There was some additional shadowing, but not a significant amount, a large portion of it
on the vacant lots that presently exist, as I said, at the corner of Richmond and Marlborough
Street.
In terms of the revised project, we did, in the letter that was sent to the Zoning Board following our meeting with them on November 12th, 24, there were a number of comments.
They stated that we had too many units. We went back to them from 28 units to 26 units.
If you take a look at the floor plans, you'll see that originally on floors two through five, we had units that ranged from 400 square feet up to about 560 square feet.
You'll see that with the reduction in unit size, the unit number, the number of 400 or lower square foot units dropped substantially from at least eight of them to only three of them.
And we were able to create larger units as well, units up to 717 and 868 square feet.
We were able to reconfigure, you'll see in a minute, the ground floor layout so that we were able to provide actually two on-site parking spaces for the use at 950.
And in addition, we've received a letter of intent from Rivers Casino.
And if this project is approved, we'll be entering into a lease agreement with them for 24 additional parking spaces.
That addressed the concern that the community had that they expressed at the first community group meeting that we didn't have enough parking for the number of units we were proposing.
So we now are proposing one-to-one parking, which far exceeds anything that's required anywhere in the zoning code and exceeds even what's been provided at either of the development projects across the street from us on East Allen Street, on the opposite corner of Marlboro and East Allen, across Marlboro Street from us.
And, of course, what's been provided at the church located at Richmond Street and Marlborough Street.
We set – they had concern with how the facade looked with the going straight up.
And what we were able to do is we were able to set back the fifth floor and reduce the overall building roof height down to 52.6.
What happens as a result is overall the building is shorter than it was before.
It's even shorter in comparison to the development project across the street, across the opposite side of East Allen Street from us.
And by setting the fifth floor back from the building facade along Marlboro Street and East Allen Street, we now at that – along that facade of the properties, we now have a height of only 43 feet as opposed to it being over 50 feet.
And as a result, that's only about 18 inches higher than what a by-right RSA-5 building would have at the actual curb.
So you'll see in a couple minutes with our renderings, if in the future any of the properties to either side of us were ever developed with by-right buildings, what would happen at the actual sidewalk would be very similar to what could be done as a matter of right.
And then again, what I'll show you in a couple minutes is we pulled that leg that extended away from Marlboro Street. We pulled that back. Instead of being at that property line opposite Marlboro Street, it's now 24 feet, seven inches away. So we addressed those concerns.
In addition, we eliminated the curb cut on Allen Street.
You'll see when I showed you the photographs of the property, there are curb cuts and garage doors along the whole frontage of Marlboro Street and then also along East Allen.
There's one along East Allen Street.
So we've now eliminated the curb cut on East Allen, and we are now having a single curb cut.
It's wider than what was originally proposed with this project when we were coming in off of Marlboro and out into East Allen.
But we are creating more on-street parking spaces with this development project than what presently exists with this building.
They also asked us about where the trash room is located, and we moved that to a location to reduce traffic congestion.
You'll see when I show you the site plan, there was some concern about the facade of the building or the face of the building that the butts, the Richmond Street properties, the vacant properties that are located between.
uh the butts the richmond street properties the vacant properties that are located between our
property and i-95 and you'll see with the revised drawing we were able to pull the building back
from from those property lines so right now you can see these are the revised drawings that were
presented to the community group in january and which were the basis for them to now support
the project having addressed all of the concerns that they raised following the first meeting and
again, you could see the setback along Richmond Street of all the floors above the ground floor.
You can see the five-foot setback along here at the fifth floor. And you could see the fact that
we pulled the building back that 24 feet, seven inches from the south property line.
And you could see it here again. If I showed you the zoning drawings before, you could see here,
This was all filled in.
That was the leg of the building that extended back.
And then what we have right now, as you see now, there's all this big, this whole big gap.
The thing that's also interesting is that the actual ground floor that's to be rebuilt is going to be lower than the existing one-story building.
So if you compare the site plans, you could see the difference, how we pulled the building back here.
We pulled the building, all the upper floors above the ground floor back.
The fifth floor has been pulled back as well.
