What We're Reading: Week of December 3, 2023

Here's what we're reading this week about the projects, people and policies driving local development:

PREIT is preparing a second bankruptcy filing as part of a debt restructuring deal in an agreement with its lenders, including a transition to private, not public, ownership of the REIT

🔗 PREIT files for Chapter 11, agrees to walk away from Fashion District - Philadelphia Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

by Paul Schwedelson, Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal, Updated Dec 11, 2023

Toll Brothers tells the Business Journal that it is providing a mix of price points, by expanding its “affordable luxury” category of new homes, resulting in its overall annual average home price reducing 11% to $989,000

🔗Toll Brothers is building more lower-priced homes — and they're driving sales - Philadelphia Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

by Paul Schwedelson, Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal, Dec 11, 2023

A 17-story Beaux Arts apartment tower near Rittenhouse Square has been placed in Court ordered receivership after sitting vacant for four years and the project developer filing for bankruptcy, as investigated by The Philadelphia Inquirer

🔗 Apartment tower near Rittenhouse sitting vacant and covered in graffiti (inquirer.com)

by Jake Blumgart and Ryan W. Briggs, Nov 17, 2023

Bisnow shares the rising levels of distress in rent stabilized multi-family apartment sector as operating and financing costs higher than the limited rent rolls can cover

🔗 'A Bloodbath': Reckoning For Rent-Stabilized Apartment Owners Starting To Set In (bisnow.com)

by Ciara Long, Nov 15, 2023

The Inquirer marks the passage of yet another zoning overlay passed using Councilmanic prerogative, this one by outgoing Council President Clarke, which would limit building height, including along major commercial corridors, for Girard College and facing Fairmount Park:

🔗 Darrell Clarke's Brewerytown-Sharswood zoning bill passes City Council (inquirer.com)

by Jake Blumgart, Nov 16, 2023

🚍 An Inquirer editorial decries the moves of intercity bus boarding since the closure of the Greyhound terminal at 10th and Filbert earlier this year, first to 6th and Market and now to Front and Spring Garden, calling for the city to find a spot that provides protection from the weather, basic facilities and is handicapped accessible

🔗 Relocated bus terminal makes a bad situation worse | Editorial (inquirer.com)

by The Editorial Board, Nov 16, 2023

🏫 WHYY reports that after the former Germantown High School sat vacant for a decade, the first of four phases of residential development is about to open, and may include a coffee shop open to the public

🔗 Germantown High School set to reopen next year - WHYY

by Aaron Moselle, Nov 17, 2023

🚧The Business Journal published a deep dive by National Observer Editor Ashley Fahey on efforts to expand new construction of “middle market” housing through zoning changes at the local and state levels, but ignores the impact of changes to the tax code in the late 1980’s despite noting the drop off in this construction from that period to the present

🔗 Missing-middle housing is lacking in most US cities, drawing attention from developers and public officials - Philadelphia Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

by Ashley Fahey – Editor, The National Observer: Real Estate Edition, The Business Journals, Updated Nov 13, 2023

🏘️The Inquirer looks into the reasons that few family-sized rental units are being built in new multi-family residential buildings 

🔗 Family apartments in Philadelphia are hard to find (inquirer.com)

by Jake Blumgart, Oct 23, 2023