The guys behind West Philly's new high rise
Ted Rollins and Jerry Sweeney talk about their 33-story student project on the Penn-Drexel border
The guys behind West Philly's new high rise
Joseph N. DiStefano
The $158 million, 33-story Grove high-rise, planned for 850 Penn and Drexel students, adjoining the two campuses on a Penn-owned property at 2930 Chestnut St. in Brandywine Realty Trust's Cira South development, will stand out among East Coast college housing projects.
For one thing, it's taller. Boston University boasts a landmark 26-story dorm with spectacular views. New York University cancelled plans for a 38-story tower after Greenwich Village neighbors and architect I.M. Pei protested. Penn's three 25-story undergrad dorms have anchored "Superblock" ("an architectual conceptual disaster," according to this 1999 Pa. Gazette review) on the west end of campus since the 1970s. Temple's new Morgan Hall dominates the view to Center City from 21 stories above North Philly.
Also, like other Penn student housing projects in recent years, Grove is a private effort, though on a bigger scale: It will boast its own health club and pool, Internet and cable, and rents starting above $1,300/month for a single (there'll also be suites with up to three bedrooms.)
The project's backers hope it will reverse the long flow of graduate students into West Philly's mixed residential neighborhoods and booming Center City and slowing growth to the student ghetto locally dominated by outfits like Michael Karp's University City Housing Corp. and David Adelman's more upscale Campus Apartments (home of the Beige Blocks).
Grove rents will start above $1,300/month for a single. (In yet another sign that apartments >> offices in today's Philly real estate world, the University City Science Center is also planning a 27-story housing project a few blocks away.)
What are they thinking? I asked two of the partners behind the Grove at Cira deal. Ted Rollins is head of Campus Crest Communities, the Charlotte-based firm that will run the building.
Up til now, Crest has built and run dorms in mostly Southern and Western states, mostly in small towns or suburbs.
Yet Rollins says the UCity tower is like coming home: He grew up in Delaware, the son of the late business mogul John Rollins, who defied the powerful du Ponts to build the tallest office tower in suburban Wilmington (looming over their country estates and golf clubs; it's now home to AstraZeneca's US operations), built a publicly-traded trucking empire and the Dover Downs NASCAR speedway, developed a chunk of Jamaica for tourism, and saved what's now the state's largest bank, WSFS, from the S&L debacle, among his other investments.
"As a kid, my grandmother would take me to Philly, I'd look up and see the high rises and think, wouldn't it be great to build one some day!" Rollins told me, laughing. Now he gets his chance. (One of his sisters, Annie Prickett, is a Penn veterinary-school alumna.)
What does Crest do special? "We do things a little differently. We focus on resdential life," and student amenities," which Rollins promises will be "very competitive" with private rentals in town.
What does Crest know about high rises? "That's why we're partners with Brandywine," Philadelphia's dominant high-rise landlord, Rollins told me. The two were brought together by Scott Schaevitz, managing director at Barclays Bank, which has funded projects by both companies. "All the stars aligned."
"They have a fully comprehensive approach for student living that will be very attractive to grad students in University City," Brandywine boss Jerry Sweeney told me.
Brandywine, a publicly-traded Real Estate Investment Trust company, used to own office campuses in suburban clusters from here to California; lately it's concentrated mostly in Center City, buying high-rise towers from disappointed investors and planning apartments in what used to be office zones; in suburban Philadelphia, where it's joined other REITs that are selling aging buildings as rents fall; and in the Washington, D.C. area, where defense contractors who used to be reliable tenants have been cutting back.
Brandywine, as Sweeney noted, knows about both high rises and "doing business in Philadelphia" -- its building contractor, Keating, uses union labor, and has already lined up building permits.
Sweeney says his market research shows a lot of Penn and Drexel students do want to live a short stroll from the two engineering schools -- which each adjoin the Cira site -- as well as their business, medical, and other complexes a few blocks further away.
After all those years of students displacing resident families in West Philly and, lately, packing into Center City's fringes, "we anticipated growth would shift in this direction," Sweeney added.
UCity-based Drexel, Penn and Children's Hospital have all expanded across the Schuylkill into Center City in recent years, surrounding Brandywine's Cira project (which also includes the Cira One tower north of 30th Street Station, the rebuilt Post Office that now houses the IRS, and a neighboring parking garage).
Brandywine still wants to build a taller tower, for offices, at 2930 Walnut St. just to the South. Penn has agreed to be a major tenant, but the project depends on landing private occupants as well, Sweeney said. And that still hasn't happened.
