekly stays and from $295 per night for monthly stays.
The extended-stay niche is expanding, travel-industry
observers say, especially in urban areas - catering to divorced people, actors,
and those on temporary assignment from other countries, after years of being a
suburban office-park phenomenon used for corporate training.
Trade publications, among them National Real Estate
Investor, have reported that the segment that caters to the
"price-sensitive" market - Extended Stay America, for example, which
competes with Airbnb - is seeing the most growth, while the upper end of the
market, which includes AKA, also is expanding, though its audience is smaller.
Recently completed at AKA Rittenhouse Square, which was
launched in 2007 in a Beaux Arts building at 18th and Walnut Streets, are
1,600-square-foot penthouse suites, designed by AKA vice president Nicholas
Cardone, with finishes and furnishings by Edward Asfour.
The penthouses are part of the $20 million remake of the
building, which the Kormans acquired with an institutional partner in December
2005.
It was not a quick rehab.
"We spent $930,000 on mahogany windows and then
$150,000 more for storm windows in the bedrooms" to eliminate street
noise, Larry Korman said.
The Kormans began reconfiguring the 1920s property to
restore it to its original component of 81 residences. Also renovated were
kitchens, bathrooms, mechanical systems, elevators, hallways, and common areas.
"The property was underwhelming," Larry Korman
said, "with a lot of deferred maintenance."
"We looked behind the walls and said, 'Shame on us
if we don't do something about this,' " Brad Korman said, noting that many
of the original architectural features were retained and restored.
The Kormans added a restaurant (a.kitchen + bar), a
fitness center, and business and meeting space.
AKA owns and operates four properties in New York City,
AKA Rittenhouse and the Franklin in Philadelphia, and one property each in Los
Angeles, Washington, and London. A property in Lower Manhattan also is due to
open in the summer.
The Kormans acquired the former Benjamin Franklin Hotel
at Ninth and Chestnut Streets in May 2011, Brad Korman said.
They have spent about $13 million, including restoration
of the lobby designed by Horace Trumbauer, he said. Added were a business
center and a fitness center, and all the bathrooms in the commercial spaces
were renovated. A restaurant is set to open this year.
Re-christened AKA Washington Square, the Franklin
property was added to the portfolio this year, even as the Kormans continue
upgrading the residences, with the last expected to be finished in 2017.
AKA University City, still under construction, will have
268 residences on floors 29 through 46 (the top of the building), with the 28th
floor "dedicated to lifestyle-enhancing amenities," he said.
The presence in the FMC building, which will have 21,000
square feet of retail space, is part of a management deal with Brandywine
Realty Trust, Brad Korman said.
Philadelphia "is a special city," Larry Korman
said, noting Comcast's continuing investment here, and its universities and its
hospitals. "We are very bullish on Philadelphia."
Source: Philly.com
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