You see the single curb cut on Marlboro Street versus the two curb cuts, one on Marlboro and one on East Allen.
And then you see with the reconfiguration of the ground floor parking, we're able to provide two additional parking spaces for use of the properties at 950.
You can see that right here with the ground floor plan.
It does include auto-share spaces. That was included with the original proposal for the off-site parking, accessory parking for 12-12.
I can go through the floor plans if you'd like. I think the site sections are more important.
You see right here how now we compare to the height of the building across the street, particularly here what you see, this across East Allen Street, what you actually have at the sidewalk, the 43 feet.
It's much lower than the building across the street from us.
And you can see here a revised rendering that sets the fifth floor back.
And this view from, again, 95 behind us, you can't even see the fifth floor anymore.
And then here is where I think it's important where we showed the by right RSA 5 facade heights along Marlboro Street in East Allen.
And here's what you had before when the building was fronting completely at the sidewalk.
And now, again, what you see at the sidewalk is only barely higher, as we said, about 18 inches higher than what could exist, could be built to either side of us as a matter of rate.
And then we have revised shadow studies now that show the difference between what we had before and what we have now.
So if I do a comparison, which we have here, so here was what was previously what I showed
you originally with the original proposal, and now you could see that even before it
wasn't a tremendous amount of additional shadowing over what would be permitted by
right at the property, and that's by right with an RSA 5 development project, to now
there being barely and in many cases no shadowing and you can see here the difference again between
what was originally proposed to what's being proposed now very little to if any shadowing
beyond what's permitted as a matter of right
um we did show you here um the distance uh to get to uh the off-site parking the parking spaces
that we're going to be providing from our property from 950.
We did have an appraisal report prepared to deal with it both.
You have to kind of look at both projects together in a way
because the result of the appraisal report was twofold
or two main points of the appraisal report
that was prepared by Rittenhouse Appraisals.
One is that with the changes in market conditions
since my clients first received the approval for 1212 back in 2024. They purchased these properties
in early 24. That 1212 cannot be developed, according to the appraisal report, cannot be
developed with 950 only being utilized for the offsite accessory parking for 1212. The additional
residential units at 950 is required from our clients to make 1212 work with this use of 950.
the other thing about the appraisal report is that the uh the property cannot support
development as an rsa 5 development project which would allow for only four single-family homes
five development project, which would allow for only four single-family homes,
particularly
particularly given the fact that they did not overpay for either property. And then also given
that the number of units that we're proposing going down to 26 is a minimum necessary in order
to make the property commercially viable. I did provide some examples of our clients' other
properties that they've developed in different areas of the city. And you can see them here.
They do very nice work, high quality design, unique design. This development at 1212 and at 950 is
going to completely change this corner and these properties surrounding area, aside from what's
already being developed at 1130. You mentioned the position letters that we have. We do have
the letter of support from Fishtown. You can see here the support is highlighted in yellow. We have
Councilman Squilla's letter of non-opposition. And then we do have at tab 8C a number of position
letters, letters of support from members of the community. And they're all listed here. There's
about 12 or 13 of them. A copy of River's letter of intent offering us the parking spaces. The deed
showing my clients own both properties 1212 north delaware avenue and 950 that they purchased in
2024 our tax clearance certificate for this property and my client as the owner the hearing
notice for today's hearing the posting of those notices on both the marlborough street and the
east allen street facades of the property and requirements with the 21 day advance posting
at the property. And then the 14303 notices that we had, Planning Commission designating
Fishtown as the coordinating RCO for the project, the delivery addresses. There weren't a tremendous
number of properties without the development of, without 1130 being finished and occupied yet.