From my recollection there was a low-rise dorm for black Penn students. Does segregation still exist on the campus?— Sportyrider71- Gradhospital, these are not dorms. They are market rate housing that will have all the amenities expected of luxury residences. They are marketed toward graduate students of means. Think future doctors, lawyers, business people. Many have had successful careers and are going back for future education.
Also, 1300 does not get you very far in Rittenhouse at all.— WestPhilly_BR - Fine, stduenrs these days are supported by Mommy and Daddy, even twentysomething kids in the world are supported by Mommy and Daddy.Keep the students in one place, ghettoize them, keep them away from real city adults. We hate students. (HTML deleted)— JoshuaFrySpeed
- Fine, stduenrs these days are supported by Mommy and Daddy, even twentysomething kids in the world are supported by Mommy and Daddy.
Keep the students in one place, ghettoize them, keep them away from real city adults. We hate students.— JoshuaFrySpeed - 1300 for a dorm room? Drexel tried the luxory dorm concept a few years back and it failed miserably. Why would someone pay 1300 to live in student housing when you can get an apartment in Rittenhouse for the same price.— Gradhospital
- I thought comic Sarah Silverman, whose sister was detained by Nazi Orthodox Jewish guards at the Wailing Wall, and Philly con man Ken Smuckler were behind this plan.— JoshuaFrySpeed
- I thought comic Sarah Silverman, whose sister was detained by Nazi Orthodox Jewish guards at the Wailing Wall, and Philly con man Ken Smuckler were behind this plan.— JoshuaFrySpeed
- Love my City (HTML deleted)— LOVEMYCITY
- Love my City (HTML deleted)— LOVEMYCITY
- Love my City (HTML deleted)— LOVEMYCITY
- Love my City (HTML deleted)— LOVEMYCITY
- Love my City
— LOVEMYCITY - LOL... when i was in grad school a few years back, i made about $1000 a month total. and that was with two part time jobs. i guess they are counting on grad students who are still supported by their parents to pay the rent.— tockeyhockey
- As though one mishapen stalagmite were not enough to deface the West Philly skyline.......— phluphyan411
- Singles starting at $1300 a month? That's nuts. How are students supposed to afford that? Penn and Drexel are ridiculously expensive to begin with.— Jen D
- You could lower costs by building in Upper Darby.— orange rhino
- Student apartments renting for $1,300/month is yet another symptom of the way universities (and the hangers-on who provide student amenities) are rapidly pricing themselves out of the market. Sure, schools may always be able to find a relatively small number of students whose families can afford tuitions upwards of $50,000/yr, or who aren't afraid of graduating with $100K and upwards of student debt, just as the developers of projects like these may be able to find a relatively small number of students whose families can pay $1,300/month to keep a roof over their heads. But the increasing availability of reasonably priced on-line university-level courses -- some of which can be taken for credit -- should be seen as a warning shot across the bows of these "educational" profiteers. The greedy six-figure-salary administrators and the developers of luxury student housing, by charging more than most of their potential customers can pay, are sowing the seeds of their own future failure.— Dave Clemens
- If you spend 25% of your gross income on $1300/mo rent, you'd need to make 62,000 to afford to live there.— Pelti
- $1300 is extremely reasonable for a single in that area. Other grad students in the city are paying the same amount for apartments that are not half as nice as they will be. Comparable non University owned apartments go for $2000.— JustinD84
- Affordable housing? There is plenty of low-cost apartments in philly. The trouble is it isnt where you want to live. That is the way it is. The better places cost more, the crappier place/locations cost less. Don't need a Masters from Penn to figure that out.— LGbalsac
- I love how the artist's rendering has the proposed tower dwarfing the Cira Centre. The Cira Centre is 29 stories tall, so the proposed tower will only be 4 stories taller. Good job embellishing the scope of the project.— FastLikeThat18
- The taller tower isnt the one getting built rather its the smaller of the 2 new towers shown. The tallest tower is a proposed office building that may or may not be built at a future time.
— argonne - I can only imagine that the firefighters are overjoyed at the prospect of another residential high rise. Funny, that no one ever asks them, until it's too late.
