These neighbors don't have many amenities in that particular area.
And it's also designed to produce activity on the street, on the curb, on the streetscape.
And we're going to be working with St. Elizabeth and the 32nd Ward and the Fifth District Council office to ensure that whatever we place there is something that the neighbors want.
And, of course, it'll be generated from my client.
So that's the plan with because just putting more housing without any amenities will just further perpetuate the lack of an access of commercial activity for folks in that particular neighborhood.
And finally, the unit count. We are asking for 120 units. We could do less. But the financing of this property would then require us to bring it, the percentages way down to 10%.
Nowhere are we getting housing like this,
not only is it innovative and serving 55 plus community,
but the majority, 52% of these units will be affordable.
And that's only because, and a direct result
of asking for the relief
to put these number of units in there.
If we were not able to get the relief to put these number of units, we would not be able to carry this property, deliver the amenities and the services at below market rate, which is what our plan is.
So for all those reasons, we're asking for the variances to be granted.
I also want to show you, talk about the, just so you know that this is not a fly.
talk about the, just so you know that this is not a fly-by-night company,
Tioga Diabetic Optical Laboratories is another project that is being located at 3332 North 17th
Street. And there is a second senior housing unit for 55 plus, where 51% or 147 units will be
affordable. And in my packet, I do have the website pages and information on one of these
projects as well. Also want to share with you the covenant, the use covenant that the city of
philadelphia gave my client and we'll be working through that uh will restrict the use in perpetuity
for housing 55 plus and affordable at 52 percent the financing will be tied to that as well
just want to go over briefly the letters of support
Here's the letter that was penned by a council president at the time, Daryl Clark, supporting
TPP Capital Holdings in order to get a grant to proceed with their mission-based housing,
calling it innovative, transformative.
The first letter from St. Elizabeth.
Second letter from St. Elizabeth.
A letter from Honorable Senator Sharif Street, and a letter from the 32nd Ward Executive
Committee, Mr. Darnell Deans.
What I haven't talked about yet, and which will become apparent pretty quickly, is the
need for this.
One of the reasons why, and I believe that the board understands it, that some neighborhoods have existing older housing stock that is in disarray or in bad repair is because they're occupied by oftentimes senior citizens on limited fixed incomes with no resources to fix these properties up.
So folks want to get into quality, manageable spaces, and that's exactly what we're offering.
As a result, we submit this letter from August 27th, 2023.
We opened up a portal and currently have over 300 seniors, 55 years old and plus, on the wait list pending the approval of this development.
project was also featured in the philadelphia inquirer
here's proof of mailing to 100 individual households of the notice of course also in here
is uh the deed uh up-to-date tax clearance here's the tioga district project that they're working on
and again nothing like this exists in the city of philadelphia outside of what tpp is providing
you either have to uh cough up six seven thousand dollars a month or have to be
in very dire straits no middle class or workforce affordability and again for under eighteen hundred
a month, they're getting a one-bedroom. For under $1,200
a month, they're getting a studio. Of course, those numbers change
depending on what AMI is at the time.
AMI was different when we started this project
five years ago or so.
Here's the financing information that we thought
you'd be interested in, the Freddie Mac's Target Affordability
program, and we submit that also into evidence. Because this property and this block has gone
disinvested for such a long time because of the incredible need and demand from area residents
55 plus, and because of the overwhelming support that we enjoy from not only the RCOs and the
ward, but the state senator's office and the former district, sorry, former council president.
And the former district for sorry, former council president.
I do respectfully request that this board grant the variance.
I'm moving all of this into evidence and I'm going to call Mr. AJ Riley to the stand.
You've been allowed to speak.
Mr. Riley, could you state your name, please? And spell for the courts.
Yes, my name is AJ Riley.
R-E-I-L-L-Y
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
please proceed counsel
thank you
Mr. Riley I'll be your
your hands
and move the cursor
to this second
exhibit packet
if you please just walk the board through
the design of the project
the changes that were made
at several different levels of not only the CDR, but of the former council president's
urging.
All right.
Good afternoon.
