PHILADELPHIA | The Development Thread VIII

[Swinefeld]

Ha! That was great. I vaguely remember that and I love the energy in the video. So much better than those "with love" ads.

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

I'm going to share that with everyone I know.

I wonder if anyone still has one of those cereal box-sized 80's cell phones.

I didn't even know they existed back then!

Originally Posted by Swinefeld

Ha! That was great. I vaguely remember that and I love the energy in the video. So much better than those "with love" ads.

I remember this ad campaign like it was yesterday. It's the ditty that always goes through my head when I'm feeling good about the city. It must have been a good ad campaign for it to still be rattling around in my fat head. There were longer versions that had more lyrics about our "Philadelphia Spirit runnin high" and had other Philadelphia celebrities in them as well.

The "with love" ads are baffling to me for the sole fact that word "Philadelphia" is so small on the ad itself that it'd hard to tell what they are about if you aren't familiar with the ad campaign.

I think we need to get to know us again!

[Don098]

Originally Posted by PhillyRising

I'm probably one of the few people on here old enough to remember this ad campaign for Philadelphia tourism in the mid-1980's...but I always liked it because it was upbeat and happy at a time when the city was anything but during the Wilson No Goode years

I wish they could reprise it. This is a short version of the Miss Patti version of the campaign...the longer one is much better and I can still remember it in my head.

• Video Link

Barf city.

[Ninjawho]

Originally Posted by Don098

Barf city.

ur kidding rite?

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by Don098

Barf city.

Sorry...this was the best ad campaign for this city in my lifetime. The "Philly Is More Fun When You Sleep Over" was the second best.

Everything else is just forgettable.

Who remembers "Philadelphia Style....Come and Get It"? Or...."Philadelphiaaaaaahh....Talk It Up"?

I didn't think so.

[PhillyRising]

BTW....Fox had tons of nice city shots from the blimp during yesterdays Iggles Game. I can't wait for the Sunday Night game at home......with nighttime skyline shots!

[We Got Five]

New Palomar aims at upscale clientele

By Suzette Parmley

Inquirer Staff Writer

The formula: Take a venerable building, gut it, and transform it into a highly designed, modern hotel.

The end result: The 230-room Palomar Hotel at 17th and Sansom Streets in the former Architects Building, which will open its doors Thursday. A restaurant featuring American cuisine, Square 1682, will be housed in the former American Institute of Architects bookstore.

City tourism and convention officials say the Palomar, owned by San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurant Group Inc., will bring in a new clientele appreciative of the company's signature boutique style. A clientele that is affluent, well-educated, and loves the arts, fine dining, and being pampered. Also, one that travels with pets - the hotel welcomes all creatures, no matter how big and furry.

"Having a property like Palomar by Kimpton come to Philadelphia confirms that we have made it as a city," said Ed Grose of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association.

Yet the Palomar is opening in the "softest market in recent history," said Peter Tyson of PKF Consulting, which tracks the hotel industry.

Its average daily rate is $159 for a standard room. The combined average daily rate (ADR) for Center City's 42 hotels from January to August was $148.34, down 12.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. Occupancy was 68.1 percent, down 4.7 percentage points.

In August alone, the ADR for Center City hotels was $133.82, down 16.3 percent from a year ago. Occupancy was 68 percent, down 4.1 percentage points. (Average daily rates and occupancy numbers for September will not be available until the end of this month.)

"Customers are asking for lower rates because business is down and they are able to pit the hotels against each other," Grose said.

The Palomar is the only Center City hotel scheduled to open this year as the recession and continued tight credit stall development intended to support an expanded Convention Center.

When the expansion is completed, likely in early 2011, the center will offer 1 million square feet of sellable space. Jack Ferguson, executive vice president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, which books the Convention Center, said Center City's 10,400 hotel rooms will need to increase by about 2,500, with 70 percent occupancy or better needed to keep hotels healthy.

Still, said Kimpton's president and chief executive officer, Michael Depatie, it is a fortuitous time for boutique hotels.

"A lot of people are suddenly into boutique hotels. That was not the case 10 or 15 years ago," Depatie said. "People want an alternative to the chain-hotel experience. When they travel, they want it to be more interesting and meaningful. They want an experience."

Kimpton began an East Coast invasion 10 years ago. It now has two hotels running and two under construction in New York; three in Boston; no fewer than a dozen in Washington; and one each in Miami and Atlanta.

Earlier this month, the company moved into downtown Baltimore, taking the 1904 B&O Railroad building and turning it into a Monaco, another Kimpton-brand hotel.

