Posted Oct 6, 2016, 2:53 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2014
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After five years, Eastern Tower close to coming out of the ground
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...oming-out.html
Quote:
In the works since 2011, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. is the closest it has been to breaking ground on Eastern Tower — a signature project that will establish a new anchor for the community.
PCDC received this month $1.3 million from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, capping off a series of other funding the organization has lined up to finance the $75 million project. So far, PCDC has $42 million in senior debt from two banks, $33 million in so-called EB-5 funds, $1 million from the William Penn Foundation and an earlier commitment of $3.7 million from the state as well as New Market Tax Credits that will go toward building the project.
“It’s a very complicated financial structure,” said John Chin, executive director of the Chinatown development organization.
The group is hopeful it will close on the financing this month and break ground within the next 30 days after that, Chin said. There had been previous targets for breaking ground on the project over the last five years that have come and gone.
“The life of real estate development,” Chin said.
But this time around, with all of the funding sources lined up, it seems the project has finally reached a point where it will get underway.
The 20-story building would sit on three parcels totaling nearly a half-acre at 10th and Vine streets. It would have 150 apartments, 18,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of community space, 8,600 square feet of retail as well as room for an early childhood learning center.
The project is a significant one for Chinatown, which has seen its population grow in recent years to around 8,000 residents and 193 businesses — three of which were ice cream parlors that opened this past summer. It is the fifth largest Chinatown in the United States.
“With a growing commercial corridor you need a growing population,” Chin said, noting that the influx has been a mix of different demographic backgrounds.
Eastern Tower tackles social, economic, recreational and residential needs of the community, Chin said. It also establishes a destination for the Asian American community throughout the region.
Asian Americans visit Chinatown for a range of reasons whether its religious, health, social service, shopping and dining. Some Asians who live outside of the city are seeking to return to the neighborhood and the project will help provide them with a place to live or visit.
Eastern Tower also starts to stretch Chinatown’s current boundaries northward, which has long been a goal of PCDC. The organization has focused on connecting Chinatown North with Chinatown South, which is bisected by the Vine Street Expressway. Tenth Street serves as a main commercial corridor for Chinatown and this project would extend that as well as tether it to the 10th Street Plaza.
While this is the largest project PCDC is working on, it is involved in other smaller developments in the community and is considering a project on a parcel owned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority at 8th and Vine streets.
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