I think Vern did a nice job of kind of describing the need, and so I can walk you through the
design.
You know, the project sits between 22nd Street on the right of the screen.
Diamond is to the north, Diamond Street.
It's one parcel in, so it's actually mid-block, and Krosky Street to the west or the left of the screen here.
We originally had our residential entry along Krosky Street.
As Vern mentioned, we flipped that to 22nd Street, so we now have sort of a commercial entry on Krosky and our loading zone on Krosky,
but the main entry for the residents is off of 22nd Street.
um we had a couple meetings with cdr they asked that we add some additional handicap spaces so
you can see we've we now have three spaces instead of the one that was required we we included two
ev charging stations which was requested as well and a better larger pedestrian walkway
that connected between the two streets along the edge of the parking.
We also moved our trash room off of the street,
so we pulled that back into the service drive area,
so making for a better pedestrian experience
and not getting those odors as you're walking down the street.
You can see we've pulled the building off of the north and south property line
with a landscape buffer of 12 feet,
And this is to allow light and air all the way around our building and all the residential units that you'll see as we go up the building.
We have just say we have 10,000 plus square feet of commercial space here and a central courtyard, which is a way to bring more light into the center of a large commercial space to get daylight into that into that space as well, as well as an amenity space for residents.
and users of the commercial space.
So if you want to go up, this is just an aerial looking from above,
you know, from the corner of Diamond and 22nd Street.
To give you a sense, the building is approximately 81,000 square feet.
It's a courtyard building.
It's six stories total, but it really has four levels of residential units,
ground floor being more services and commercial. And the top floor, the sixth floor, is just a
small piece that includes a 2,700 square foot amenity space and outdoor terraces, which we'll
see a little closer as we go. So you can click on that one there, Vern. And this just gives you a
section of it looking from the south to the north to sort of help organize you and identify the
garden terrace on the second floor, the lower courtyard on the first floor, green roof up above
on level six in sort of the wraparound residential units. Next slide there, five. So this is to give
you an orientation of how the typical residential floors are organized. So we have sort of an inner
ring and an outer ring of units. Both of them have a lot of light and air, a lot of sort of
landscaping and views. We have a garden terrace on level two, and that's open to below. So you
can see down to the courtyard space. We have a mix of studios in one bedrooms. And this is what
we call our light studio. It's actually a residential unit that we've copyrighted in
our office because we think it's so unique and special. And what it does is it reduces the
the the width overall of a residential building from you know a typical residential building
you know a typical residential building maybe 60 feet wide and this reduces it down to as low as
maybe 60 feet wide and this reduces it down to as low
39 feet and what it does is it allows the the unit to kind of rotate from a traditional deep
unit to a flatter unit giving more light from additional windows and additional length on the
facade the unit is about 15 percent more efficient than a traditional deeper unit and you can click
on the next slide. And so because it's more usable space, there's less circulation space,
it's more open, and it allows the unit to be slightly smaller from some of the traditional
units. And so our units go from 400 square feet for our typical studios up to about 466 feet for
our one bedrooms. And in addition to that, we're using an ORI furniture system, which you can see
here, which is a really flexible, really awesome product that I actually got to test in their
product in New York. And I stayed in one of these units and it has what they call the cloud bed. So
during the day, the cloud bed hides up in the ceiling. So you push a button, it goes up to
the ceiling, you have a desk or a couch or sofa underneath it, and that can fold away and the bed
actually comes down and nestles over top of it. The next slide, I'll show you the closet. This is
a sort of accordion closet. So that piece collapses and creates a larger living space.
And when you push the button on the side there, it opens and gets a walk-in closet. So really
innovative stuff, really user-friendly. I wasn't sure about it until I went and visited and I saw
how functional it is and really how great it is at giving sort of dual use and creating
a lot with a little space. So the other thing you'll notice is the wood that is prevalent in
the unit. This is because we're using a mass timber, so a CLT, which is cross-laminated timber.
This is something that we're really excited about bringing into the Philadelphia market.
