New 14 story temple dorm

[eldondre]

Developer Bart Blatstein won a key vote today in his quest to add a 14-story Temple Universtiy dormitory at his Avenue North complex at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

With unanimous approval for a zoning change by City Council’s Rules Committee yesterday, Blatstein’s $50 million, 300-unit tower appears headed for approval by full Council by next week.The building would be constructed behind The Pearl movie theater, in the area bounded by Broad, 15th Street, Oxford Street and Cecil B. Moore.

It would house 1,100 students, City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke said, adding more foot-traffic and commercial activity to a once-desolate intersection.

In addition Clarke, said, new housing will help alleviate the “problematic” encroachment of student rental units into family neigborhoods in North Philadelphia.

nice.
New 14-story dorm for Temple? | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/11/2009

[BeBe]

Considering the developer, they should just call it "Temple of Doom."

[eldondre]

Considering the developer, they should just call it "Temple of Doom."

what's wrong with the current dorm? I looked at a couple of properties in manayunk occupied by temple students, unless he gets his materials from the dump, I fail to see how it could be worse. I was appalled, even in college I didn't live like that.

[BeBe]

what's wrong with the current dorm? I looked at a couple of properties in manayunk occupied by temple students, unless he gets his materials from the dump, I fail to see how it could be worse. I was appalled, even in college I didn't live like that.

I haven't seen these, I've only seen, and lived in, some of his other buildings. I doubt he's going to spend any more money on materials than he ever did, though...or on maintaining them, or on "little" details like removing fuel oil tanks on the property that may, (and did,) flood the units just because he didn't want to spend the money at the time.
I'm sure he's changed his ways.
He's probably hiring people who actually have licenses required to do the work they do, even...

He's better suited for building dorms, though...those people are even more transient than renters, and don't care too much about their living space beyond aesthetics.

[hammersklavier]

Which, if you've heard the rumors, is even then super-appalling at the Edge.

[ArcticSplash]

Wouldn't it be fabo if Blattstein hooked up with Philadelphia Management to run the building?


I propose the name of the project to be: Villa del Feces.

[BeBe]

Wouldn't it be fabo if Blattstein hooked up with Philadelphia Management to run the building?


I propose the name of the project to be: Villa del Feces.

Ha!
Didn't you know? He HAS hooked up with them already. They've advertised MY old building and some of his other gems as well.

[eldondre]

you don't succeed in Philly because you provide a good product, sad but true. You have to play the game instead

[thunda]

For me, the real nugget in this story is that it takes a zoning variance to allow a 14-story apartment building at Broad and Cecil B.

[desolate]

"encroachment of student rental units into family neigborhoods in North Philadelphia. "


Hhahahahahahahmuuhahahshahahshh

No Temple and the area around would be as hopeless as parts not near temple.

[eldondre]

City Council this past week gave a preliminary thumbs-up to a quarter-billion dollar project in North Philadelphia that will include some much-needed off-campus housing for Temple University students.

The $250-million complex will be built at 12th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, site of what is now the old John Wanamaker School, which closed back in the '80s. Colin Jones with the Goldenberg Group, the developer, says the project will include much more than student housing:

“We would have a green technology center, a charter school, an arts and education foundation and we will have approximately 800 residential units.”

This is a joint venture with the neighboring Bright Hope Baptist Church, which plans to open a charter school there. Most of the student housing will be in a new 14-story tower, and Jones hopes for ground breaking by next spring

KYW Newsradio 1060 Philadelphia - Preliminary OK for Off-Campus Housing Project Near Temple

[raider.adam]

The shadows!

[eldondre]

Closed four years ago, the Wanamaker School in North Philadelphia is set to come back to life, but with an unusual new mix of uses - apartments for Temple University students, a charter school, a training center, a community hub for neighbors.

The $250 million project, which City Council approved last month, is a partnership between the nonprofit development arm of Bright Hope Baptist Church and the Goldenberg Group, a Blue Bell-based developer.

With Temple's main campus next door, the Wanamaker property had been sought by many developers, including the university itself. The Bright Hope-Goldenberg partners paid the school district $10.75 million for the nearly five-acre site....Enrollment has jumped 60 percent in the last decade, to about 26,000 undergraduates. Today, roughly 40 percent of them, or about 11,000 students, request nearby housing. But with just 4,500 dorm rooms, Temple can guarantee on-campus housing for only the first two years - a policy change made in 2004 in response to rising enrollment, said Michael Scales, Temple's associate vice president of student affairs...Residents of Yorktown, an enclave of suburban-style single homes on the south side of Cecil B. Moore, have complained about late-night parties, dwindling parking, and absentee landlords who fill single-family homes with students....Projects now in the works would make available another 3,000 beds. While the size and configuration of student apartments vary, the average cost for a student is anywhere from $650 to $750 a month.

Bart Blatstein, who developed the Edge at Avenue North near 15th Street and Cecil B. Moore, is planning a second apartment project next door with 1,100 beds....

Middle school to reopen, but for different uses | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/08/2009

[Bulworth67]

"encroachment of student rental units into family neigborhoods in North Philadelphia. "


Hhahahahahahahmuuhahahshahahshh

No Temple and the area around would be as hopeless as parts not near temple.

YES!
The Yorktown community are a bunch of idiots. They stronged armed Darrell Clarke into introducing an ordinance banning students from certain neighborhoods near Temple. It's under court challenge currently.

[eldondre]

another new dorm, this one is being met with opposition. seriously, how many foreign students will have cars?

