COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON RULES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, December 8, 2008 10:10 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY, CHAIR COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER BILL 080881 - An ordinance to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located within an area bounded by Spring Garden Street, Broad Street, Buttonwood Street and 15th Street. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The Committee on Rules is now in session to hear testimony on Bill No. 080881. The quorum consists of Councilmembers Clarke, Greenlee, Goode and DiCicco. Bill No. 080881, an ordinance 10 to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located within an area bounded by Spring Garden Street, Broad Street, Buttonwood Street and 15th Street. The Administration, please. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning, Councilmember Kenney and members of the Rules Committee. I am William Kramer, Division Director of the Development Division of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I am here today to testify on Bill No. 080881, which was 3 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 introduced into City Council on November 13, 2008. Bill No. 080881 will amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps by changing certain zoning parcels bounded by Spring Garden Street, Broad Street, Buttonwood Street and 15th Street. This bill will change the zoning designations of the property located in the block indicated in the ordinance from its current designation of "G-2" General Industrial to a zoning designation of "C-5" Commercial. The site is the location of the former State Office Building. Tower Investments is requesting the zoning change so that they will be able to convert the office building into residential and commercial use and to construct a building addition. In the entire project, there will be 474 dwellings units, 86,275 square feet of retail space and 127 parking spaces. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission is scheduled to consider Bill 4 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 No. 080881 at its meeting of December 16, 2008. This bill will be presented with a staff recommendation of approval. This concludes my testimony. I'd be happy to answer any questions of the Committee.
Thank you very much for your testimony. Any questions for Mr. Kramer? (No response.)
Seeing none, who else is here to testify on the bill? Councilman Clarke.
Mr. Kramer, with respect to the number projected of parking spaces available versus the number of units?
The plan that we have seen are 127 parking spaces. I'm not certain if that's the existing number or whether there are proposed to put additional.
Thank you very much. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
For the record, Carl Primavera, representing Tower Investments. With me is Bart Blatstein and also James Templeton from H2L2, who will show you some of the concept plans for the project. Before I introduce Bart, basically the concept here is that the State, as we all know, is relocating their offices and they placed this property up for sale. Tower Investments was the successful bidder, and they've been working to creatively come up with a 6 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 reuse plan. The building will not be demolished. It's going to be restored, but they're trying to give it a little more excitement, because this is a gateway to the City. So there will be an addition, as well as ground floor retail. That will really excite that whole area between Community College, 1500 Spring Garden Building where we have CBS and a lot of other tenants. This is something that really will produce hopefully not only a tremendous amount of tax ratables, but just give the City in that neighborhood more of a vibe. We have a transit-oriented development, because we do have the subway and the bus. There's the parking lot next door. Ultimately, there's the big lot next door, which will be a mixed-use development, which will probably contain some type of structured parking. So we believe that we have all 7 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 the components here for a successful project. And, Bart, would you like to add to that, talk a little bit about why you acquired the property and what you intend to do.
Bart Blatstein, Tower Investments. Good morning, Councilpeople.
I bought the property because I was the highest bidder. The property is situated at the corner of Broad and Spring Garden. It's a major intersection in North Philadelphia. 8 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 Currently, there are three vacant lots of the four corners.
Excuse me. Mr. Blatstein, where did you say that was again? North Philadelphia?
North Philadelphia. My father is from Strawberry Mansion. That makes me from North Philadelphia also. And that's North Philly. In fact, all of our development right now is in North Philadelphia. Second and Girard is still North Philadelphia. It's a great opportunity for a reuse of, we believe, an historic building to convert into residential units, affordable residential units, meaning that first-time renters or buyers could easily afford that building. Also, that neighborhood is very underserved by retail. There's a dearth -- I love that word -- a dearth of retail in that area. There's 34,000 students at Community College up the street, SmithKline 9 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 French -- SmithKline. It's not French anymore -- SmithKline up the street, the School Board next door, and there's very, very little retail. North Philadelphia needs a huge amount of retail to service the community. And we're planning on building another tower behind the existing building at some point in the future. We're waiting for the State to vacate so we can settle on the property, and we'll start as soon as they vacate.
Are the parking spaces all structured below ground or above?
What would be the -- since they're affordable, I 10 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 guess condos they are?
Sure. We normally go -- in an area like that, we'll go in the upper $1 a foot per month, so like a $1.70 a month for an apartment, which could be, if it's an 800 square foot apartment, $1,200.
What's the State's timetable on getting out, on vacating?
They were supposed to be out last month. We're not quite sure.
From the date of vacation, of their vacation, how long of a renovation period are you going to need? 11 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881
Well, we'll start work the day after they vacate, and renovations normally take months. 5
I mean, 6 it's affected everybody, but what's the 7 effects of the economic situation on the 8 project? Has it slowed it? Has it kept 9 it the same? 10
Well, 11 fortunately for me and my company, Tower 12 Investments, we still have access to 13 money. We're still borrowing money. 14 We're not caught up in the condo 15 depression that's out there right now. 16
No, no; condo over-extension. That's a nicer way than depression.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This sounds like certainly a great plan, but I just had a question on the parking spots, just parking spaces, just so I'm clear. One hundred twenty-seven for 474 sounds a little low. I mean, are there other places -- Mr. Primavera made reference to another parking area.
Yes. There are reasons with that ratio, with that number. We have experienced -- in Northern Liberties, we have over 400 residential units to date. We use maybe 30 percent of -- maybe 30 percent of our tenants have cars.
Everybody is moving away from cars. CarShare has been a great boom to people living in the City, and it's moving further and further away from the needs for cars, just like New York. 13 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881
And that is a good location for public transportation.
That's good to hear, that more people are getting away from cars.
Yeah. It's a wonderful location for public transportation. That subway stop is one of the busiest in the City.
There is a parking lot next door. My comment was that, like this site, is a great gateway site. I've already heard from a lot of developers who would like to acquire it with the next building cycle, not right away. And ultimately I'm sure there'll 14 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 be an opportunity to expand on that. So there will be more than enough parking, structured, surface, on site, PhillyCarShare and also the whole transit-oriented component to this.
And, again, we've experimented. In Northern Liberties, we have bicycle racks, we have places for motorcycles and Vespas.
But you specifically are going to cordon off some spots for CarShare or something like that?
Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you. 15 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 Good morning. The second tower, is that a Phase 2 section or is that --
That's correct. It's a Phase 2, which would happen within five years. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: How many units?
The total of approximately 500 units includes both buildings. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: How many units will be in the existing building?
James Templeton. I'm with H2L2 Architects. I'm the architect on the project. 16 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 The existing building will have approximately 290 units. The new building will have approximately 185, 190 units to it. And the new building, which is the one I think in that view to your right, is the -- that's all new addition.
And that helps reestablish 15th Street also. It's a dead zone right there now. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: And your intention on the new building is to create housing, not office?
No; housing. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I have no 16 questions. Thanks.
Any other questions for these witnesses? (No response.)
Seeing none, we will conclude our public hearing and enter into a public meeting. 17 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881 The Chair recognizes Councilmember Clarke for a motion on Bill 4 No. 080881.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Bill 080881 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and a request for a rules suspension as to allow reading at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
There are none opposed. Bill No. 080881 will be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation and a request made for a rules suspension to allow for first reading at our next Council session. Thank you for your attendance today and thank you for your continued investment in the City. 18 12/8/08 - RULES - BILL 080881
Thank you very much. (Committee on Rules adjourned at 10:20 a.m.) - - - 19 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on December 8, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)