It’s been a long road for the northeast corner of Broad and Pine Streets. Back in 2015, Dranoff Properties proposed a 23-story hotel with 78 rooms on the site. A couple of years later, the plans shifted to a 28-story building with 56 condominiums and 92 parking spaces. Well, it looks like the plan has changed once again.
Dranoff Properties is now planning on building a 15-story building with 91 residential units, 2,775 square feet of commercial space on the corner of Broad and Pine, 18 automobile parking spots, and 32 bicycle stalls. The design of the building aims to emulate some the Second Empire buildings you’ll find around Philadelphia.
The base of the building will be clad in cast stone with limestone colored bricks rising above the water table to the third floor. Grey bricks will be the primary facade material above the third floor along with metal panel accents. A blue metal panel mansard roof will wrap around the top two stories of the structure.
Watts Street to the east of the property will be widened during construction. A loading dock and the underground parking entrance will be located along Watts Street.
We were really looking forward to seeing a taller building rise on this prominent site along South Broad Street. However, we are happy to see the residential unit count increased and the parking count decreased. We imagine that these residential units will also be rental apartments rather than for sale luxury condos, which means they will be more approachable for more people.
We’re happy to see a curb cut eliminated on Broad Street, which will help elevate the pedestrian experience along the Avenue of the Arts, but are sad to see the existing building get demolished. We would have loved to have seen the existing building get an overbuild addition.
It will be interesting to see how this building turns out if it moves forward as planned. We’ve seen so many faux historic buildings turn out bad, but we’re hoping this one will be a success. Only time will tell.
How do you feel about this project? Do you like it more than the old plans? What kind of business would you like to see open up in the commercial space?
Kyle is a commercial real estate agent at Rittenhouse Realty Advisors, a homeowner, and a real estate investor in Philadelphia. Kyle uses his extensive Philadelphia real estate market knowledge to help his clients buy and sell multifamily investment properties, development opportunities, and industrial sites.
Email Kyle@RittenhouseRealty.com if you are looking to buy or sell a property
Instagram: @agent.kyle