PHILADELPHIA-CAMDEN-WILMINGTON-ATLANTIC CITY-READING | Metro Development Thread

[mcgrath618]

Drove by One Ardmore today. They've dug a large hole.

[DIESELPOLO]

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

Drove by One Ardmore today. They've dug a large hole.

Update noted and appreciated.

[EastSideHBG]

Plymouth Meeting Mall rolls out two new entertainment retailers: 5 Wits and Cyclebar
Updated: MAY 10, 2017 — 5:11 PM EDT
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...-Cyclebar.html

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by jonesrmj

I'm just wondering, why don't we just call this thread "Wilmington Development" or something like that because after all, it is primarily based off of Wilmington.

We used to have separate Wilmington and Camden threads, but they weren't seeing enough traffic on their own, so we combined them all. They are all a part of the Philadelphia Metropolitan area, so it only makes sense.

[summersm343]

Urban farm and mortgage firm latest in line for N.J. tax breaks to move to Camden

Two very different New Jersey businesses -- an online mortgage broker and an urban farming operation -- are in line for sizable tax incentives from the state’s Economic Development Authority this week to locate operations in Camden.

AeroFarms did not return a request for comment Tuesday, but its website says it grows “leafy greens and herbs” in a 70,000-square-foot urban building “without sunlight, soil, or pesticides.” Nutrients are misted directly onto the plants’ roots, which are illuminated by LEDs.

The company has been operating since 2015 in Newark, where it grows watercress, bok choy, kale, arugula, red-leaf lettuce, and other baby salad greens. Its process is, according to AeroFarms, “130 times more productive than field farming.” The Newark operation current employs about 60 workers.

Created in 2002, E Mortgage leased 12,000 square feet of office space two years ago at 3 Executive Campus in Cherry Hill, and soon expanded to 17,000 square feet. Crichton said the company, which has about 100 employees, is looking to about double the office space it has now.

But Camden’s waterfront, which Holtec, New Jersey American Water, and the 76ers (for their practice facility), now or will soon call home, has already become too expensive for E Mortgage, according to Crichton. He said the company was looking instead to build along the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, near Campbell Soup and Subaru’s corporate offices.

“It’s a much better environment than it once was, and it’s really convenient,” said Crichton, who cited PATCO trains, NJ Transit, and Routes 30 and 676, which he said should make the new offices accessible for its current workforce.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/ne...o-Camden-.html

[summersm343]

A $40M campus building in Delaware

Rendering:
http://www.bancroftconstruction.com/...ion_Page_1.jpg

The University of Delaware is moving forward with the construction of a $40 million, 120,000-square-foot office building at its Science, Technology and Advanced Research, or STAR, campus on the former 272-acre Chrysler manufacturing property in Newark. The building is being developed in a partnership with Delle Donne & Associates and the university, which is leasing 80,000 square feet of the property for its college of health sciences. JLL has been hired to lease the remaining space. Delle Donne has the ability to construct additional buildings on an adjacent 16 acres. The new building is expected to be completed by mid-2018. Bernardon and Associates is the architect.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...are-to-an.html

[summersm343]

Will be cool to see if Newark can build a little skyline here.

[domodeez]

From Shipley St. looking west:



From 9 x Shipley looking southwest



From 9 x Orange looking southeast:

[domodeez]

Live Nation taking over Wilmington's Queen

The world's largest live entertainment company is moving into Delaware's largest city.

Live Nation Entertainment will take over management of Market Street's historic Queen Theatre, replacing World Cafe Live, officials have exclusively revealed to The News Journal.

The arrival of the live music juggernaut at the end of the month could mean The Queen Theatre will draw bigger acts, while targeting a younger demographic and radiating a big-city vibe.

"To us, we feel like the Queen is going to be somewhere between the Theatre of Living Arts and The Fillmore," says Michael Grozier, Live Nation's executive vice president of clubs and theatres. "The Queen is a great building and a great project and we just hope to build on it. We're going to try to bring the best shows we can down to Wilmington."

...

Live Nation signed a 10-year lease for the Queen with building owners The Buccini/Pollin Group, says Chris Buccini, co-president of the real estate company.

While the Live Nation-run Queen will only host a few concerts over the summer as part of a soft opening, a full schedule will be on the books in time for a grand opening after Labor Day.

The Queen's history-filled style and look will remain intact, but some renovations are expected as Live Nation invests in the building. One possible change is transforming World Cafe Live's merchandise area at the corner of N. Market Street and E. Fifth Street into a bar, adding energy to a corner with heavy traffic.

...

