Convention Area Demolition

[DCnPhilly]

This was just bulldozed last week. Does anyone know if a building is coming, or if Sl-EZ Park is spreading north?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Philad...vania&t=h&z=20

[londoner]

Wow, if you zoom out, look how many parking lots are right in that 1-2 block radius...i counted atleast 10, perhaps even 12 or 13. Lotsa vibrancy here...

[DCnPhilly]

Wow, if you zoom out, look how many parking lots are right in that 1-2 block radius...i counted atleast 10, perhaps even 12 or 13. Lotsa vibrancy here...

No kidding. Every morning I wake up there seems to be another parking lot. I mean the building that was torn down wasn't pretty, but we don't need more surface parking here. EZ Park is like a cancer, eating away at neighboring properties until there's nothing left. One garage could accommodate all of this and more. What's even more obnoxious is their campaign to lower the tax on parking. They had posted signs that said "High taxes are the reason we have to charge so much." Funny, they charge conventioneers $25 to park in their crappy lots when two blocks away you can park in a garage for $5 a day. They charge $25 a head - sometimes more or less depending on the convention - because people don't know any better. People are stupid, but I don't think anyone's stupid enough to believe that Sl-EZ Park is going to lower their rates if their taxes go down.

[BarryG]

I don't know, but this new garage should hopefully alleviate the need for so many surface lots:
Work Has Begun on New Convention Center Parking Garage | NakedPhilly

[hammersklavier]

Yeah, good luck getting Sl-EZ Park Fields redeveloped.

I think that parking lots need to be a restricted use so that you always have to go through the Planning Commission if you want to build a parking lot.

[DCnPhilly]

Yeah, good luck getting Sl-EZ Park Fields redeveloped.

I think that parking lots need to be a restricted use so that you always have to go through the Planning Commission if you want to build a parking lot.

Don't you have to before you demolish something?

[hammersklavier]

Only on historically-certified buildings or in historical districts AFAIK. Elsewhere you can just go to L&I.

[Debbie1125]

No kidding. Every morning I wake up there seems to be another parking lot. I mean the building that was torn down wasn't pretty, but we don't need more surface parking here. EZ Park is like a cancer, eating away at neighboring properties until there's nothing left.

Arch Street is like this too. Just about the entire blocks on Arch between 17th and 20th are wastelands of surface lots. It's an ugly patchwork.

[Pitt]

It's a new parking lot. I asked the workers last week. Would be nice to see the street grid reconstituted there someday.

[BenDee]

Arch Street is like this too. Just about the entire blocks on Arch between 17th and 20th are wastelands of surface lots. It's an ugly patchwork.

There are plans in the works to eliminate many of them - the ACC site (1800 Arch) was just sold for $40m to the developers of the Comcast Center, 1900 Arch has plans for a 14 story apartment building, and almost every lot east to 11th street has plans to be converted or is already under construction.

[DCnPhilly]

There are plans in the works to eliminate many of them - the ACC site (1800 Arch) was just sold for $40m to the developers of the Comcast Center, 1900 Arch has plans for a 14 story apartment building, and almost every lot east to 11th street has plans to be converted or is already under construction.

That's true. 13th and Arch has a parking garage and retail, 12th and Arch has the new Hilton proposal. There's even a new apartment building almost done at Race and Camac. Now it could inch its way back to the Vine Street Parking Praire it could bridge tha gap to the Callowhill neighborhood.