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Friday, February 27, 2009
$420M Waldorf Astoria moving forward as planned
Philadelphia Business Journal - by Natalie Kostelni Staff Writer

In spite of the condo and overall residential market being in the tank, developer Tim Mahoney is forging ahead with a proposed $420 million Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Residences that will be constructed at 1441 Chestnut St. across from City Hall.

In a sign of confidence, the developer is even putting finishing touches on a glitzy model condominium that will replicate a unit in the high-rise where condos will start at $1 million and run up to $22 million for an 11,000-square-foot bilevel penthouse.

“We’re selling this into a 2012 and 2013 market,” said Mahoney, CEO of Mariner Commercial Properties Inc., the project’s developer. “If we deliver into an economy that looks like this, I think we’ve got bigger problems to worry about. We’re selling a piece of the future and hope.”

Mahoney, whose Mariner of Ardmore is working on the project along with local millionaire Brook J. Lenfest and Gatehouse Capital Corp. of Dallas, is also confident in the mixed-use hotel-condo concept even though the Ritz-Carlton is completing its residential tower next door and developers across the country overbuilt these type of projects in some cities. A supply issue shouldn’t be a problem by the time the building is completed and the Waldorf stands apart from the Ritz and other residential projects, Mahoney said.

Mahoney is prepping for the debut of the new luxury high-rise on the former Meridian Building site by investing millions into a 6,600-square-foot model that will also serve as a sales office.

The model is housed in space at 1518 Walnut St. where the Sharper Image once had a store and where Circa Restaurant and Nightclub formerly operated in what was originally a bank building constructed in 1929. The choice in the space, along Philadelphia’s most active and prominent retail addresses, was deliberate. The developer is “merchandising” the condos just as a retailer would a Louis Vuitton bag, Mahoney said.

“I want to create a sense of ‘I’ve got to have it,’” he said.

Mahoney wants shoppers along Walnut Street to see the model as they walk by, be intrigued and come in for a look-see. Once in there, they will be so wowed by the model and the “lifestyle” of living at a Waldorf, that they will plunk down a deposit on one of the 126 residences. The hotel will have 181 rooms.

“It’s risky,” Mahoney said. “But it’s highly visual and a very immersive experience. We want to give you a peek of what it would be like to live in the Waldorf Astoria.”

While the building was designed by Cope Linder Architects of Philadelphia, the model and sales space was designed by Frank Nicholson Inc. of Concord, Mass. An 8-foot-high, interactive architectural model of the condominium portion of the 58-story tower initially greets prospective buyers and gives them a literal translation of what the views would be like in each of the units. More convincing is the actual model, which, among other details, gives nighttime views of what it would be like in a condo on the 42nd-floor of the tower. And since the decorated model is decked out with marble floors, sci-fi electronics, a fully operational kitchen and gas fireplace, it gives buyers the feel of what it would be like to live there. Condos will run from floor 28 to 58.