"The fact that a global brand like Live Nation wants to invest long-term in the city of Wilmington says a lot about how far the city has come," Buccini says. "When you really take a step back, you think, 'Holy s--t, we have a Live Nation music venue in downtown Wilmington. That's big city stuff.' We're pumped."

Live Nation will take over the entire building except the upstairs stage and restaurant. An undetermined food-based operator will partner with Live Nation as part of a hybrid management structure to run that area, Buccini adds.

...

The Queen will be part of Live Nation's House of Blues division, but will not use the brand in the venue's proper name, which is simply The Queen Theatre. House of Blues was founded in 1992 by Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett, actor Dan Aykroyd and Judy Belushi, wife of the late comedian John Belushi. House of Blues was purchased by Live Nation in 2006.

Live Nation, which has access to a great number of acts in both the music and comedy worlds, should make a major splash in Delaware's largest city on the heels of World Cafe Live's failure. Expect more of a harder edge with rock, pop, country, electronic and hip-hop shows replacing some of the softer, more coffee house-influenced offerings of World Cafe Live.

In short, the venue could morph from a place that parents went to on date nights to the spot where they drop their teenagers off for a night of music featuring acts that lean more toward the kind found at the youth-driven Firefly Music Festival.

"I think you're going to find bigger shows and, more importantly, a wider audience," Buccini says. "Hopefully we'll be able to dip into the University of Delaware and Newark crowd. We want to broaden the appeal to get that many more people coming."

...

For Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, Live Nation's commitment to the Queen says a lot about the future of live entertainment venues in the city.

"It means a lot for the credibility of the city. It ups our game significantly," he says. "We're right next to Philadelphia and we'll always be in the shadow of a major city, but I think we're going to cut our own path and have our own personality as an entertainment destination."

...

"The bones are extraordinary and the investment by [The Buccini/Pollin Group] and World Cafe Live -- they built a really good club. And I think the market as a whole seems to be progressive and aggressive in terms of its own growth and development," Grozier adds. "Right building. Right time. Right city."

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...ueen/97235328/

[summersm343]

Resort-Style Living for the Active Senior Set Comes to King of Prussia at the Village at Valley Forge





Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/property/20...EhcOVETetb6.99

[summersm343]

Wilmington: You could call it 'Buccini Town'

Read more here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...Rockford-.html

[domodeez]

Signs of progress...





From Thursday:


This is on Market Street right next to the UDairy Creamery that's opening later this month.

...BPG’s proposed Chelsea Plaza project that would demolish the neighboring building to create an outdoor plaza on Market Street. The plaza would open up to Shipley Street and to the Residences at Midtown Park that upon completion will deliver more than 500 parking spaces, 200 luxury apartments and additional retail.

http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/marc...et-wilmington/

[domodeez]

Scaffolding going up...







Hadn't updated on this one in about 6 weeks. Previous update here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1503

[domodeez]

This is coming down quickly

[summersm343]

European Invasion at King of Prussia Mall: French kids' retailer Orchestra is the latest

Read more here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...he-latest.html

[summersm343]

Beer & spirits hub brewing in Philadelphia. What's it mean for real estate?

Philadelphia was once known as The Workshop of the World, but it's fast becoming a hub for alcohol production, with more real estate dedicated to breweries, distilleries and fermenteries, according to a new report.

Just five years ago in 2012, Philadelphia only had a handful of long-established breweries and one startup distillery within city limits. That's changed, and it will continue to change, according to a report by JLL.

More than 30 separate companies will be in operation by 2018, including production breweries and eat-in brewpubs, and small-batch distilleries and fermenteries.

More real estate in Philadelphia is being dedicated for alcohol production facilities. Before 2012, about 118,200 square feet of space was dedicated for breweries, distilleries and fementeries, according to the report.

That number is expected to balloon to 267,200 square feet of space by 2018, representing 126 percent growth. About 183,400 square feet of real estate was earmarked toward this industry in 2016, the report reads.

Operators vary in size in Philadelphia, but of the 33 identified production facilities, 25 were under 10,000 square feet in size.

"When you think about this as a movement, it's very small-scale and very niche," said Lauren Gilchrist, vice president and director of research for JLL in Philadelphia.

Only seven surpassed 10,000-square-foot mark, including Yards Brewing Co.'s future 70,000-square-foot home in the former Destination Maternity facility at 456 N. 5th Street.

Other breweries that exceed that threshold include Philadelphia Brewing Co. at 38,000 square feet in Kensington (Philadelphia Brewing shares space with Commonwealth Ciders); 2nd Story Brewing Co. at 13,000 square feet in Old City; and Philadelphia Distilling's new 15,000-square-foot home in Fishtown.

