Morning Headlines: Vaguely Plausible Plans to Demolish, Build at 11th and Market

Market East, meet East Market.

11th and Market, facing west.  Photo credit: Google Street View.

11th and Market, facing west.
Photo credit: Google Street View.

Philadelphia’s stagnating retail corridor on the east side of Market Street might finally get a major wake-up call, and we’re not talking about the Gallery. Instead, the owners of the drab strip of stores on the block between 11th and 12th have secured new backing from IBEW and National Real Estate Advisors that makes their plans for the block seem like they might finally come to fruition. The stores currently on the 1100 block have been cleared out for demolition in July, to make way for a development named East Market.

Restaurants, entertainment, fashion stores, and even grocers will be included in the new project, but here’s a more elaborate description by the Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano:

Planned are two new store buildings facing Market Street, lit by Times Square-style signs, that will be topped by 325 apartments (at perhaps $2,200 a month for a one-bedroom unit), with parking underground.

Builders also will strip and replace the outside walls of the eight-story former Snellenburg warehouse facing 11th Street, now used by the city’s Family Court. The developers are talking to office tenants, but could end up putting more apartments there, said Pete Soens of Philadelphia developer and landlord SSH Real Estate, an East Market investor.

(Times Square-style signs, huh? We see NIMBY battles ahead.)

Furthermore, new ground floor retail is planned for 12th Street’s Girard Building with “market demand” set to determine what will happen with higher floors. Additionally, a similar development for the 1100 block of Chestnut could be in order should the Market projects be successful.

More details to come…

Retail-residential development planned on Market St. [Inquirer]

But, in other news…

Despite challenges, Philadelphia construction projects on the rise [NewsWorks]

Clarke’s plan to keep the gentrifying city affordable [Inquirer]

CHOP presents Schuylkill River research/office tower to PCPC [PlanPhilly]

Bicentennial [Northeast Times]

Renovation Will Finally Move Forward At Former Factory on Frankford [Naked Phiilly]

6-Year-Old Cancer Patient Achieves Dream of Exploding a Building [Atlantic Cities]