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To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the property in question.
And lastly, please note the question-answer box is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be directed to Tanya Sunken.
Let's start looking at continuances.
This afternoon, for 2 o'clock, I see three continuances.
Number seven, MI 2021-002893-312 West Coulter Street.
Number 10, MI 2021-004816-600 East Luzerne Street.
And number 12, MI 2021, 733 Hofnigel Street.
These three cases will be continued.
Is there anyone in the audience has any comments or questions about that?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
no hands chair okay we will start case number one mi 2021 004 759 1308 chestnut street
no cr let no rco letter from washington square rco letter from midtown village merchants
letter in support and councilman squilla has a letter of non-opposition brett fell
Chair, Mr. Feldman is coming back in as a panelist now.
Aye, Mr. Feldman, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, good afternoon.
Brett Feldman, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103, Feldman, F-E-L-D-M-A-N.
I represent the applicant's proposed restaurant tenant.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Ms. Tenere has several questions for you.
Hi, Mr. Feldman.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
It appears that you've submitted all the necessary documents.
Is that correct?
Okay, you may proceed.
Okay, if I may share my screen.
Is my exhibit package on the screen now?
It's ready to go.
Okay, great, great.
So, again, Brett Feldman, 1835 Market Street.
I represent the applicant, 1308 Restaurant Partners Incorporated,
doing business in the city of Philadelphia
is the Craft Concepts Group
and its main principal, Teddy Sarias.
We also have architect Jose Hernandez.
Passed up exhibits one through 13,
which here I'd ask to incorporate into the record.
And if you may just go through these materials
and when appropriate,
I'll reach out to Mr. Sarias
or Jose Hernandez.
I just want to make one correction.
There now is an Exhibit Tab 10 RRCO letter from Washington Square West.
An exhibit tab 10 RRCO letter from Washington Square West of non-opposition that we now have in the exhibit package.
So let me get let me get right to it here.
So this is a proposal for a new restaurant named Mona at 1308 Chestnut Street.
We can go through some of the materials, but Mr. Sourius, it's kind of an homage to his Greek
background, Mediterranean background as far as the menu. Here's the lease. Let me just
go through it real quick. Here is the tax clearance, exhibit tab 1B.
It's the tax clearance certificate. And then let me orient the board here with an aerial photograph. I think you'll all recognize this location. So here is 13th Street. Here is Chestnut Street, Drury in the back. This is the location here. Across the street is the Macy's over here.
And Mr. Sirius has four other restaurants on this block, Brew and Tradesman and Ubon, and this would be the fourth Mona here.
It is a two-story building nestled between multi, much taller kind of mid-century skyscrapers both to the east and the west, and you'll recognize it here.
That's what it was previously with the Lux Home Furniture Store, which I guess unfortunately did
not make it through COVID. That's the front on Chestnut Street, and this is the back on Drury
Street. If you weren't the board, here are interior photographs. It's still kind of set up as it was
when it was a furniture store. And what Mr. Sirius does is take some of these old beautiful historical
buildings on this block of Chestnut Street and re-energize them, reactivate them. The zoning
case is, I guess, you know, fairly straightforward. This is a CMX5 property, you know, highest
intensity commercial. There's an overlay which requires all sit-down restaurants on these blocks
of Chestnut and Walnut Street to have a special exception referral. So we have that. And then
what we're proposing on the top is a roof deck, and that also requires a special exception.
But this is not a variance case. It's a special exception case. And we believe as a testimonial
we'll establish, we clearly establish that we satisfy the criteria for both special exceptions.
Just briefly, this is about the restaurant. We can get into certainly more detail. Mona,
It's kind of Mediterranean heritage that Mr. Sirius is looking to honor.
This is the Craft Concepts Group with seven or eight other restaurants in Philadelphia, including three other on the block.
We're looking at about 100 jobs that will be created, 60 full, 40 part time at this location.
And we've worked. This is a copy of the menu.
A lot of Mediterranean appetizers, sandwiches, main dishes, again, trying to end with drinks as well.
And here's the zoning site plan.