— BillyPenn1 - The whole City is one big fat Joke— JunkYard Dog
- It's a Cira Center South project...read, tax free zone for the builders / owners of the structure. Guaranteed that Dechert will move in to the "retail" space by the time their current exemption is up at the original center. Brandywine will move its corporate headquarters there too. Philadelphia is such a disgrace. The tax free exemption zones were supposed to entice businesses to come to the city...name me one new, substantial business that has moved into town since this farce started.— vdstrading
- Read this: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Philly-office-to-apartment-conversions-surge-report.html
"- University City rents remain the city's highest, at nearly $31/sq ft. Still the University City Science Center's latest project out there is for apartments, not offices or labs, and Penn/Brandywine Property Trust apparently plans student housing on what was to have been an office tower site in the 2900 block of Chestnut St."
So let's talk again about affordable housing in University City a/k/a West Philly, ok? When the big college landlords can get away with overcharging students, that impacts and hurts the rest of us - working people, the real middle class that's making around $50,000 a year pre-tax give or take about $10,000. And then yes, there are those living on SS who've been here a LONG time, like when parts of this area were red-lined. There's residents who were displaced by Penn's eminent domain and had to buy all over again or rent but want to stay in the neighborhood. The rest of us should not have to move further west or to the real "inner city" where we'll have to fear for our lives leaving to go to the doctor or buy groceries. This is a decent area past 42nd to around 46th for me comfort-zone wise Chestnut to Baltimore. There's no reason why there can't be places for adults to rent who aren't going to blast the stereo at 3 a.m. or have a 24-hour screaming party regularly. That's my beef with Penn and their taking over, their view of what they want to see. Penn can afford this stuff, us "normal" people can't. So go ahead, move the students over the bridge, bring rent prices down and let working people, disabled, elderly move in and have our own neighborhood.— annoyed - I wonder if this isn't seen as housing for international students. They pay cash for their tuition (not eligible for federal student loans) and are often the wealthy elite of their own countries. From what I can see there is a significant market of affluent young people (more likely their parents) paying for top-dollar housing on JFK Blvd -- complete with private van service in case taking SEPTA for six or eight blocks is too intimidating. I doubt that the scrimping and saving grad students who like the West Philly vibe will choose this new high rise, but I'm sure others will.— AmandaWBS
- Gotta love capitalism at work— justinnachod
- I'm surprised the article doesn't mention the former GE Building at 31st and Walnut, which was renovated in 2001 to provide upscale housing for grad students and young professionals. The article also doesn't mention the formerly named Graduate Towers on the Penn campus, now called Sansom Place, or International House at 37th and Chestnut. Is there really a demand for additional high rise options for grad students, or do grad students move into West Philly's residential neighborhoods because they seek an alternative to high rise living?— Freedom Fries
- Freedom Fries, there's 31st and Walnut, there's also a 27 story apartment/mixed use building at 36th and Market being planned by the UC Science Center.
I think students move to WP residential because even though rents have gone up a good deal over the past few years, they're still cheaper. Hopefully we can corral all the loud students into these high rises and leave the rest of us alone and get back to being a neighborhood.— annoyed - at $1200 a month plus 200k on student loans ,How are these kids ever gone to make it? Another spoiled rich kid with nothing to do withy his money !— HurtinSenior
- @farhorizons Affordable housing is what you can afford! I live is west philly and yes this will price the Section 8 right out of the neighborhood! Will the taxes go up yeah but my neighborhood ( I live in west philly) will rise. I see it already. No I don't wan't affordable housing ANYWHERE near me sorry but that's why schools fail (local schools are funded by property taxes) I remember when west philly was a middle class Xanadu! (Like God had a house in west Philly and was a Sixers fan too, that kind of cool)— Neoconkiller
- @Neoconkiller "Affordable housing is what you can afford! I live is west philly and yes this will price the Section 8 right out of the neighborhood! Will the taxes go up yeah but my neighborhood ( I live in west philly) will rise. I see it already. No I don't wan't affordable housing ANYWHERE near me sorry"
You know the Mercy Douglas building at 45th and Walnut? Samson House on Samson off 45th? 3901 Market Street? Those are low income disabled/senior housing. In other words SECTION 8. They're not "the projects", they're not coded for family/mixed use, which it sounds like you're against. Like it's childrens' fault they're poor and and yet they still DO need schools. And people DO pay property taxes here.
Affordable housing IS needed, I'm not talking "ghetto" but if you don't want Section 8, the disabled and elderly on SSDI/SS do need places to live that they can afford and still get their medication, see doctors, buy food and keep the lights on. There is room for everyone and you never know when you might find yourself in the position of needing affordable or dare I say Section 8 housing. Come down off your high horse.
