Dinner, With a Condo on Top

Philadelphia Magazine takes a look at the trend of high profile restaurateurs taking space in equally high profile condo and office spaces.

The current building boom combined with Philly’s recent restaurant explosion gives us an opportunity to catch up in the scene-­stealing, atmospheric restaurants often missing in this city of jewel-box favorites. Most of the high-profile blueprinted downtown buildings — like the Aria, Symphony House, the Barnes Tower and the Western Union Building — have slotted food-related businesses in their master plans. The approach has already proven successful in other towns; think of the six restaurants at New York’s Time Warner Center, or San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels, which always starts its projects with an anchoring destination restaurant. It’s a model local developer CREI wants to emulate. “It will allow us to enhance our brand and the restaurant’s brand and is good for residents,” director of sales Andrea Boelter says.

Dinner, With a Condo on Top [Philadelphia Magazine]