A North Philadelphia community is divided over a planned four-story apartment building for about 200 Temple University international students.

Some residents have praised the project, slated for Cecil B. Moore Avenue, between Sydenham and 16th streets. The Rev. Lewis Nash, of Faith Deliverance Church, said he supports the project because it will reduce blight and create both construction jobs and permanent ones once the 106-unit building opens.

But others, both community residents and developers of smaller-scale housing, are crying foul.

They say Beech Interplex, developer of the project, is not providing required parking for its tenants. A spokesman for Beech recently told the Daily News that the international students don't have cars.

Critics also say that Beech, which has stated that its mission is to boost the commercial revitalization of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, is skimping on street-level commercial space in order to put more residential units for students on the first floor.

"The [first] floor should be devoted to the existence of retail shops that benefit the community, which suffers from a dearth of retail services in the area," Vivian VanStory, president of Community Land Trust Corp., a community housing organization, yesterday told members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Plans call for at least one restaurant on the first floor. Shawn D. Ward, a lawyer for Beech, said there are at least three spaces devoted to commercial enterprises, but there are currently no tenants for two of the spots.

Judith Robinson, a homeowner spoke out against the plan.

"This parcel is made up of land that's owned by the Redevelopment Authority and Philadelphia Housing Authority and they're taking public land for private use," said Robinson, of Woodstock Street near Diamond.

In regard to the lack of parking, Ward told the zoning board that Temple has promised to allow any of the international students to use parking spaces in the parking garage of the nearby Liacouras Center.

...
"The issue here that we're protesting is equal justice under the law," Schraeter said.

Schraeter said that smaller-scale developers had been turned down for variances concerning parking and the amount of open space.

"Because when the issue came up," he said, "we were confronted by the very same battery of politicians who objected to granting the variances based on the theory that we would be increasing the density of the population in the area and the traffic." *

Some cry foul over Temple housing plan | Philadelphia Daily News | 07/23/2009

I can see the commercial space, though it sounds as if they are providing some commercial space. I don't buy the public land for private use. those agencies are only supposed to own land when there's no private use. Seems like a good project for the corridor when taken as a whole with the other two dorms.

[Sharkfood]

I think there are two issues with this proposed new dorm on CB Moore between 15th & 16th.

1. It's completely outrageous that first floor retail is being eliminated completely or almost completely. The property is on Cecil B Moore 1 1/2 blocks from Broad Street. This is the prime commercial area for Temple University. I'm sympathetic to the fact that there is too much commercial zoning in North Philadelphia. However, if you're going to preserve commercial zoning anywhere, this is the place to do it. It's right down the street from Blatstein's complex, it's across the street from the Draught Horse and a 7-11. I ask you, why would you want to kill off commercial development in this block?

2. Quite apart from the first issue is the fact that Beech Interplex is a politically connected developer that is very cozy with Clarke's office. Many small developers have met with opposition from Clarke when they wanted to do the same thing on a smaller scale (dispense with parking requirements; build residential in a commercial zone). Now along comes this politically connected developer who wants to plunk down a huge complex in a prime commercial area with zero parking and Clarke supports this. What does that tell you about the zoning process in North Philadelphia?

[eldondre]

I think there are two issues with this proposed new dorm on CB Moore between 15th & 16th.

1. It's completely outrageous that first floor retail is being eliminated completely or almost completely. The property is on Cecil B Moore 1 1/2 blocks from Broad Street. This is the prime commercial area for Temple University. I'm sympathetic to the fact that there is too much commercial zoning in North Philadelphia. However, if you're going to preserve commercial zoning anywhere, this is the place to do it. It's right down the street from Blatstein's complex, it's across the street from the Draught Horse and a 7-11. I ask you, why would you want to kill off commercial development in this block?

2. Quite apart from the first issue is the fact that Beech Interplex is a politically connected developer that is very cozy with Clarke's office. Many small developers have met with opposition from Clarke when they wanted to do the same thing on a smaller scale (dispense with parking requirements; build residential in a commercial zone). Now along comes this politically connected developer who wants to plunk down a huge complex in a prime commercial area with zero parking and Clarke supports this. What does that tell you about the zoning process in North Philadelphia?

It tells me the zoning process in north philadelphia is very similar to the one in the rest of Philadelphia. having councilmembers in charge fo this stuff is a big problem. I see no issue with the lack of parking. these are foreign students let alone domestic students who also, probably, rarely have cars. this type of variance should be easy to get. I'd agree with your commercial space argument. Especially with the alrge new dorm going in on the next block east clarke is shifty at best.

[cwd22]

Political issues aside, this sounds like a great project. Commercial space should definetly be maximized but the people complaining about parking and the loss of "public" land are ridiculous. I guess a gravel lot is preferable to an improved commercial corridor...

That lot's been passed over by redevelopment for way too long. You can go a couple of blocks west of there and Cecil B. Moore still looks pretty nice, but 2 blocks away from what's probably the heart of lower North Philly is a huge vacant lot.

[Sharkfood]

I have no problem with the lack of parking either.

But, please tell me, how do you restrict a private apartment building to "international students" without running afoul of housing discrimination laws? Unless Temple is involved in the project on some level, it's just a private apartment building and you can't discriminate among apartment applicants.

[thoth]

Maybe the same way they run the International House. Philadelphia International House: The city’s international home

I have no problem with the lack of parking either.

But, please tell me, how do you restrict a private apartment building to "international students" without running afoul of housing discrimination laws? Unless Temple is involved in the project on some level, it's just a private apartment building and you can't discriminate among apartment applicants.