PHILADELPHIA-Tuesday's announcement of the 47-story hotel/apartment tower planned as a joint project between Dranoff Properties and SBE Entertainment was immediately countered by a City Councilman's push to cut the tax abatement for the project - and pushback from deveoper Carl Dranoff, who says it is crucial.
Financing for the deal is 95% private, Dranoff has said. State business incentives and a 10-year abatement of city property taxes are supposed to cover the gap.
In a story today in the Philadelphia Inquirer, however, Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. said he believes a bill he is sponsoring to cut all new abatements by more than half is going to win approval - and change the picture for the Dranoff/SBE project.
Dranoff responded that it would make the project impossible.The building would be Dranoff's first hotel project - and the largest of his dozens of developments in Philadelphia and the region.
The SLS International Hotel & Residences, planned as a boutique hotel and condo tower, would not be fasible wthout the tax-abatement, Dranoff said, expressing hope that the councilman's bill to slash it will fail.
The abatements help cover high construction costs and attract buyers for condos at all his projects, Dranoff said. (Read full story here.)
The Original Story Appears Below
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PHILADELPHIA-Locally-based Dranoff Properties and SBE Entertainment Group of Los Angeles will build a 47-story mixed-use project called the SLF International Hotel & Residences here across from the Kimmel Arts Center.
The $200-million project, to feature a 150-room hotel and a 125-unit condominium tower, is to rise at the intersection of Broad and Pine streets in Center City.
The mixed-use property will offer hotel guests and residents amenities such as a spa, fitness center, pool and ballroom/meeting facilities. SBE's food and beverage brands, such as The Bazaar by Jose Andres, Katsuya by Starck, and Hyde Lounge, are being considered for the Philadelphia property, company officials said.
Developer Carl Dranoff says the building, when completed, will be the tallest structure built for residential use in the state of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia native A. Eugene Kohn, chairman of Kohn Pederson Fox in New York City, is the architect on the project.
Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2014 on the venture and will take two years to complete.
Dranoff is also the builder of Philadelphia's Symphony House apartment tower and is expected to begin work soon on a residential tower in Newark near the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
See story in The Inquirer.
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