Market Metrix of San Rafael, Calif., considered the J.D. Power & Associates of the hospitality industry, conducts quarterly surveys of 35,000 hotel guests. In 2007, 2008, and the first two quarters of this year, Kimpton ranked first in customer satisfaction in the upper-upscale category, ahead of Marriott, Hyatt, Westin, and Sheraton hotels.

Kimpton also ranked higher than luxury competitors such as Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton for customer satisfaction.

"Overall, Kimpton has done incredibly well in our measures," said Jonathan Barsky, cofounder and senior vice president of research at Market Metrix. "The reason is they are a hidden gem, a combination that wows people.

"When you go to their properties - and Palomar is one of their gems - you have no fixed expectations, and that is a real opportunity to wow the customer. You feel better. You feel welcomed and comfortable - emotions that drive loyalty."

The company has allowed pets since it opened its first hotel in San Francisco in 1981, and several hotels have directors of pet relations.

Kimpton also makes its meeting rooms green, serving water in pitchers and reusable glassware, using electronic catering menus to save paper, and offering napkins made of cloth or recycled paper. Renewable and sustainable materials (recycled glass tiles, custom furnishings made from replenishable wood) are used extensively.

The extra steps have not gone unnoticed.

"Because of cutbacks throughout the [hotel] industry, we're finding out guests are feeling less welcome," Market Metrix's Barsky said. "All the cutbacks are finally hitting the guest experience, but Kimpton has been able to maintain its emotional connection with their guests despite the budget pressures."

Julie Coker, general manager of the 350-room Hyatt Regency on Penn's Landing, said Kimpton's reputation for quality means the Palomar "can only add to the value of the hotels we currently have."

With the 201-room Le Meridien due to open early next year, the Palomar also may help sharpen Philadelphia's image for visitors, said Meryl Levitz, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.

"What visitors are still having a problem with is whether Philadelphia is a romantic city," Levitz said. "They tell us we fall short on that. Not so much the luxury part as it is on being exotic, in terms of European - a kind of pampering and catering to a very youthful kind of taste that's somewhat eclectic. That kind of image is very important.

"These two hotels will help us with that," she said, "especially with romance, luxury and worldliness - three areas where we still seem to fall short."

[PhillyRising]

^17th Street has really become a nice area for boutique hotels.

[pwp]

City prepares for green-building conference in 2012
By Diane Mastrull

Inquirer Staff Writer

As many as 30,000 green-building advocates from around the world will convene in Philadelphia for an industry conference three years from now.

And already, the worrying has begun about the spotlight this high-profile, November 2012 event - sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, a driving force in the sustainable-construction movement - will focus on this region.

"If you invite 30,000 sustainability/green-building advocates to your city, you better hope you have some good news for them," said Heather Shayne Blakeslee, programs and advocacy director at the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, the national group's only Pennsylvania chapter.

Even the most enthusiastic supporters acknowledge that getting to the point where building green is more the norm than the exception will be a rigorous road.

They cite the need to change state and local building codes and policies to specifically require green amenities, and convert skeptics who doubt such construction is worth the investment.

This week, the push begins to help ensure that Philadelphia will have an impressive array of sustainable construction to show off in 2012.

About 300 officials from government, higher education, commerce, and nonprofit organizations, including Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter, will meet tomorrow and Thursday at the Sheraton City Center Hotel "with the goal of fostering unique partnerships for research, investment, collaboration, and education" in green building, said Rob Fleming, director of Philadelphia University's graduate program in sustainable design.

"This event seeks to establish a new kind of conference - a forum for ideas, policy, and strategies that will underpin the green economy for decades to come," said Fleming, one of its organizers.

The conference is being held by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, which will make news of its own there.

The conference's first day also will be the first day on the job for the building council's new executive director, Janet Milkman, who has led the smart-growth advocacy group 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania and, most recently, Erthnxt, a program to connect children with nature.

In an interview last week, Milkman summed up her new challenge this way: "Our job is to make the case" for green building.

It is a case that has to have consumers in mind - home buyers, and commercial property owners, and tenants alike, said Kevin Gillen, vice president at Econsult Corp., a Philadelphia economic-analysis firm.

"I'm not in favor of green if it means expensive additions that make housing unaffordable," Gillen said.

With its sea of rowhouse roofs, Philadelphia could be a prime candidate for solar panels. But with photovoltaic systems costing at least $35,000 even with state rebates, most homeowners cannot afford to go solar, he said.

Because the city already ranks among the highest in the nation when it comes to average construction costs, Gillen said that driving those costs even higher in the name of sustainability was the last thing Philadelphia should want if it hoped to encourage more economic development.

