PIDC Picks Team Led By East Market Developer For Family Court Project
The city of Philadelphia has picked its developer team for the multifaceted Family Court project on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
National Real Estate Development and Washington, D.C.-based Frontier Development & Hospitality Group teamed up as lead developers for the winning proposal, with local firms Smith + Roller, Method Co. and BKP Development Group joining as partners. City officials announced the selection at an Aug. 29 press conference at Philadelphia City Hall.
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. selected the National/Frontier team on behalf of the city from a shortlist of four entrants, the culmination of a request for proposals process that began in the summer of 2021. PIDC required teams include a company owned by a person of color, and the winning bid beat out proposals from groups involving locals Mosaic Development Partners and The Badger Group.
National/Frontier's proposal totals 880K SF between the Family Court renovation and three new-construction buildings on the 88K SF lot at 1901 Wood St. Those include: the new African American Museum; a 600-unit, mixed-income apartment building; and an annex to the Parkway Central branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, sister building to the Family Court, called the Children and Family Center.
The project also would include a courtyard and a parking garage on the Wood Street lot.
The library extension on the Wood Street lot, which sits kitty-corner to the Family Court building at 1801 Vine St. and across Wood Street from the library itself, was a requirement of the city's original request for proposals. The new location for the African American Museum was added as a requirement last year.
Aside from the two required elements, the RFP didn't dictate what type of usage respondents could put in the Family Court building and on the Wood Street lot. The selected team plans to convert the 247K SF building into a hotel including at least one restaurant, with a likely event space in the open portion of the interior that contains the bulk of the building's historically protected murals.
Hospitality-focused Frontier will lead the hotel component of the project, Frontier founder and CEO Evens Charles told Bisnow. The Family Court building has been eyed as a hotel for nearly a decade at least, with the failure of Peebles Corp.’s plan for a conversion leading PIDC to reopen the project to other developers in 2021.
Though he founded his company in D.C., Charles grew up and spent most of his life in Philadelphia, making this project a professional homecoming for him.
For National, the project represents its third multiphase project of considerable size in Philadelphia. Jefferson Health's forthcoming Honickman Center building on 1101 Chestnut St. represents the finishing touch on its East Market development, which included an adaptive reuse turning the historic Stephen Girard building into a hotel — likely a crucial factor in National/Frontier’s selection, Charles told Bisnow.
“National has built, I think, arguably one of the best developments in the city with East Market,” Charles said. “Just from the standpoint of their historic expertise of working in Philadelphia, plus most of my life was spent in Philadelphia, and I have extensive hospitality background.”
This summer, National topped out The Noble, a 12-story apartment building that represents the first component of several buildings it is developing with Kushner Real Estate Group between Spring Garden and Callowhill streets north of Old City and south of Northern Liberties.
As for the proposal itself, Charles highlighted the pride of place National/Frontier gives AAMP in the Wood Street lot, visible from the Ben Franklin Parkway itself sitting across 20th Street from the Barnes Foundation. The deadline for shortlisted RFP respondents had been extended earlier this year to allow for AAMP to be located on the Wood Street lot, rather than placed within the Family Court building.
National’s executive team, now based in an office at East Market, has previous experience building museums, and it will take the lead on developing the structure and exterior of AAMP’s new home. The museum organization will be handed the property to build out the interior, Charles said.
Placing AAMP among Philly’s most prestigious museums is one of the ways in which PIDC directed respondents to foreground communities of color in drafting their proposals. The inclusion of affordable housing in the residential component was another, as was the addition of Smith + Roller and BKP Development, with Smith + Roller principal Tayyib Smith also a founding board member of Black-owned development investing and advocacy group The Growth Collective (formerly The Collective).
Perhaps the most crucial element of the Family Court project’s diversity, equity and inclusion focus is yet to come: participation in the final planning process and construction itself. National/Frontier will conduct community meetings once it has a more finalized design, city officials announced at City Hall.
For construction, PIDC’s RFP mandates a certain percentage of local subcontractors and labor be locally based and owned by women and/or people of color. Construction will not be allowed to begin until National/Frontier submits detailed enough plans and proof of financing to PIDC for the agency to officially transfer ownership of the two properties.
The earliest possible completion date for construction would be 2028, city officials announced.
