Morning Headlines: Renderings and Details of Spring Garden Whole Foods Complex!


Last November the Inquirer broke the news that a new Whole Foods would take up residence on the site of the Best Western Hotel, whose bar was eloquently memorialized (pre-death) by the Philly Post’s Simon van Zuylen-Wood. That 3 acre parcel of land had many plans before Whole Foods was even a glimmer in its developer’s eye: It was going to be the Barnes Tower, then Parkway 22, then Neal Rodin imagined 250 apartments above a 55,000-square-foot Whole Foods paradise.

According to the Philadelphia Real Estate blog and Philadelphia Skyscraper Page, that project now has a name, Rodin Square, and an expanded vision: “taking up the whole block between Pennsylvania Avenue, Hamilton Street, 21st and 22nd streets, and Spring Garden Street.” Rodin has added to the number of apartments–from 250 to 293–and there will be the obligatory-these-days landscaped rooftop, among other perks.

Should the project get approved, the architect will be MV+A Architects, a firm that has designed countless Whole Foods stores, including in North Wales and Devon, Pa., as well as mixed-use developments of this kind. (We’re guessing the closest analog is their Woodland Park Crossing project in Herndon, VA.)

The address will technically be 501 N. 22nd St. More renderings and details to come later.

Meanwhile…
• Cheerful headline of the day!: Phila. waterfront: Where high-rise dreams go to die
• Isaiah Thompson, collaborating with ProPublica, published in the Inquirer, examines the forfeiture issue: “The idea behind forfeiture is simple enough: drug kingpins, embezzlers, racketeers and other offenders should not be able to keep the financial fruits of illegal acts. …But authorities can also use civil law to seize assets before the criminal case is adjudicated or… even when no charges are brought against the owner.”
• Dear god! Life is hard for a parolee. Oh, wait… “Fumo Returns Home After 1 Hour at Brief Halfway House
• Say in Yiddish accent: “So? Nu? Vat’s vit the big nothing spot on Sixth unt Federal?” Answer here.