News
PHILLY'S BOOMING MINI-CITY
June 27, 2012
| News about the ever-booming Navy Yard stole the show at Bisnow's Future of South Philly event last week, and no wonder: service retail, we learned, may be on the way. And SEPTA's Broad Street expansion to the Navy Yard is looking like more of a reality. |
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| The PIDC's Navy Yard development director Mark Seltzer (left, with Liberty Property Trust's Brian Cohen) says his first-ever Navy Yard deal, in 2006, was a triple-net-lease that clocked in at just $15/SF. Five years later, he did a similar NNN deal at the same space for $23/SF. A little over 1M SF of occupied office space sits at the former Navy base now, which at 1,200 acres is roughly the same size as Center City. Over 120 companies are located there, representing almost 10,000 jobs. |
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| Synterra Partners CEO Bill Wilson, who remembers when the Navy Yard was considered little more than "that place down at the end of Broad Street," thinks the area's tipping point is nearly here. The lack of subway access is still an issue, he says, though once the Waterfront is developed similar to what the DRWC is undertaking on the Delaware, "I think it'll really change the paradigm down there." GlaxoSmithKline's completed relocation, Bill says, will be another game-changer. |
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| According to Mark Celoni of Pennoni Associates, the 50k SF XFINITY Live! development at the Sports Complex (in which Pennoni was involved) was just "the first piece of a larger master plan that's been approved by the city." The full plan includes 300k SF of retail and restaurant space at the Sports Complex—which is just up South Broad Street from the Navy Yard—as well as a 300-room hotel.Pennoni has also provided services on $80M worth of infrastructure that has been invested at PNY, over 20 miles of new roadways and utilities that will be a catalyst to new development projects. |
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| If Stephen Herrick looks oddly familiar, you've probably been schmoozing near the coffee-and-bagels table at a recentBisnowpanel. The Piano Guy, as he calls himself, tickles the ivory at the start of nearly every live Bisnow event in the Philadelphia area. Check out his "Keyboard Medley" video on YouTube. |
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| Meet Aimee Lala, a proposal manager with Pennoni Associates. Pennoni is an engineering and design consulting firm that's recently had its hands full in South Philly; its past Navy Yard projects have included the One and Three Crescent Drive buildings, and the Tasty Baking Co corporate HQ. |
