A new Center City report indicates that Center City Philadelphia's retail market has shown strong resiliency despite the national recession. The retail sector with the most change has been restaurants and food related businesses. Center City's fine dining restaurants have increased by 328% since 1992. Small sandwich and takeout shops are on the decline. Center City's retail vacancy rate has shown an overall decrease in the last ten years.
One major factor of this resiliency has been the city's dominant employment sectors of health care and education which continues to grow. Center City Philadelphia is the third-largest residential downtown in the United States which has created a strong concentration of well-educated and professionally employed residents. This type of residency increases demand for personal/professional services, household goods, and food and fine dining. Center City is also considered a compact, dense, and walkable downtown area where 40% of its residents walk to work. That is the most in the country! This means many households have one or no cars thus eliminating a large annual expense that can be devoted to other spending, such as retail.
Check out the full report from centercityphila.org
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The newest proposals for the vacant areas alongside the Delaware River were presented last week. The plan consists of a waterfront that would mostly contain mid-rise apartments and rowhouses. They expect this proposed housing to take 30-50 years to fill in the vacant land and they hope for the waterfront to eventually evolve into streets resembling Center City with a mix of uses and variety amongst buildings.
The planners are telling the city it should invest in some "high-impact" infrastructure projects in order to stimulate other private development projects. One such major project would be a landscaped deck sloping from Front Street down to the river between Walnut and Chestnut Streets. Another is a 5,000 seat open air venue. They are trying to persuade the city to ban entertainment from Penn's Landing and Festival Pier in order to make their new sites more marketable.
Also in the plans are 10 parks at half-mile intervals along the river, each the size of Rittenhouse Square. The parks would eventually be linked together by a recreation trail along the edge of the river and a bike path on Delaware Ave.
For all of this to be possible it is essential for the city to be able to creatively raise money to jump-start these targeted improvements. Good Luck Philly!
Check out the article by Inga Saffron from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com
The American Planning Association has honored Rittenhouse Square as one of the top 10 Great Public Spaces in the country. Check out the APA website.
Characteristics of Rittenhouse Square noted by the APA are the vibrant neighborhoods of shops, offices, homes, schools, hotels, and cultural institutions. The combination of different uses of the park and the surrounding buildings provide an endless flow of people day and night. It's constantly filled with exercisers, people who work, school children, parents, people walking dogs, elderly people, and tourists. APA Chief Executive Officer Paul Farmer was quoted as saying "For Philadelphians and tourists, Rittenhouse Square is a true landmark. City officials and residents have done a spectacular job in carrying out William Penn's original plan for their city and keeping Rittenhouse Square a remarkable public space."
Rittenhouse Square received high marks for variability due to the combination of commercial and residential buildings that surround it in a highly walkable area with easy access to public transportation.
Philadelphia has now won three straight awards in the APA's annual "Top 10 Great Places in America". In 2008, Society Hill was named one of the "Great Neighborhoods" and The Avenue of the Arts was named one of the "Great Streets".
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To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is deciding whether to give Foxwoods another chance on their proposed South Philly casino project. The Foxwoods investors are about to sign a deal with Harrah's Entertainment for casino operation, and Apollo Management for financing.
The largest obstacle with this new deal is settling the amount that Citizens Bank will get back from a $60 million credit it extended back in 2007.
Another problem is that under state gaming law, if a deal is approved the casino would have to have 1,500 slots up and running by December of 2012. This would likely be a difficult task. They still need state and federal approvals regarding riparian rights and water/sewer systems before it can even apply for city building permits.
More on this story at philly.com
This is brought to you by Philadelphia Real Estate Blog
To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com
Philadelphia was named one of the top 10 cities where it is a good time to buy now according to Forbes.com. For people who currently rent in Philadelphia, the premium to buy is much smaller than usual. Check out these stats from Forbes:
Metropolitan Statistical Area: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md.
Premium to Buy, 15-year Average: 28.4%
Premium to Buy, Q3 2009: 18.7%
Five-year Home Price Index Forecast: 13.85%
Median Rent: $957
Median Home Price: $227,500
Blended Mortgage Rate: 5.33%
This is brought to you by Philadelphia Real Estate Blog
To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com
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