This growth in demand and operators is helping local brewers and distillers find suitable real estate.

Montgomery County's Manatawny Still Works this year will open a tasting room on East Passyunk Avenue. And while developers and commercial landlords have approached the company since its inception in 2014, the frequency increased significantly in the past year, co-founder Derek Menaldino said.

"We believe this owes both to the growth and visibility of our brand and the numerous development projects in Philadelphia that want unique and high-end tenants to complement the vision for their projects," he said.

Here are a few beer and spirits developments in Greater Philadelphia:

-Iron Hill Brewery will open its 13th restaurant at the East Market development under construction at 11th and Market streets in Philadelphia.
-Dock Street Brewery in West Philadelphia opened a canning facility and tasting room adjacent to its brewpub.
-Wissahickon Brewing Co. opened in the East Falls section of Philadelphia, becoming the area's first brewery since the 1950s.
-Yards Brewing Co. will move into 70,000 square feet at the former Destination Maternity facility at 456 N. 5th Street. It's set to open in early 2017.
-Startup brewery Love City Brewing Co. by husband-wife team Kevin Walter and Melissa Walter will open an 11,000-square-foot, 20-barrel production facility in the Spring Arts district area of Philadelphia.
-Neshaminy Creek Brewing Co., after a lease fell through for a spot in Fishtown, will take over the former Guild Hall Brewing location in Jenkintown in Montgomery County.
-Roy Pitz Brewing Co. of Chambersburg, Pa., signed a lease to open a 4,000-square-foot brewpub on the ground floor of 990 Spring Garden St.
-Startup Locust Lane Craft Brewery opened a 5,200-square-foot production brewery on 50 Three Tun Road, a project by RedGoDevelopment.
-Brewery ARS by brothers Sean and Andy Arsenault in December 2016 opened on West Passyunk Avenue.
-Manatawny Still Works of Pottstown in Montgomery County this year will open a 600-square-foot tasting room on East Passyunk Avenue.
-Chester County's Bluebird Distillery will have a physical presence in Center City.
-Products from Boardroom Spirits in Lansdale are now available in Center City, and the distillery is expanding its production facility. A larger "hospitality space" is part of the expansion.
-Startup craft distiller Pennsylvania Distilling Co. will open a distillery in Chester County.
-Chester County’s Brandywine Branch Distillers accelerated its expansion after highlights in national media outlets catapulted it into distributors’ line of vision.
-Bucks County's Dad's Hat Pennsylvania Rye is expanding the size of its distillery from 6,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet, coinciding with the demand for its products.
-Philadelphia Distilling recently opened a Fishtown tasting room and a production facility

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...iladelphi.html

[summersm343]

Edit. Wrong thread.

[summersm343]

Hubbell Lighting to close in Bristol, 114 to lose their jobs

A leading commercial and industrial lighting company that specializes in fluorescent and LED lighting products is shuttering its Bucks County manufacturing operations and laying off 114 employees.

Hubbell Lighting Inc., considered one of the largest lighting manufacturers in the country, maintains a factory that makes fixtures at 1119 Beaver St. in Bristol. Of the employees affected by the closure, 93 are listed as belonging to a union and 21 are considered “facilities employees,“ according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, the company filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor. The layoffs will take place between July 8 and Oct. 31.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...4-to-lose.html

[PhilliesPhan]

5/18

I decided to explore Wilmington. Towards the end of my trip, I noticed that something is rising near the Christiana River. Does anyone know anything about this project?





5/19

After hearing about a revitalized commercial district, I decided to head to Bristol and explore the aforementioned area. I found some new projects along the way!

Along Mill Street:





Something is going on along the Delaware River:



Now, we're on Radcliffe Street:



Finally, at Pond Street:



I believe that the time to invest in Bristol real estate is now. This borough is walkable and has several commercial strips, but doesn't seem to have realized all of its potential. Honestly, I can see Bristol becoming the next New Hope. Bristol definitely has two advantages over New Hope: a train station with access to Philly and Trenton (although it may seem distant to those who are not used to walking a lot), as well as much better access to the Delaware River.

[Milksteak]

^^ They are building daytime docks on the Delaware in Bristol, meaning boaters can pull up, dock, and walk around for the day. It's a big advantage to other river towns and will definitely bring some money in. Bristol has also won the small business revolution, beating out 14,000 other entries and will receive half a million in marketing investment, and on top of that just recently received $50k in state money to revitalize Mill Street. They've got a brewery moving in and the pictures you took show the $500k condos they are building on the Delaware. Exciting times.

The time to invest is most definitely now, if I had the extra cash I'd jump on it.