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New Philadelphia office tower planned for prime location

Developer Don Pulver is proposing to construct a 38-story office tower on what is now a surface lot at 13th and Market streets in Philadelphia.

Pulver has put the site under agreement with the Estate of Sam Rappaport, a notorious landlord in Philadelphia. Rappaport who, along with Richard Basciano, were known to own some of the city’s premier real estate properties and sat on them as slumlords until the market finally boosted their values. This parking lot is no different.

Steps away from City Hall as well as with access to the subway and other mass transit, it’s an obvious location for new development but, in spite of that, nothing has happened on the property. With the upswing in interest in the East Market area of Philadelphia and more than $1 billion in development proposed or underway there, the value of the property has risen and Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. is seeking to seize on those market conditions.

“Everyone is there,” he said.

Pulver declined to disclose how much he is paying for the 35,000-square-foot parcel, which is zoned CMX-5. The proposed building would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would total 840,000 square feet. Most of the space would be dedicated to offices but a portion would have retail and related amenities.

Pulver and his company are better known for developing the Tower Bridge office complex in Conshohocken and West Conshohocken and, in Philadelphia, the company developed 1600 Market St. and 1234 Market, which is across the street from this surface lot. While Pulver flirted in recent years with constructing an office building on the far edges of West Market Street, the developer hasn’t embarked on a building in Center City in decades. Oliver Tyrone Pulver constructed 1234 Market in 1975. That speaks more to the nature of Philadelphia’s office market and the lack of demand for new space.

Pulver is seeking to pre-lease a significant portion of the building before breaking ground on it and believes there are plenty of tenants milling about to eventually kick it off.

“It depends on the overall national economy and we’re pretty bullish on the national economy,” he said.

Pulver expects the next year will be spent taking the property through the approval process as well as doing pre-development and design work. It would be ready for occupancy in early 2020. Skidmore Owings & Merrill is the architect and has designed Oliver Tyrone Pulver’s Tower Bridge buildings.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...ty-market.html