We're working on a number of developments with Anthony where we're integrating this timber
product. It's a structural system that gained popularity in Europe, and it's come over to the
U.S. in the last 10 years or so, and you're starting to see it kind of pick up steam because
it's renewable, it's sustainable. It reduces your carbon footprint by up to 20% as compared to steel
and concrete. It's lighter, so your foundations don't have to be as robust, but it's inherently
beautiful because it's wood. We like to say more wood, more good. But studies have shown that it
has this what they call biophilic properties, which allow the occupant to really connect with
nature. And it's shown to reduce stress of occupants. And it really is a beautiful
residential product that we think works really well for senior housing and
in promoting wellness among its its tenants and its residents okay you can go go on um this is
just looking at the the sixth floor which is is really just an opportunity for us to put
um we an amenity room a kind of community space for the the tenants of 2700 square feet so a large
space that can be programmed for their needs and their use and what we did is we pushed it back
from the perimeter of the building so um you really don't see it from the street unless you're
back quite a far distance so that helped kind of reduce our appearance of our height and then we
have a large roof terrace with some wood pavers and resident rooftop gardens which was something
that some of the community was asking for so we've included that as well um and then and then the
large green roof. So we'll go to the next. So this is a rendering from 22nd Street showing kind of the
main entry in the middle. We're cladding the building in sort of two main materials. The zinc
panel, which is like a really, we think, beautiful sort of soft real metal, not a painted metal, but
it's an inherently sort of natural material that over time will get a bit of a patina, sort of like
a a copper um but it sort of softens and then we're offsetting that and complementing it with
a kenobi wood product which is um which is a product that's a it's wood but it's it's dipped
in this sort of vinegar solution it's proprietary and it what it does it allows it to um withstand
uv and elements uh with a warranty of up to 50 years so it's it maintains its its properties of
being wood but it just has a sort of a sealer on it that allows it to last for a long time
Here's a view from Diamond Street, so looking south at the north facade of our building.
here's a view from from diamond street so looking south at the north
You can see we've sprinkled in some balconies with that wood material as an accent.
And then here's a couple of just elevational drawings to give you a sense of materials
and balconies and kind of the depth of the facade.
And then a couple images that you saw earlier, the ground floor courtyard, which is connected
to the commercial space.
and you can see the parking off to the side a nice kind of moment to bring you know light and
air down to the ground floor from inside the building and then the garden terrace up on level
two with raised landscape beds which allow some larger landscaping say trees and such and some
deeper soil but also keep the you know residents sort of in the middle and right not up against the
windows of residents as units. And then here you can see the rooftop view of the city looking to
the south with those rooftop gardens in the distance there in the background. And that's
essentially, I think, the show. Thank you.
AJ, one question. You are using these materials now in Fishtown. Is that right? And they're working?
so we're using a very similar um residential unit in fishtown we have a few developments
where we're using the mass timber um one is in uh one is actually in detroit that's under
construction and we have a couple in development here in philadelphia as well very good i have
nothing further thank you mr chair i only have one other witness to call today it's my client mr anthony
Miles. Okay. About to speak. Hi, Mr. Miles, could you please state your name and spell for the
court stenographer? My name is Anthony Miles, A-N-T-H-O-N-Y-M-I-L-E-S. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Miles, I'm going to ask you three sort of housekeeping questions first before we get into the substantive questions. Did you hear my presentation and that and the testimony of Mr. Riley today?
Yes, I did.
Is it true? Are they true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Do you adopt them as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Can you please explain to the board how you came upon this property and the journey you've taken so far since?
Yes, thank you. So in and around April of 2021, we were developing a whole preventative health hub near Temple Hospital, and the owners of the property, and one of them at the time was the father of the Bynum family, Benjamin L.
Bynum Senior. His group of partners were looking for a mission-oriented developer
for this site, which used to be an old medical clinic. So they was looking around Philadelphia
and my name came up and they asked us if we would consider coming up with something for the site
that embodies what they did in the past with the medical clinic, some sort of community benefit
product project. So at the time, when we looked at it, we just immediately saw the best and highest