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  #41  
Old Posted Apr 18, 2008, 12:28 AM
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Rittenhouse Coffee Shop

I have read conflicting reports on the fate of the Rittenhouse Coffee Shop. Our first post mentions that the Warwick Apts, the funeral home, and the coffee shop may need to be demo'd. Another article that I read said only two buildings were to be demo'd. Has anyone heard anything official?

Thanks...
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  #42  
Old Posted Apr 18, 2008, 10:31 AM
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I was assuming it would be the funeral parlor, the taller empty building, and the coffee shop. The womens clothing store featuring "sizes 2-16" will stay
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  #43  
Old Posted Apr 18, 2008, 8:36 PM
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From philly.com

Another tid-bit similar to post #37 by highdensity32

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Irish Built: Castleway on RitSquare

Mark King of Castleway Properties and his Philly zoning lawyer, Carl Primavera, unveiled the Irish firm's latest plan for 1900 Walnut at the Philadelphia Planning Commission on Tuesday. Castleway would build a 525-foot condo tower on Sansom, a 220-foot hotel on Walnut, and 25,000 square feet of retail wrapped around the street level. Garden roofs, a pedestrian walkway.
The plan would close a block of Moravian Street, noted commissioner and building union leader Pat Eiding. That plus tower heights, and a plan to move parking and trucks underground through a narrow exit, would need city permission.

Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano

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  #44  
Old Posted Jul 1, 2008, 4:03 PM
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any more news
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  #45  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2008, 11:37 PM
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Yeah, any update on this?
     
     
  #46  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2008, 1:59 PM
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Inga Blog

http://changingskyline.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 18, 2008
What Do You Do with a $36 million Empty Lot?
Now that ARCWheeler's Boyd hotel and theater project has received the blessings of the Planning Commission (Tuesday) and the Zoning Board of Adjustment (Wednesday), we thought we would turn our attention to the project on the opposite side of Sansom Street. Does the name Castleway Properties still ring any bells?

Just over a year ago, the Dublin-based company paid $36.7 million for the last buildable lot on Rittenhouse Square, rescuing it from the low expectations of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. The firm hired Brad Fiske of KlingStubbins to turn out some renderings for an ambitious mixed-use development, which you can see in the image. The plan called for a 525-foot condo tower backing onto Sansom Street - just across the way from one of the entrances to the proposed Boyd hotel. In the front, toward the northeast corner of the square, they envisioned a 220-foot boutique hotel, with the usual assortment of restaurants and cafes.

Castleway's Jim Osbourne told me back then that he also wanted to knock down the Warwick Apartment building and the funeral home on Sansom (read the Illadelph account), but would preserve the beautifully tiled Rittenhouse cafe. In place of the two demolished buildings, he said there would be a linear park connecting Walnut to Sansom, an idea that would dovetail very nicely with Hal Wheeler's plan to upgrade Sansom Street.

Exciting stuff. The Castleway folks, who broke all price records when then paid close $37 million for the .83-acre site, were no doubt flush with Euro wealth from the then-booming Irish economy.

By early 2008, Castleway appeared to drop out of sight. Disappeared. Vanished. The Center City Residents Association stopped hearing from them. Their urgent requests for a zoning upgrade, to C5, suddenly ceased. And then soon after, the real estate market went into its current nosedive.

This is another project that looks dead, but may still have a little life in it yet. Osborne, speaking by phone from Ireland, told me the company is reassessing the project's size and mix to account for the changes in the market. He said he still believes the company "still has the best site in Philadelphia. We're not about to give up on it." The question is how to develop it.

ARCWheeler's plans for the Boyd Hotel can't hurt. Osborne and Wheeler have been talking to coordinate their projects, and Osborne says he will be in Philadelphia early in the New Year to begin work on a new development plan for the Rittenhouse Square site.

Unfortunately, things haven't been going quite so well at another project that Osborne has been involved with, separate from Castleway's portfolio. Osborne is the development director for Shelbourne Development's Chicago Spire project, the ambitious, 2,000-foot tall condo tower on Chicago's lakefront. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, that twisting condo tower was to be America's tallest residential building, but now it's a mere rain-filled hole in the ground and the contractors have filed liens against the developer for non-payment. Osborne says, however, that the condos are still selling and that con-struction will eventually resume.

So, for now, I guess having a big grassy empty lot may be preferable to having a small lake.
     
     
  #47  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2008, 2:31 PM
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"ARCWheeler's plans for the Boyd Hotel can't hurt. Osborne and Wheeler have been talking to coordinate their projects, and Osborne says he will be in Philadelphia early in the New Year to begin work on a new development plan for the Rittenhouse Square site."

