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PHILADELPHIA-After protracted struggles with neighborhood community groups and a required name-change, Parkway22, a 296-unit complex containing a mix of condos, lofts and townhouses, has won approval and opened a sales center. At a projected cost of $250 million, this phase of the complex will replace an existing Best Western Hotel that now occupies the full block bordered by Spring Garden, Hamilton, N. 21st and N. 22nd streets.
The location is directly behind the Rodin Museum and the planned home of a museum for the Barnes collection along the “museum mile” stretch of the Ben Franklin Parkway that leads to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Locally based V&H Hotel Associates, an affiliate of Israel-based Naveh-Shuster, originally planned a 47-story tower on the nearly three-acre site, to be called Barnes Tower.
The Barnes Foundation prohibited use of the name, and the tower has been reduced to 37 stories and reconfigured during negotiations with neighboring groups. V&H acquired the hotel in 1993. According to public records, it paid nearly $2.8 million for the property. Dalia Shuster, a principal of Naveh-Shuster, says plans call for groundbreaking in June 2008, and demolition of the hotel “may start earlier.” She expects completion within three years.
The plan, developed by the locally based Burt, Hill architectural firm, also allows for an 18-story second tower on the land. Shuster says, “it may be a hotel or condos,” and a decision “will be reached soon.”
The opening phase contains 254 condos in the tower at the corner of Spring Garden and N. 21st streets, 30 lofts bordered by N. 21st and Hamilton streets, and 12 townhouses across from them at the corner of Spring Garden and N. 22nd streets. Steven Brittan, Burt Hill VP and director, says the mix of types of buildings and units is designed to complement the surrounding residences while also creating a building “of international scale.”
Parking is underground and topped by park space with trees, lawn and benches. The plans also call for a 4,000-sf to 5,000-sf white tablecloth restaurant, pool, spa and about 1,000 additional sf of retail. Shuster says negotiations are under way with a restaurant tenant and a branded spa operator.
The condo units have 24 different layouts, beginning at 700-sf junior one-bedrooms. The condo units and the 2,000-sf townhouses, may be combined, reducing the overall number of units. The local office of Coldwell Banker Preferred is handling the marketing. Prices for the smallest of condo units begin at $369,900, and penthouses reach to $5.3 million. Lofts begin at $399,900, and townhouses start at $859,000. Pricing is not on a per-sf basis, Shuster says, but varies according to views, finishes and amenities. Naveh-Shuster has properties worldwide, including a townhouse rental property here on Woodhaven Rd. and commercial properties in Manhattan and Stamford, CT.
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