If city government is not going to help drive down those costs by instituting new zoning and building-permit processes that would make it easier - and cheaper - to incorporate green features into new construction and building retrofits, then it should consider tax breaks and public subsidies for projects that do, Gillen said.

City Council had hearings in the spring on a proposal to extend the 10-year tax abatement to buildings qualifying for platinum certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Work on that is continuing.

Sam Sherman, president of the 150-member Building Industry Association, said the discussion about what constitutes green needed to look beyond LEED.

"How green can it possibly be when every employee is driving 30 or 40 miles to arrive at a LEED-certified office building?" he asked.

At the townhouses he has built recently in the city, Sherman has not sought LEED status, but he has added extra insulation and installed high-efficiency water heaters to reduce operating costs.

The green movement, he said, is "too focused on technology [when] it needs to be focused on common-sense planning and taking advantage of existing infrastructure."

Cities such as Philadelphia, Sherman said, are already sustainable because they are walkable and oriented to public transit. One way it could get greener is to grow the job base so more people could walk to work, he added.

In the suburbs, where the green movement for decades meant protecting open space, it is increasingly gaining a construction connotation.

Last Wednesday, night, the Lower Makefield Township supervisors took a step toward adopting an ordinance that would require all new municipal construction or major renovations to be built to the LEED silver standard. They voted to advertise the proposed ordinance, which will be subject to public comment before a final vote.

As a member of the township's environmental advisory committee, Lisa Grayson Zygmunt promoted the ordinance as a first step toward green-building measures with broader applications.

"We felt it was important the township walk the talk," she said, "before it would ask the private sector to do the same."

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...e_in_2012.html

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by PhillyRising

I'm probably one of the few people on here old enough to remember this ad campaign for Philadelphia tourism in the mid-1980's...but I always liked it because it was upbeat and happy at a time when the city was anything but during the Wilson No Goode years

I wish they could reprise it. This is a short version of the Miss Patti version of the campaign...the longer one is much better and I can still remember it in my head.

• Video Link

I'm one of the others old enough to remember that campaign. It was without a doubt the most potent promotion for Philadelphia ever! Sadly they didn't run it much beyond the immediate Philadelphia region, except maybe for some print ads.

OT:

Garrett Brown, who directed the spots, is another Philadelphian as notable as Patti LaBelle. Even if you've never heard of him, you've probably heard his award-winning commercial voice-overs with professional partner Ann Winn for products such as Molson and, if you've seen any movies or televised sporting events in the past couple decades, you've certainly appreciated his invention of the SteadiCam.

http://www.twovoices.com/

http://www.geocities.com/steadicamjr/garrettbrown.htm

[BUILDER5000]

Crappy pic but one at least lol

[cubanChris]

Report: Future looks bright for Center City housing

By Alan J. Heavens

INQUIRER REAL ESTATE WRITER

If the experts are correct and the future will bring a shift to urban from suburban, then Center City merely needs to hang in through the current hard times to reap the benefits.

That's the gist of a report, "Residential Development 2009: Riding Out the Storm," presented today by the Center City District and based, among other things, on a survey of residents in eight zip codes from Tasker Street north to Girard Avenue and between the Delaware River and the Schuylkill.

Nearly 3,100 residents, or 3.3 percent of the population of those zip codes, responded to the June survey, district president Paul Levy said.

The survey was conducted amid continued bad economic news nationally and as the city wrestled with a severe fiscal crisis. Yet 81 percent of the respondents expressed confidence in Center City's future, Levy said.

Trends are favoring downtown housing, says real estate analyst Jeffrey Otteau of Otteau Valuation Group Inc. in New Brunswick, and not because of young professionals and empty-nesters returning to cities.

In the post-recession economic cycle, Otteau said, incomes will actually drop, and affordable housing will be concentrated in urban areas. "Two-thirds of households will have no children at home, energy costs will rise, and vertical construction in the downtowns [will be] more sustainable."

Levy said this was the first major recession in which the city has lost fewer jobs than either the region as a whole or the nation, noting, "Philadelphia is extraordinarily well-positioned for economic and residential growth."

Between July 2008 and August 2009, the city lost 3.08 percent of its jobs, while the region declined by 3.32 percent and the nation 4.2 percent, according to recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Philadelphia "has the right mix of industries to weather this economic storm, including health care, educational services and asset management," said Moody's Economy.com chief economist Mark Zandi.

Although the real estate market here has not fared as badly as comparable first- and second-tier cities, sales remain well below normal levels, economists said.

"Currently, home sales are about 30 percent below what they would be in normal times, and 60 percent below what they would be during very good times," said Econsult Corp. vice president Kevin Gillen.

