One of Philadelphia’s most notorious areas – at least from a real estate perspective – is the Logan Triangle, a 35-acre parcel that sits just to the north of Roosevelt Boulevard and Hunting Park and about three blocks east of Broad Street. Formerly a thriving residential area, the neighborhood was built on top of the filled-in banks of the Winghocking Creek over a hundred years ago. As you can guess, random fill on top of water isn’t the best foundation for housing, with all of the owners eventually being bought out and the land being cleared, creating the massive lot at the SE corner of the Logan neighborhood.
In what amounts to news that’s almost as large as the parcel, the City of Philadelphia just released an RFP for the site, looking for private developers to purchase the site, with eyes towards redeveloping these nearly three dozen acres of CMX-3 zoned land. The City is looking to sell the entire parcel, with plans for the developers to cover all land remediation and construction costs in the future; basically, Philly is trying to completely off-load the entire site. The RFP indicates that any response that even asks for subsidies will be rejected – no punches being pulled here!
This could be one of the most transformational projects in the city given the size, location, and history of this long-forsaken site. Given the issues with what’s underground and the complications that previous studies on the area have uncovered, we have absolutely no idea what sort of price tag this parcel could command. Maybe… $0? The RFP also mentions the importance of an equitable and inclusive development, and an informational meeting will take place in mid-November for those interested in purchasing the parcel. After that, formal submissions will be due in January, with a final decision on the purchase coming in February.
If we could even begin to break down who might be interested in this parcel, we most certainly would, as we’d imagine a wide range of developers and approaches will be pitched. The permissive zoning allows for a wide array of uses, though we are wildly intrigued by the by-right residential possibilities, especially along what could be a future Roosevelt Boulevard Subway. A site this large could accommodate thousands of units and gobs of retail and office space, and we’d fully expect a mixed-use approach. This move also goes to show the continued appeal of developing in Philadelphia, as a major sale like this in a high-interest rate environment surely isn’t something that the City considered lightly (we hope). Let’s cross our fingers that this former dead zone will become something lively and triangular as soon as possible.