The building itself is, it's got a lower level and then two floors existing.
We would be utilizing those three floors.
And then with a small addition on the roof and then the roof deck itself.
the roof deck has been specially designed to meet all the full all the dimensional requirements as
far as setbacks as far as you know any of the other requirements as far as pilot houses or
anything like that this property could be as a CMX5 you could you could take it and go up to
12 or 1300 FAR we're only a little over 200 FAR on this so again minimum impacts so that is
That's kind of the zoning case. I'm going to just turn it over briefly. Our project architect, Jose Hernandez from JKR Partners, who I think has testified in front of this board probably 200 times over his career as an architect.
Jose, do you want to just briefly take the board through the kind of the special attention
we're doing the exterior, and then briefly on the interior, and then we can open it up
to any questions that the board might have.
So if Mr. Hernandez may be brought as a panelist, I'd be greatly appreciated.
Mr. Hernandez, if you're in the virtual audience, can you raise your hand, please?
Mr. Hernandez, if you're in the virtual audience, can you raise your hand?
Well, if he's not, I can take you briefly through.
We put it like the other Mr. Sereus restaurants.
Mr. Feldman, he's coming back in.
Well, I won't try to play architect.
could you could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
yes uh jose hernandez jose h-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z uh principal at jkrp architects
right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
i do proceed please um as brett mentioned um craft concept has numerous restaurants in the area
we were we were brought into a system in developing this property the image you see before you
is the lower level of the restaurant as was mentioned the idea is to basically develop
the two the three additional floors and then a small roof deck each area kind of has its own sort
of texture feel and vibe so we'll go through we'll kind of show you some images the image
that are below are kind of inspirational images of what this lower basement level was perceived
to be. This is more of sort of in line with sort of the darker spaces, neon light, more of a
gathering space, kind of underground, similar to what they have on some of their other concepts
across next door to them. It's a small seating area with some prep kitchen. The main level is,
Again, thought to be the main thoroughfare that connects Chestnut Street all the way through to Jewelry Street.
So this is more of your typical dining area, more of a gathering, social aspect.
So many images, again, on the bottom, kind of creating a different feel from what that lower level is.
The main kitchens on this level, there's so many images we'll show in renderings.
there's there's the themes that are included in these images below are actually kind of brought
into the renderings that we're going to illustrate next level so this this is the view the inside so
this is a view from the end from the Chester Street entrance looking through to the rear of
the property so the idea is to use a lot of those images that were inspirational and kind of create
this environment that seems more of a gathering space has a lot of what is called sort of ghost
imaging of sort of uh old signage that are on building a lot of uh the artwork that would be
displayed kind of going with the sort of Mona theme the existing stair kind of is an element
that kind of goes throughout the three floors of the building and um kind of adding a lot of greenery
to this space so it would enliven the area uh the second level is more of the intimate it's more of
intimate space so the seating arrangement is um kind of uh predominantly booth seating kind
of darker materials more of a um a kind of comfort sort of environment um again a small bar area with
some fixed seating some uh tabletop seating again you kind of see the green of the element coming
through. Go to the next image. And as I mentioned, this is more of sort of a kind of intimate space,
a little bit warmer colors, warmer textures, fine dining experience. And again, showing sort
of the greenery coming from the lower levels up through the second level. One of the elements that
was really important is, I mean, obviously with the current COVID condition and everything that's
happening and that the importance of having the ability to be outside and having some outdoor
flexible space um we are seeking a small partial third floor to enclose um sort of a small a small
bar area some that's back here jose right correct it's it's it's oriented towards jewelry street
and again um there's sort of an idea of a small kind of um uh container kitchen kind of theme
and a small bar area, but again, predominantly fixed seating so that this space is an outdoor
seating area. The setback from Chestnut Street is 10 feet. We intend to sort of screen that
additional setback with greenery around the perimeter of the seating area. And that's double
the required setback, correct? Correct. With two parapet walls? Correct. That's the thickness of
the parapet. Skylight's offering some light down into that seating area on the floor below.
