Christopher Martorella, CEO of Urban, tells GlobeSt.com the estimated construction cost is $150 million and groundbreaking is scheduled for early spring 2007, with completion due in 2009. Prices and sizes of the condo units are not finalized, he says, nor is the final design of the building. "We think W can capture a lot of energy in this location. It has wanted to build in Philadelphia," he says, referring to the hotelier's earlier plan to partner with a company headed by actor Will Smith on land in Society Hill. That project has since been abandoned.
The location for W Philadelphia is across from the Pennsylvania Convention Center to the north and the Reading Terminal Market to the east. A $700-million expansion of the Convention Center is scheduled for completion in 2009. Parkway currently operates a parking lot on the parcel.
W Philadelphia will contain 250 guest rooms and suites and 95 one- and two-bedroom W-brand for-sale residential condos. There will also be 11,000 sf of meeting space, a 6,500-sf Bliss-brand spa, a restaurant and outdoor garden area.
W is Starwood's luxury brand, which has recently paired hotel quarters with for-sale residences at properties under development in Miami's South Beach and Las Vegas among other locations. At these properties, condo owners have full use of the hotel's amenities. The same is true for a condo tower underway here alongside the Ritz-Carlton and for a portion of the Warwick Hotel, which is currently being converted to condos.
New York City-based Handel Architects is designing W Philadelphia, working with the AvroKO design firm, also based in New York. Parkway and W Hotels referred calls to Martorella. Urban developed the 44-story St. James rental residential high rise on Washington Square Park here and is currently converting the 33-story office building at Locust and S. 15th streets into Aria, a 114-unit condominium. "We're very high on Philadelphia," Martorella says, "and very excited about bringing the W brand into this thriving market."
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