This is a great sign. I am fully confident we'll see this project move forward. The last lot "on" the square will be utilized accordingly at some point.
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  #48  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2008, 9:58 PM
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Quote:
the company is reassessing the project's size and mix to account for the changes in the market.
so in other words its going to be drastically smaller and end up wasting a good site?
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  #49  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2008, 3:09 AM
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I hope that the developers of this project don't level the buildings slated to be demolished until they are certain that they can get the new structure up. I read a comment in this thread stating that Philadelphia doesn't have a wealth of historic mid-rises to spare; Chicago has a similar dearth of such buildings. Neither city can afford to lose such precious pieces of history without a guaranteed replacement that is significantly valuable enough to warrant demolition.

In fact, not too long ago a developer here in Chicago leveled a series of vintage mid and low-rise buildings to clear the way for a (decidedly unworthy) replacement before the financing for the replacement was secured. Now we have a vacant lot on our hands where there once stood some beautiful old buildings, and the prospects of the replacement tower actually getting built are anything but certain.
     
     
  #50  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2008, 10:40 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jibba View Post
I hope that the developers of this project don't level the buildings slated to be demolished until they are certain that they can get the new structure up. I read a comment in this thread stating that Philadelphia doesn't have a wealth of historic mid-rises to spare; Chicago has a similar dearth of such buildings. Neither city can afford to lose such precious pieces of history without a guaranteed replacement that is significantly valuable enough to warrant demolition.

In fact, not too long ago a developer here in Chicago leveled a series of vintage mid and low-rise buildings to clear the way for a (decidedly unworthy) replacement before the financing for the replacement was secured. Now we have a vacant lot on our hands where there once stood some beautiful old buildings, and the prospects of the replacement tower actually getting built are anything but certain.
So true. Historic mid-rises are the real essence of a city's urban fabric. They are what give the rest it's rich context. Here in Tampa, we don't have much beyond the post 80's post-modern drab, hence a really unnnnnnnexciting skyline. A town needs those older, smaller interesting buildings of various vintages to give the whole thing umphh.
     
     
  #51  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2009, 7:29 PM
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What is happening at Castleway property on Walnut Street?

Does anyone know why workers, all with decided Irish brogues, began digging up the sidewalk down to the pipes at the front of the Castleway property at 1910 to 1915 Walnut Street? The workers would only say that they were not at liberty to say anything but "we are getting ready."

Is the project on at last?
     
     
  #52  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2009, 9:04 PM
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Urrr - if you're referring to Philadelphia's Castleway project we have no clue exactly. Site prep can happen years before a project occurs. I'll walk by ther site later to see exactky what has occurred.
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  #53  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2009, 11:36 PM
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Anything new with this project? It would be a lovely addition to the skyline.
     
     
  #54  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2009, 12:19 PM
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I'm having lunch at Smith & Wollensky today, I'll take a gander over there to see what's going on.
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  #55  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2009, 12:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Leslie Royce View Post
Does anyone know why workers, all with decided Irish brogues, began digging up the sidewalk down to the pipes at the front of the Castleway property at 1910 to 1915 Walnut Street?
Will St. Patty's Day ever end?
     
     
  #56  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2009, 4:21 PM
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Just an FYI - I did a quick drive by yesterday and there didn't seem to be activity. It was raining so I didn't take a walk over but I'll explore more this weekend. Now it could have been weather related, but it did not seem like there was any activity taking place. I also haven't been passed the lot in several weeks so I could be wrong.
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  #57  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2009, 9:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Leslie Royce View Post
Does anyone know why workers, all with decided Irish brogues, began digging up the sidewalk down to the pipes at the front of the Castleway property at 1910 to 1915 Walnut Street? The workers would only say that they were not at liberty to say anything but "we are getting ready."

Is the project on at last?
they are just repairing the sidewalk. Maybe they got a ticket and decided to fix it themselves instead of jobing it out to a contractor, or maybe they hired an irish contractor.
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  #58  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2013, 11:34 PM
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PHILADELPHIA | Castleway Tower | 43 floors? | 525 ft

Title: Castleway Tower
Project: Hotel/Condominiums
Architect: KlingStubbins
Developer: Castleway Properties L.L.C.
Location: 1911 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA
Floors: 43 floors?
Height: 525 ft





New renders on KlingStubbins site
http://www.klingstubbins.com/ks_test...velopment.html

Castleway Properties L.L.C. has renewed interest in developing Castleway Tower at their 1911 Walnut St., site, which has remained an empty lot for decades. Castleway Properties has stated they will enter into a joint-venture to develop the land. New Renderings have appeared on KlingStubbins' In Design/Current Work page, and workers have been seen on the lot taking soil samples and such.

http://philly.curbed.com/archives/20...arketagain.php
     
     
  #59  
Old Posted Apr 17, 2013, 1:39 AM
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It's like the pause button that we hit in 2008 has finally pushed play again -- glad to see this getting some light, even if just soil samples for now.

Mandeville anyone?
     
     
  #60  
Old Posted Apr 17, 2013, 4:15 AM
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There wasn't a market for Mandeville Place back then - wayyyy to upmarket for Philadelphia. At least at that scale.
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