So next image, again, just another kind of important space to be able to be outside.
Another kind of important space to be able to be outside, to have fresh air, again, the building is, the building addition is sandwiched between a 12-story and I think an 18-story building.
So the impact of that small additional deck space, which you can kind of see on the image to write, would have no impact on its surrounding neighbors.
And again, it's set back far enough from Chestnut Street where it's it's not viewable or any activity up there would not be viewable from a street level.
Jose, may I just ask you just real quickly. Again, these are special exception referral cases. I know you're familiar with the different criteria that we won't be impacting more than expected from the proposed use in terms of congestion in the public streets, overcrowding the land, impairing an adequate supply of light and air to adjacent property,
burning water, sewer, school park, or other facilities, impairing or permanently injuring
the use of adjacent or conforming properties, endangering the public health or safety by
fire or other means, or inconsistency with the comprehensive plan.
I know you specifically designed this, you know, to make sure that we are, to the extent
possible, compliant with all those criteria.
Do you agree that we have, that we're not impacting those criteria more than you would
expect from a, you know, typical sit-down restaurant and this roof deck? Yes, I agree with
that. Okay. And again, as far as the height, you know, we're significantly below what could be
allowed here as far as any impacts. Many of the restaurant patrons come to the location by
mass transit, Uber, or walking, correct? Correct. Our office is fortunate enough that we're actually
directly across the street in the Macy Building, so we're frequent visitors of
the established directly across the street. Mr. Feldman, do you have a client you want to
adopt your testimony? Yes. Yes. Mr. Sarias, if you may be elevated to a panelist, that'd be great.
Mr. Sarias, you can unmute yourself and please wait for the chair.
Hi, Mr. Sirius. Could you state your name and spell it for our court reporter, please?
Sure. It's Teddy Sirius, T-E-D-D-Y-S-O-U-R-I-A-S.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Counsel?
Yes. I'll keep it quick, but you've been in the restaurant business within a couple blocks of
this location basically since you are what you're in your I guess you're in your late teens correct
starting with Finn McCool's yeah 19 years old with my first restaurant didn't know what I was
doing but here we are 20 years later and and you are the main principal of the craft concepts group
correct I am and you have was it eight or nine restaurants now I think at this point there's
nine and they're seasonal we have an outdoor beer garden that's seasonal so that would be number 10
Okay. And this would be your fourth restaurant in this block, correct?
Correct.
And each one of them, you've taken vacant buildings and invested a tremendous amount of money in creating very attractive restaurants that are also historically interesting, correct?
With the exception of the first one, we've built out every restaurant from scratch, yes.
So the first one 20 years ago was a corner bar that we eventually purchased a building and built, you know, two floors of a restaurant and then slowly, you know, later on took over, you know, Chestnut Street restaurants and then consecutively opened up one after another.
Great, great. And I'll keep it quick, but you've heard my testimony, Mr. Hernandez's testimony about the way this was designed to be as code compliant as possible in terms of the sit down restaurant, the roof deck having double the setback, correct?
Yes, absolutely.
And being compliant with the special exception referral criteria that I mentioned to Mr. Hernandez, correct?
Yes, of course.
uh and do you adopt uh do uh do you find that uh testimony that we provided truthful
uh and honest and complete yep yeah i do and you uh adopt it as your own i do great great
i think with that we would uh open it up to any questions that the board might have
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman questions from the virtual
audience i see no hands at this time chair planning commission
uh good afternoon i think i need to be smart in all right could you stay
good afternoon i think i need to be sworn in hi could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter please yes my name is ian ian last name litwin l-i-t-w-i-n right do you swear
a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed cmx 5 is the
densest and most permissive zoning district in the city in addition the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location. We believe that the
applicant has shown that a sit-down restaurant with roof deck will have no more of an impact
than a sit-down restaurant would otherwise be expected to have. The City Planning Commission
recommends that the board grant the special exceptions for both the sit-down restaurant
and roof deck. Thank you, Ian. MI 2021-004-759-1308 Chestnut Street, I vote yes.
Carol Teneri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.