Still, some luxury condominiums in the business district notwithstanding, prices were just 3.6 percent lower in the first six months of 2009 from the first half of 2008, according to data from Trend Multiple Listing Service.

The $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time buyers has boosted sales in the below-$400,000 market.

"I'd been renting, but saving for a down payment and looking around at properties since I moved here in 2006," said Johanna Ashley, 31, a pharnmacist who bought and is rehabbing a unit at Pier 3 condominiums on Columbus Boulevard.

Though she doesn't expect to get the whole tax credit because of income requirements, "it was a huge thing," although a price in the neighborhood of $300,000 and parking also were important.

Ashley was also impressed by how well Pier 3 had held its value. After acquiring Pier 3 (built at the site of the former Girard Piers) for $7.2 million in 1994, Miami developer Joe Gamel sold 172 units at prices ranging from $49,000 to $150,000.

Over the last five years in Center City, 227 new or converted condo units came on the market annually. Right now, there are 515 units unsold, or a 2.5-year supply.

"While unsold units are very painful to developers and lenders, one consolation is that there are no units in the pipeline behind them," Levy said. If the market were to return to normal tomorrow, it would be two or three years before any new housing would reach the market to compete with them.

Most of the unsold units are concentrated in a handful of buildings that came late to the market, just as empty-nesters began having trouble selling their homes and jumbo mortgages (above $417,000) became more expensive and difficult to obtain, he said.

The Center City population continues to grow as the rest of Philadelphia contracts, however, and the 10-year tax abatement, effectively reducing high construction costs, has helped add 12,121 units of housing to the business district since 1997.

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...y_housing.html

It may be a little rosy - but a bit of an insight into the state of CC condos!

[Philadelcago]

I was reading this article on philly.com about AC's "The Walk" expanding again (http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...d__again.html).

I couldn't help but think, what if this type of concept was brought to Market East? Cordish developed The Walk and is doing the proposed Philly Live! - what if the Disney hole / Girard Estate / Gallery were developed into a sort of outdoor outlet mall based on these concepts? Obviously not all of that area would be exclusively outlets, but was curious as to everyone's opinions or pros/cons of what something like that could do for the area.

I personally think it would be really interesting with a lot of potential.

Thoughts?

[McBane]

interesting article cuban, however the future of philadelphia is in its neighborhods - particularly stable areas that are at a crossroads such as northeast philly, manayunk, roxborough, south philly, and parts of west philly.

families are not going to move into these areas and repopulate them as long as they are perceived as dangerous, taxes remain high, and the schools continue to underperform. rather, the middle class will continue to stream out, to be replaced by lower income residents; and you can debate the merits of lower income residents all you want, but the fact is, when a middle class family making 6 figures moves out to the burbs and sells their home to a family making half that, the city's tax base erodes and it becomes harder for the city to support itself (see detroit or camden, both are which are extreme examples and philly is not close to there but i'm just making a point).

as expensive and boring as the burbs are, no young professional resident (those educated, creative types that the city drools over to stabilize its taxbase and change the city's image) will ever mortgage their childrens' future (i.e. send them to a philly school), no matter how much they believe in the city's future. parents will make any and all sacrifices such as living in the smallest, crappiest home, just to make sure their children are enrolled in a council rock or lower merion school district.

i've said it so many times, the schools are the number one reason why 30 something professionals, when they have kids or anticipate having them, move back to the burbs. of course the crime, taxes, and corruption do not make the decision any harder to make.

it's great that center city is doing well, but for philly to succeed, the middle class neighborhoods must succeed.

[banned]

McBane - I agree with you on many levels.

For me, high taxes are one of the largest deterrents. I had a meal in Center City this weekend and I witnessed the 8% sales tax for the first time.

I have lived in Washington DC and Arlington,VA for the past 6 years (and its far from ideal). DC has a 10% tax on prepared food. They just raised their sales tax to 6% from 5.75% (What's another 0.25%, right? /sarcasm)

It's the total package for me. Property (including vehicles in some states), Sales, Local/State Income tax.

I would never raise a family in an area with poor schools. It's just not fair. And by poor schools that typically means parents who are not interested/involved in their children's success.

Philly does have a future though. In many parts of the country (maybe to a degree in the Northeast-- but not as much), the suburbs are turning into the slums. The areas closer in, are where people are moving.

Maybe the DC area is different, but a lot of the crime is out in the burbs.

