Could Philadelphia Have a Second Downtown? (Erie, Conshohocken: sale, rent, townhomes)

[roma258]

Originally Posted by Flyers Girl

The flight path for PHL is a very good reason as to why the Navy Yard will likely never be high-rise. Hadn't thought of that.

You don't need much height to create a dense and vibrant downtown. You do need good mass transit options (cough BSL cough).

[Sammy215267]

University City = Next 10-30 Years , Second Downtown. Case Closed. Has anyone been watching and hearing about the development that is going to take place within the next 5-30 years ? All of the new buildings and 1,000+ bldg in the works. and the capping of the 30th st train yard. That whole area is about to be revitalized into a completely different place. Which is in so many ways is already happening.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by RightonWalnut

If PHA moves the low income housing between Fairmount, Girard, Broad Street and the Regional Rail tracks, another "Downtown" could maybe be built there. Another Regional Rail stop could even be built there.

There could maybe be more highrises built around the Amtrak station in North Philadelphia, and along Broad Street through Temple Hospital and Broad and Erie.

Could maybe one day have more highrises in Germantown along Chelten Ave and Germantown Ave.

Lastly, could probably have more highrises along City Avenue between I-76 and St. Joe's campus split between the City and Bala Cynwyd.

Any other "Downtown's" will likely continue to form outside of the city, in Camden, Wilmington, Conshohocken, etc.

"between Fairmount, Girard, Broad Street and the Regional Rail tracks"? Most of that area is of recent rebuild, along the lines of suburbia. It's not likely to be razed or relocated anytime soon. And Temple University station is simply too close.

There's a proposal to reuse the Beury Building as senior housing. I consider that a good sign. (The Beury Building is the 1926 Italianate high-rise that currently sits empty and dilapidated at the Broad/Erie/Germantown intersection.)

Making Germantown's Main Street high-rise IMO would be all out of scale for the neighborhood, but mid-rise development would fit in well - along the lines of the apartment houses that sit at the west end of Chelten Avenue, or for that matter the former C.A. Rowell store and the senior housing building close to the Chelten and Germantown intersection. You do know that Central Germantown was the second-biggest shopping district in the city in the 1960s, right?

[NYtoNJtoPA]

Manayunk?

[RightonWalnut]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

"between Fairmount, Girard, Broad Street and the Regional Rail tracks"? Most of that area is of recent rebuild, along the lines of suburbia. It's not likely to be razed or relocated anytime soon. And Temple University station is simply too close.

I mean sometime in the future for "West Poplar." Those homes were built in the 90s, so in another 10 years as the rest of the area is filled in all around this section, you can bet there will be a push to redevelop this area. I say PHA jumps the gun now and moves these residents to their new "Sharswood" development, and sells off the land to developers. I suppose this would be controversial, and I wouldn't be so opposed to this area if it wasn't so damn suburban, right smack dab in the middle of the city.

You cold easily fit 20-25 highrises here and surround it with midrise development to step down to the surrounding neighborhoods. We'll eventually have a highrise section lining Broad Street between Center City and Temple, so it wouldn't be completely out of place. Another Regional Rail stop at Girard would be a necessity in order for this development to properly play out. The stations would be further together than say, Suburban Station and Market East (Jefferson) Station... so I don't think it would be a big deal.

There's a proposal to reuse the Beury Building as senior housing. I consider that a good sign. (The Beury Building is the 1926 Italianate high-rise that currently sits empty and dilapidated at the Broad/Erie/Germantown intersection.)

Yes, I saw that! Pretty cool. With the Broad Street line, the North Broad Regional Rail stop, the Amtrak station, and Temple Hospital, I could see highrises lining Broad from Lehigh to Erie.... that's still at least 20-25 years out though, if even then.

Making Germantown's Main Street high-rise IMO would be all out of scale for the neighborhood, but mid-rise development would fit in well - along the lines of the apartment houses that sit at the west end of Chelten Avenue, or for that matter the former C.A. Rowell store and the senior housing building close to the Chelten and Germantown intersection. You do know that Central Germantown was the second-biggest shopping district in the city in the 1960s, right?

I'm not talking about anything too big, but maybe some more buildings in the 10-25 story range. There are already some mid and highrises there, so they wouldn't be too out of place. Most of the development along Chelten Ave has become VERY suburban... with TWO regional rail lines here, I could see more highrises and midrises built along Chelten Ave between these two regional rail lines.

And yes, I knew about the shopping corridor.... maybe one day again... maybe one day.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by RightonWalnut

I'm not talking about anything too big, but maybe some more buildings in the 10-25 story range. There are already some mid and highrises there, so they wouldn't be too out of place. Most of the development along Chelten Ave has become VERY suburban... with TWO regional rail lines here, I could see more highrises and midrises built along Chelten Ave between these two regional rail lines.

And yes, I knew about the shopping corridor.... maybe one day again... maybe one day.

I'd probably top out at 15. That's about the number of floors the apartment buildings at the west end of Chelten Avenue have. The Manor building at Alden Park makes a very photogenic terminus to the street, and I wouldn't want to dwarf it.

As for the development "becoming very suburban," the only new project I know of in the last 10 years or so is the Plaza at Chelten, which replaced a rather sad ShopRite (or was it a Shop'n'Bag?)-turned-Fresh Grocer. It is a strip mall, true, and there's another just off Chelten on Wayne up from the Chelten Market (former Pathmark), another store-with-parking-in-front, but from that point east the street wall has held up very well. The big push right now commercially is to redo Maplewood Mall, the intimate shopping street that runs all of one block from Germantown Avenue to Greene Street just south of Chelten.

What I'd love to see is a department store reoccupying the Rowell's space. You should check out the photos of the store from shortly after its 1950 makeover in the Library of Congress collection. That building is largely empty now save for a Walgreens on its street floor. Speaking of department stores, I've never been able to figure out which of the buildings housed J.C. Penney, the last department store to shut down in Central Germantown.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

What I'd love to see is a department store reoccupying the Rowell's space. You should check out the photos of the store from shortly after its 1950 makeover in the Library of Congress collection. That building is largely empty now save for a Walgreens on its street floor. Speaking of department stores, I've never been able to figure out which of the buildings housed J.C. Penney, the last department store to shut down in Central Germantown.

I would love to see that(store in Rowell's)as well but it's probably a pipe dream. Of course I remember when it was Rowell's.

[OyCrumbler]

University City is more like an extension of downtown.

A planned secondary CBD would make sense if it's around places with multiple transit connections. I think Regional Rail in particular that Philly should be leveraging. I think in that respect, if there was a sort of top-down driven attempt to make a secondary CBD in Philadelphia, one place that make sense is the general area in and around the North Philadelphia and North Broad Street RR stations / North Philadelphia BSL station (Glenwood). Making a move on this would be extremely contentious though, but it seems really sensible as a CBD location. Oddly enough, it's also much closer to the geographic center of Philadelphia than Center City is.

[kidphilly]

Camden actually is the one area that could

North broad may sort of. U city is more an extension. The navy yard will never have height due to flight approaches and would be more new urban form anyway

[DocAwesome]

U City will be the next downtown, but it is going to be awful. Outside of the actual college campuses - the giant buildings look great but interact with the street in such a generic or even hostile way. Ah well, it will bring in jobs which will be great.