In the heart of Philly’s CBD lies the glass-faced former AAA Mid-Atlantic Headquarters building at the southeastern corner of 21st & Market. 2040 Market St was purchased by PMC Property Group in early 2011 and they have pretty grand plans for this part of Market West. This five-story building, built in 1968, will be converted into 281 rental apartments with retail and parking. How can you fit 281 apartments into only four upper floors?  You can’t – that’s why PMC, along with their architect, Stephen Varenhorst Architects, will be adding 8 more stories to the existing structure, and 2 L-shaped “wings” to the back of the building, to create a new, high-end, luxury apartment building. The additions will increase the square footage from 120K to 300K; 32 of those 281 apartments will be 2-bedroom units, to attract more families to the area.

There she is

Of course, what new Center City housing project is complete without parking? There will be indoor parking below grade, according to Jonathan Stavin, Executive Vice President of PMC. From the looks of the plans presented at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission meeting, the cars will enter on Market St and exit on Ludlow St. The renderings also show a rear courtyard for the residents of the building, a great idea for some outdoor space. Also noted: two retail spaces on the first floor could work well for restaurants who want to keep the existing terrace space for outdoor dining options. By our calculations, the first floor contains about 30K SF, which could hold a nice-sized restaurant and then still have enough room for an affordable housewares and furniture store that Philly is lacking (cough-CB2-cough; they just opened a 12K sqft store in Chicago, so why not Philly? Just sayin’.).

Retail and some terrace

Rendering from the Planning Commission

Construction/rehabbing will supposedly begin very soon, occupancy will be ready by the Summer of 2013. Rental figures have not yet been disclosed, but we can imagine they could be on par with a lot of other neighboring apartment buildings, such as PMC’s own 2121 Market, where a 1-bedroom starts at $1,140 and a 2-bedroom goes for $1,675+. Prices at condo buildings in the area, where owners rent apartments privately, seem to have slightly higher rents. 2200 Arch has a 1-bedroom available for $1,895 here. We found a for rental listing at the Murano here, which is catty-corner to 2040 Market, and a 2 bedroom has a rental asking price of $3,600!  So maybe not all units in the neighborhood are created equal…
So what do we all think?  Can this area support more housing – even families, or will it forever be thought of as a concrete jungle of high-rise office complexes? Our experience is that the residential rental market is fairly strong in Philadelphia. The commercial market? That may be a little tougher, as several storefronts in the surrounding area have been a tough sell. And sure, maybe we’re getting our hopes up for a CB2 or the like… but we’ll never stop dreaming.