[kilbride102]

Double agree Mcbane

Bought a house in Mayfair last year with the intention of moving when my wife and I have kids and they get ready to go to school. I grew up in the city and love living in the city but my priorities will change. No chance of sending my kids to public school in Philadelphia. I would send the to Catholic schools like i went to but even that is now really expensive. (btw - its a shame that North has to close) My kids can have a quality education in the suburbs, more room to play in front and back yards, safer neighborhoods, and still close enough to go to the city when I want to go there. The northeast is changing and the middle-class are moving out. Mayfair, Rhawnhurst, Parkwood will be Kensington, Frankford, and Feltonville in five to ten years.

[justremember]

Originally Posted by banned

I would never raise a family in an area with poor schools. It's just not fair. And by poor schools that typically means parents who are not interested/involved in their children's success.

I agree that schools are a big deterrent, but, and I don't want to turn this into a political argument, there are a lot more problems than uninvolved parents. As someone who's had contact with public education form multiple perspectives, there are lots of other problems (teaching, resources, safety, and educational policy that takes emphasis off learning and punishes schools in need and diverse schools) with Philly's schools.

If you want schools that will attract young families back into the city, we're going to have to do more than complain about parents not being involved. It's not like we have good schools and uninvolved parents. We have bad schools. We have to think of ways to make them better, and that's going to take bold and innovative leaders in the city, because right now there's not much help from the state or federal government.

[CentralGrad258]

As a Philly public school grad, I might as well chime in. These discussions of bad schools and uninvolved parents are very irritating. Look, it's not like there aren't good schools in the school district or involved parents. Not enough ofcourse, but they're out there. What this "Woe is me, our schools suck" conversation (repeated ad nauseum), does is create a negative cycle where people refuse to send their kids to even the good schools, because they're in the Philly public school distric so they must suck.

This is how we got into this situation in the first place, by people fleeing and refusing to make things better. This is how it's going to continue until parents make a stand and work to make their schools better. And there are good schools out there, public, charter, magnet, etc... Do some research, talk to other parents, make it work instead of throwing your hands up and sending your kids to Council Rock (which has its share of problems, believe me). My experience might not have been ideal, but it was also incredibly enriching, going to school with kids from all sorts of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. This is just not the kind of experience most kids in the suburbs will have and they're poorer for it. And this is before getting into the mind-numbing boredom of not being able to get around without a car and the huge burden on parent of having to chaufer their kids around for at least the first 16 years of their lives.

This isn't to say that the school district and state/national education policies don't play a big role in the current situation, but all this "oh well, guess we have to move to the suburbs when we have kids" talk is so self-defeating. Just had to vent a little.

[Londonee]

McBane is right to an extent but is not painting the whole picture, just as if someone who doesn't live in Philadelphia may wrongly view the ENTIRE city as "dangerous," unsafe and a "ghetto." The reality is there are MANY sections of the city where this is in fact true. The whole truth however is, where I live, Center City, Chestnut Hill, sections of South Philly etc. is extremely safe, family oriented, and uniquely exciting.

The same idea extends to the schools in PHilly. If you're speaking of the elementary school in Kensington, then yes, many conditions there are terrible and certainly not conducive to learning (though one of my good friends actually works there is a brilliant and dedicated educator, it's certainly not for a lack of his skills). However, Meredith Elementary school in QV, where my kids would go, has almost 90% of its students at a "gifted" level--an extraordinary number. Masterman and Central, again where my kids would go, have some of the best school statistics in the entire region. Masterman, in fact, has the best % to College rate, and highest SAT scores in the region...and would certainly be competitive nationally in those areas.
(edit: fwiw-schooldigger.com in fact ranks the aforementioned two schools #1 and #2 in the state, whilst west philly high is the worst)
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/PA/sc...k.aspx?level=3

My point is, if you are highly educated and live in Center City/Queen Village/etc. your kids will not be dodging bullets at West Philly High. As CentralGrad alluded to, if more people painted the picture as i have just done, we could dispel the cliche "all schools in philly are bad" notion which could only help to foster further growth in the city's core areas.

[justremember]

Originally Posted by Londonee

My point is, if you are highly educated and live in Center City/Queen Village/etc. your kids will not be dodging bullets at West Philly High. As CentralGrad alluded to, if more people painted the picture as i have just done, we could dispel the cliche "all schools in philly are bad" notion which could only help to foster further growth in the city's core areas.

This is very true, but we can't let the fact that there are some good schools make us less motivated to fix the bad ones. Somebody's kids do have "dodge bullets" at struggling neighborhood schools (although I'd probably use a different phrase to describe the situation there). Having grown up in the suburbs, I can garuntee you that if people started moving back into the city, they're not all going to live in Center City or Chestnut Hill, and not all their kids are going to get into Central and Masterman. I think it's this reality that keeps lots of families out of the city.