Parkway Resurrects Walnut Street Tower Plan

PHILADELPHIA-Parkway Corp. has decided to resurrect plans for a tower it long-planned to develop above its six-story garage at 800 Walnut St. About 20 years ago, the locally based owner/developer created a plan for two towers above its garage on the parcel, and later sold rights above the western portion of the block to Wills Eye Medical Center, which has been completed.

The infrastructure for the second tower is in place and Parkway has approvals for a structure of as much as 275,000 sf on as many as 25 stories atop the existing garage, Robert Zuritsky, Parkway’s president, tells GlobeSt.com. The current Center City market conditions prompted him to unearth the plans now and “put out feelers and see if there’s interest,” he says.

Parkway has enlisted James Egan, SVP of the local office of Grubb & Ellis, to create a marketing package for the proposed development. The package will go out next week, Zuritsky says. It is unusual in that neither the plan nor the land is directly for sale. Parkway already has a tower design, and Egan has developed a series of parameters for the building, which includes office, hotel or residential options. The developer is seeking either an office user or a development partner.