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Before now, a water feature in a North Broad Street apartment building most likely meant a roof leak.
Now, there's Lofts 640, a former factory at Broad and Mt. Vernon, which has not one but two water features:
A babbling stream will run through a landscaped courtyard entrance; and tenants can relax in a glass enclosed, heated salt-water pool atop a four-story annex at the rear.
Since the main building rises nine stories, developer Eric Blumenfeld can claim he's offering waterfront views on North Broad.
Strictly tongue in cheek, of course.
But Blumenfeld is serious about bringing stylish loft-living and young professionals to this unlikely stretch of Broad, aka the Avenue of the Arts North. He's putting $50 million into the restoration of the long-vacant Albert Nipon factory.
Blumenfeld compares the North Philly venture to his $5 million revival of the Marine Club apartments. That project, at Broad and Washington, helped extend arts and retail activity on the Avenue of the Arts several blocks below South Street.
Lofts 640, as Blumenfeld puts it, is the Marine Club on steroids.
I think it's really going to be vibrant,he said.Once you have people moving into the area to work and live, retail will flourish.
The former factory is surrounded by a mishmash of buildings. Its closest neighbors include the historic Old Zion Lutheran Church, the Wilke auto dealership, and a renovated office building, which houses the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging.
The building itself is a monster, with 640,000 square feet of space that will be carved into 265 lofts, two floors of parking for 208 vehicles, a gym, a yoga room, a ground-level restaurant and retail space.
The building caught Blumenfeld's eye several years ago because of its size. The building is three times the size of the Divine Lorrain Hotel, a massive pile of stone that Blumenfeld owns just a few blocks north, at Broad and Fairmount.
All that space allows economics of scale that make amenities like enclosed parking and a heated salt-water pool possible, Blumenfeld said.
These are the types of things you can't afford to do for a building of 50 units, Blumenfeld said.
The amenities are designed to overwhelm any qualms that tenant prospects may have about moving to an area that is, to put it politely, in transition. Instead, his aim is to create a campus setting that people feel is safe, convenient and affordable.
The lofts range from 917 square feet to bi-level units of 1,489 square feet. Rents will start at $1,330 for the smallest one-bedroom and range up to $1,895 for the largest two-bedroom. Parking and access to the pool, gym and yoga room are included in the rent.
The building's grand opening is June 24. The first tenant is scheduled to move in Aug 1.
Blumenfeld expects to draw tenants from the office market growing two blocks south between Callowhill and Spring Garden streets. The Philadelphia School District will bring 2,000 administrative employees to 440 N. Broad starting this fall. And around the corner on Spring Garden, Amerimar is bringing hundreds more office workers to the former Smith-Kline building.
He also expects to reel in students from nearby Temple and Hahnemann universities. The building's first tenant is, in fact, a young woman moving from Texas to do her medical residency at Hahnemann.
A year or two ago, all of my comrades in the real-estate industry thought I was a schmuck, Blumenfeld said with a delighted chuckle. Two years from now I'll look like a genius.
Blumenfeld is no novice. A graduate of Tulane University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he has built more than 500 homes in the metropolitan Philadelphia market.
Blumenfeld owns two other apartment buildings in Philly: the Executive House on City Avenue and the Marine Club.
He also has two condo projects under way: the Cigar Factory at 4th and Girard Avenue, and Abbotts Square, on Headhouse Square at South Street.
With Lofts 640, however, he's bucking the market trend by opting for rentals over condos. Lofts 640 is the city's first sizable rental project since the completion of the St. James in Washington Square.
He believes the condo-conversions of several older apartment buildings have created a shortage of luxury rental units in Center City. That's especially true of the increasingly desired loft-style spaces.
Also, skyrocketing prices for condos is forcing rentals to think twice about home ownership. A recent study of 21 metro areas - including Philadelphia - found a widening gap between the cost of renting and the cost of buying in the hottest housing markets.
The data suggests there's a stronger economic sense from a demand standpoint for someone to be renting than to be buying, said Torto Wheaton economist Gleb Nechayev.
More pragmatically, Blumenfeld doubts whether the condo market is ready to accept luxury condos in the 600 block of North Broad.
Still, Blumenfeld also believes the Divine Lorraine, empty since 1999, will be redeveloped as a hotel or apartments. But not by him.
Blumenfeld bought the hotel just over a year ago in partnership with two other developers. Last month, the hotel and 3.7 acres of land surrounding it were put back on the market for $12.5 million.
We really don't have the ability to do too many large projects at one time, Blumenfeld admitted. The Divine Lorraine is a very special building. I think it is important to the emergence of this neighborhood.
By Earni Young
younge@phillynews.com
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