We were on North Broad Street just a couple days ago, telling you about an eight story building planned for the 800 block, and we reminded you that the amazing and beautiful Metropolitan Opera House was getting renovated at some undetermined point in the near future. Yesterday, we got an email from CBRE advertising up to 5,600 sqft of retail space for rent at the Met, which gives us a hint that redevelopment might be coming sooner than later. This is clearly phenomenal news.
We told you about the plans for the building's renovation from the folks at EB Realty a little over two years ago. At a community meeting, we learned about plans for a 3,500 seat venue from music venue vet Avrim Hornik of Four Corners, operator of Union Transfer and Boot and Saddle. We also mentioned that a Chef's Market location and a speakeasy-type of restaurant were in the works, and according to the brochure it seems like all but the speakeasy are still very much attached to the project. Looking at the floorplan, it seems the developers are looking for another restaurant concept for the building, which makes sense given the number of people that will regularly be coming through the building and the success of several other high end restaurants on North Broad Street.
The fact that EB Realty is now actively looking to lease space at the Met makes us optimistic that we could soon see work move forward here in earnest. With construction soon wrapping up down the block at the Divine Lorraine, moving along to the next white elephant of North Broad Street makes perfect sense. We can only imagine the energy that will crackle around this entire area once this developer brings both of these buildings back to life.
Now if only North Broad Street could do away with those silly light masts…