PHILADELPHIA | EVO @ Cira Centre South | 407 FT | 33 FLRS | U/C - Page 26

thenbagis · #**501** Posted **Aug 24, 2010, 9:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderer34

This sucks big time. Was the delay of the Cira Centre 2 a big factor in BlackRock not coming to Philly???? If that's the case, the the city and state gov't should've done something to ensure that the complex is being built rather than just leaving a parking garage. Once again, Nutter blows BIG TIME!!!!!!

I tend to think it's the other way around... Cira Centre 2 was delayed because BlackRock didn't decide to come to Philly. I don't anyone sees Brandywine Realty building Cira Centre without tenants, especially with ~15% vacany rate in Center City. It just doesn't make good business sense.

The parking garage is another story. That was part of the deal to bring the IRS to the old post office. But why the IRS needs such a huge parking garage next to a hub of public transit is beyond me...

We Got Five · #**502** Posted **Aug 27, 2010, 8:58 PM**

The state and local government offered major tax breaks but BlackRock declined. The Mayor and the city couldn't win them over. That's a scary thought for future prospects.

volguus zildrohar · #**503** Posted **Aug 27, 2010, 9:06 PM**

Ehh...maybe not necessarily. Even with the tax breaks, the move simply may not have made good financial sense for the company at the time.

TheBroadStreetBull · #**504** Posted **Sep 1, 2010, 9:27 PM**

Yup, the activity I saw was just them working on finishing the garage there. *sigh*. This building/set of buildings would be a great addition to the west side of the river. Too bad they can't find a tenant, currently.

I am optimistic that eventually a tenant will be found. At some point there will be an economic recovery and there will be business growth (unless you think the country is literally going to fall apart). Unfortunately, there's just no timeline for this. Could be next year, could be next decade.

Shame.

aro1419 · #**505** Posted **Sep 8, 2010, 8:05 PM**

I feel like every building in the city is postponed because it cannot find an anchor tenant. If only a huge fleet of corporations decided to set up headquarters in Philadelphia. I do believe that Cira Centre South will get built eventually, it's just that the parking garage was the top priority.

wanderer34 · #**506** Posted **Sep 8, 2010, 8:23 PM**

Broad St Bull, i believe that next decade is very scary to predict, especially forf a site of this magnitude. I'm banking on early next year, as most of the troops will be out of Iraq, and the economy will get better than what we have currently!!!

gttx · #**507** Posted **Sep 14, 2010, 9:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderer34

Broad St Bull, i believe that next decade is very scary to predict, especially forf a site of this magnitude. I'm banking on early next year, as most of the troops will be out of Iraq, and the economy will get better than what we have currently!!!

We all need to get behind proposals for high-speed rail in the Northeast. If it can actually be 30 minutes or so between 30th Street and Midtown Manhattan, we might see an interesting migration of companies to Philadelphia, particularly around the station.

hammersklavier · #**508** Posted **Sep 14, 2010, 9:15 PM**

Most of that route is arrow-straight, so it's probably slightly easier than say Philly-DC (which is curvier). Most importantly, the catenary needs to be constant-tension, and after that certain tight curves would need to be loosened (such as Frankford Jct.) We need another Hudson Tube and to have a new span at Portal Bridge, and possibly even have to grade-separate the HSR tracks from the commuter ones, or we're gonna hafta get a waiver (the NEC is four-to-six tracks wide, though, so there would only be a couple of bottlenecks that arise from that).

phillyaggie · #**509** Posted **Sep 17, 2010, 10:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by We Got Five

The state and local government offered major tax breaks but BlackRock declined. The Mayor and the city couldn't win them over. That's a scary thought for future prospects.

BlackRock had its lease in NJ coming up for renewal so it had to make a decision about whether and how long to renew...

and BlackRock wasn't (still isn't) their own masters. They are controlled by others, including PNC. The biggest stakeholder back then was Merrill Lynch, which had itself just been bought out by BoA. So BR's HQ move was going to have to be approved by their new bosses at BoA... and if you recall back then, the financial companies' situation was so tenuous that they all just want to stay put, hunker down, and just survive and deal with everything else later. And so even though BR fought for and got extra tax incentives from the state and the city, their move anyway got scuttled internally.

Bottomline: Philly (and PA) has a bad business climate, but it isn't that bad either. Just last week, an Illinois major manufacturer decided to move its HQ to Philly area.

hammersklavier · #**510** Posted **Oct 6, 2010, 8:42 PM**

Zoning notice up in the retail foot of the parking garage along 30th. Looks like it'll be an eatery with a grocery store component.

Also, what they're doing with the loading docks looks cool!

volguus zildrohar · #**511** Posted **Dec 22, 2010, 5:45 AM**

Just wondering when LA decided to yank Cira South?

Maguire Office Tower:

colemonkee · #**512** Posted **Dec 22, 2010, 7:18 PM**

^ That building was proposed way back in 2006 or 2007, so it may actually precede Cira South. But it's a moot point anyway, as the likelihood of it moving forward is slim to none.

wanderer34 · #**513** Posted **Jan 16, 2011, 6:28 PM**

You know, the economy can be the main culprit for CCS not getting built, but I just don't feel that Nutter was doing anything to at least make the building a reality. The Barnes is getting built already, and the Piazza at Schmidt's is nearly complete, but both those projects predate Nutter as mayor. All that we have now is just a parking garage, but no tower. Now that he has the helm, not one, and I mean one major project has come to fruition since he came into office. I feel a business minded mayor like Knox, Green, Katz (even though he dropped out of the race), or even Rendell (?) can bring hope for Philly because it seemed Philly was losing momentum once Nutter became mayor, and it's not just the economy, as I feel it's a terrible excuse as to why certain projects weren't getting built.

summersm343 · #**514** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 2:04 AM**

New renders! It is alive!!

All sources from here
http://phillyshark.blogspot.com/2011...tre-south.html

THE BIG APPLE · #**515** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 2:06 AM**

I think this is just a small sample of what NYC is going to get with the Hudson Yards. This and it's sister building, both built on platforms.

summersm343 · #**516** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 2:09 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by THE BIG APPLE

I think this is just a small sample of what NYC is going to get with the Hudson Yards. This and it's sister building, both built on platforms.

At the rate this thing is going the Hudson Yards will probably be built before Cira South...

THE BIG APPLE · #**517** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 2:14 AM**

Really! I've been following it since 05 and still not done.

arkitekte · #**518** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 2:17 AM**

Those renderings look nice!

summersm343 · #**519** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 4:04 AM**

Yes, the parking garage is complete. The smaller tower which is the residential tower will probably rise first. Brandywine (the developer of the project) is having a difficult time finding tenants for the office tower but UPenn may fill some of the tower. Penn Medicine is looking to relocate and use the Penn Medicine campus as a private research facility. They are in the process of building a new tower on 8th and Walnut. They have also been in talks with Brandywine about filling some of the Cira South tower. I think it has been hinted that CHOP has interest in filling some of it as well. This is why the tower design has shrunk in height. However nothing is currently set in stone... so I guess we'll see!

hammersklavier · #**520** Posted **Dec 15, 2011, 4:14 AM**

There really is no reason Brandywine isn't building the residential portion first. Philadelphia's office market is very anemic, even in KOZes, but the apartment market's strong enough to be driving no less than three new-construction projects in western Center City...not to mention the massive student market the site sits next to.

I would hope the air-rights space next to it is sold to an enterprising residential developer.