So not a lot of property owners within 250 feet of the property. You can see them here,
not many at all. And then the 14303 notices for both the first meeting with FNA in November of
24, and then the meeting with them in January of 25. So in summary, what you have here is you have
a property that has never been used for residential purposes. The other corners of
this intersection have never been used for residential purposes. The two other properties
that have the same history of use actually had almost the same building or type of building
located on it as our property have since been developed as multifamily dwellings. The property
is uniquely configured with the leg that extends further away from Marlborough Street around the
rest of the property with the next property next to us to the south kind of tucked in that little
notch. With the changes that we've made, well, and also with the location of the property between
95 and Delaware Avenue kind of presents a unique situation. And the appraisal report, again,
talks about the difficulty in developing this property for single-family use. Appraisal is
familiar with other single-family residential developments in the immediate vicinity,
having been involved in them. Those are infills, not in single lots, not a situation where it's
lot of this size and a lot of this configuration um we've made changes to the project we've reduced
the number of units we've reduced the height we've reduced all of the variances that are involved
here to the point where we feel and again the appraisal report supports this we're required
we're requesting the minimum number of units that are required it's the minimum number required
for the granting of this variance um and uh with the support of the community the non-opposition
of the Councilman, the support of other members in the community. We feel that we've satisfied
the grant and the shadow studies that we've shown. We've satisfied all the criteria set
forth in the zoning code for the granting of the cited variants or cited refusals in this matter.
Do you want to bring on your client, please? Sure. I can have them adopt my statements.
First, I would have Derek Spencer from Nome Architecture. They're the ones who prepared
the materials for this presentation.
they've been allowed to speak
hi sir could you please state your name
as spelled for the stenographer
yes Derek Spencer
D-E-R-E-K
S-P-E-N-C-E-R
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes I do
Mr. Spencer could you turn in on your video
it's actually not allowing me to
It's actually not allowing me to.
I only see the options
I only see the options for all.
let me promote them
Let me promote them, sir.
I'll promote them.
No, that's okay.
We're all right.
Move on, Mr. Orphanides.
Derek, what is your position with Nome Architecture?
I'm a partner at Nome Architecture.
And did you either prepare or oversee the preparation of the materials that we presented to the community group and on two occasions and now to the zoning board?
Yes, I did.
And were you also involved with the project at 1212?
Yes, I was.
And you handled the CDR presentation for that project?
Correct.
And did you hear the statements that I made to the zoning board today?
Yes, I did.
And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, they are.
And would you adopt them as your own?
Yes, I would.
And just real quickly, is this the, from the CDR materials, this is the project at 1212,
correct?
Yes, it is.
And both the project at 1212 and at 11th, which is our client's property and project,
as well as the project at 1130 are substantially taller and have a substantially greater number
of units than what we're proposing today with 950, correct? Correct. Okay. And they provide
substantially less parking from a ratio standpoint to the number of units, between the number of
units provided and the number of off-street parking that's being provided, correct? Correct.
Okay. I don't have any further questions of Mr. Spencer.
I would have Sal Siddiqui promoted to a panelist, my client, to adopt some of my statements.
Okay, they'll be coming back in shortly, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Jason.
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
or first name sal s-a-l last name the deke s-i-d-d-i-q-u-i you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel sort of sal
did you um what is your position with uh 1212 north delaware avenue qoz llc i'm one of the
owners uh the properties okay and did you hear the statements that i made to the board today
yes i did and they true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes would you adopt them as your
own i would okay and do you have anything to add did you like to add to the zoning board regarding
um this these two projects and and your intentions in terms of the neighborhood and the community
given the process we've gone through with fishtown or uh i appreciate the board yeah
Yep. And look, I appreciate the opportunity to present our project here today, guys. We have a record of successful projects in Philadelphia, particularly in Fishtown. Of the eight properties we've done in Philadelphia so far, this is our fifth in Fishtown.
Some of the properties highlighting some of our emphasis on design, doing what's best for kind of the canvas of the community to fit in, include the petite coin. You saw a photo of that. That's a building of ours in the Queen Village.
We have the Fishtown Flatiron, which is at 2401 Frankfurt.
That design was inspired by Kensington High School a couple blocks away.
The McDermott is the project at 689 North Broad, that beautiful blue building atop the-
Steve, David, I really appreciate all his properties.
And I think the photos you put up are appropriate.
He doesn't have to list his property.
Thank you so much.
I apologize for that.
I'll move on to 950 specifically.
So as far as why 950, look, we believe the project would benefit the neighborhood.
I mean, right now the site, it's an old, it's effectively an abandoned sort of industrial
scale warehouse.