$1,300 a month rent. For student apartments. They are INSANE. I know a few people with mortgages cheaper than that, including property taxes that have gone up every year for the last 3 years. Now next year? If they bought before the 'bubble' and the 'catchment' with AVI, people will be spending $1,300 a month in mortgage and property tax (I'm talking people already paying between $2500 and $3000 a year just in property tax).
These kinds of absurd rents will do nothing to help bring affordability or an increase in availability to decent, affordable apartments in West Philly ... even if Penn really still doesn't want their students going past 42nd Street.
— annoyed - Another boondoggle for delvelopers. Where is affordable housing in West Philly??????— farhorizons
- Do you mean affordable housing or subsidized housing. You and annoyed should take a basic economics course sometime. The simple rules of supply and demand operate to set the prices. The envy from annoyed in particular is revolting. The world doesn't owe you anything. As soon as you figure that out, the happier you will be.
More development like this is good for the city.— jfar86 - @farhorizons, If you find out where affordable decent housing is, please let the rest of us who are searching know? Right now there isn't any. There's a person down the street renting out single rooms (no pets, shared bath and kitchen with strangers) for over $700 a month. It's insane! Now try it on a fixed income and being disabled and it's even more fun.
I for one am sick and tired of all these "luxury" and "high end" lah de dah places charging obscene amounts of money that if I had I wouldn't want to spend on rent. And you know the developer is getting some kind of good deal from the City so that rent? there's a whole lot of profit happening.— annoyed - $1300 is not expensive for a city high-rise. I get that many of us are on budgets but many of the Penn/Drexel students have parents with plenty of money too spend. If the dorms are empty prices will come down (supply and demand).
To the writer who suggested this glass/curtainwall structure can compare to the declining communist buildings, well get your head out of your ^ss.— KINGOFZED - Looks like this will prevent West Philly from the resurgence that has been seen in Northern Liberties and Fishtown.— KINGOFZED
- KINGOFZED if it means that the everyday working people, older folk, disabled, etc. can afford to live in the neighborhood then guess what, that's fine and dandy with me. Especially with AVI and ridiculously inflated home prices if you happen to live in the Penn Alexander Catchment area for example. That affects and impacts everyone, even those who don't have or never had children. If the smaller landlords aren't being taxed to death, maybe they won't have to charge so much. And if the students flock to Center City, there will be empty apartments here which could create more of a renter's market or homeowner's market for affordable living that's still very convenient. — annoyed
- 1300? They are out of their tree~— dawn7974
- flabbergasted there arent more comments about the 1300$ a month rent... say what?— raynesrock
- Dude its a spanking new $160 M project. What did you think you were going to get in there for $650 a month? If thats your price range you need to be looking for a 1 BR in a 100 yr old row home at 12th Wharton.
What flabbergasts me is that there are so many new apartment complexes going up. I just dont see how the market can digest it all. I'm glad this tower is going up a and Cira Grove and all the other new complexes will eventually fill-up but it is going to turn the Center City rental market upside down.
— argonne - What Grad student can afford $1300 for a single?— Pelti
Whats exciting is the JOBS!- For additional coments see: SkyscraperPage.com
Well folks it looks like we have been cheated again with the Brandywine dorm. Compare this to the oval dorm at the edge of Drexel's campus. We went from a sleek modern office building at 30th street to something out of the 1950's with catoonist cut outs. The base of the building looks like the state office building and the tall thin rectangular shape with a roof that looks like it was plopped down on top looks like something that you would see in the old USSR or industrial cities of the old Red China. There is very little here to get excited about. It is highly visible from the highways I-76 and I-676 and real black eye to our skyline.
— mjkfisher - Brandywine limited their building options here due to that hulkish space eating parking garage which by the way could use some attractive modern sheathing.
The design of the Grove tower? Ive seen the rendering also and imo its very uninspiring and even a tad bit garish but its tough to gauge from a few renderings. So I am keeping an open mind. I think you keep it simple, elegant, classy that thing is a little noisy and too busy looking for my tastes.
Lastly where are all these people coming from to fill these thousands of new housing units going up in Center City?— argonne - Lastly where are all these people coming from to fill these thousands of new housing units going up in Center City?
i wonder this as well. philly is getting too dangerous for retirees and austerity is gutting any decent paying jobs. are there that many trustafarians? - Morgan Hall is 27 stories according to your link.— damnels
