Glass Tower Starts Construction at 20th and Market

The corner of 20th and Market is going to look at lot different. Full rendering below.

It was more than a year ago when Brandywine Realty Trust announced specific plans for a building that would sit on the lot at 20th and Market Street, next to the Independence Blue Cross building, which recently completed its own street-level renovation. Throughout the day on Friday, there was a lot of activity at 1919 Market Street (the vacant lot’s actual address), with a large construction vehicle making tracks in the dirt as I stared down from my nearby office window 36 stories above. People moved back and forth, industrious as ants. A public announcement had to be coming soon.

Indeed, today the company that was named Developer of the Year by Development Magazine announced that it has formed a joint venture with Berwyn-based real estate company LCOR and the California State Teacher’s Retirement System that will make the 29-story mixed-use building possible. Brandywine will handle retail, which is currently slated to be a ground-floor CVS, and the public parking lot that will accommodate 215 cars. Hunter Roberts Construction will manage the process of building the 455,000-square-foot  tower, which was designed by Barton Partners.

Here’s what we know in terms of details:

– target completion date: spring 2016.
– 321 apartments
– 24,000 square feet of office space, primarily for Blue Cross
– ground-floor CVS
– full concierge service
– rooftop fitness center
– roof garden
– rooftop ledge pool
– game room with golf simulator

In terms of neighborhood development, the media release quotes LCOR’s president, Thomas O’Brien, as saying, “With LCOR’s experience developing transit-oriented communities, we understand and recognize the value of walkable, mixed-use projects, especially in a dynamic neighborhood such as Center City.”

Brandywine president and CEO Jerry Sweeney puts this project in the context of “the resurgence of the Market Street West submarket.” In the release, he says it “epitomizes smart urban development and adds tremendous
neighborhood value to our seven million square feet of office space.”

Rendering of 1919 Market Street by Barton Partners