>last week, the business advocacy group for Jewelers Row learned that Toll Brothers is abandoning its plans and selling the vacant lot to Pearl Properties, a Philadelphia-based developer and rental company that owns many historic residential buildings.
>
>“Jim Pearlstein, who is the president of Pearl Properties, reached out to me directly” to say they had acquired the site, said Rich Goldberg, president of the Jewelers Row District.
>
>Goldberg said that Pearl Properties does not have exact plans yet, but that construction could begin as early as mid-2023.
>
>Neither Pearl Properties nor Toll Brothers would comment.

I’m not a preservationist zealot, but maybe they should’ve cleared all the stuff before, knocking everything down and making a gaping hole in the ground?

This dumb bullshit should be illegal.

This city is a disgrace and holds developers to no standard.

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Fuck toll bros, everything they do is trash.

Funny that the ultra rich are supposedly scared of philly now but the rent and housing costs don't seem to be going down.

:( this was one of the areas in CC that still had character, human scale, local businesses, etc.

Are you fucking kidding? Absolutely disgusting.

I can’t read the article past the excerpt OP posted. Could someone tell me what structures/businesses existed before they demolished them for this project? Btw the coffee shop Thank You Thank You is to the left of the demolished area and I highly recommend it!!!!

Just another reason to hate Toll Brothers.

Try turning your phone to airplane mode, as soon as article/link opens. All of the images/video may not load, but the text usually does. Works for others as well, not just the Inky. Happy paywall jumping!!

B/C they obvi thought we needed more.

Step back in time and see history with Google street view

I hope they get moving on the new development, that hole is such an eyesore. Glad to hear there may be street level retail/restaurants at the base of the tower.

This sucks, but please.. don’t make this a parking lot.

also try 12 ft ladder!

I’m most scared of Philly because it’s expensive to live there. And it takes too long to find parking. And the schools suck.

Does that work for everything?

I hope this doesn’t become the “toll hole”.

not everything--the NYT knows every trick--but with most things yes! it's great

They tore it all down for absolutely nothing. Nothing can shock me anymore but this comes close.

The reason people put up with Philly is because though it can be rough around the edges it’s one of the largest affordable cities. These and other developers are investing solely in luxury housing (parking will get worse, schools will still be trash but become even more overcrowded, landlords will do less to accommodate their renters, etc). Philadelphians will get fed up and this city will either become Detroit or Aspen. Both of those cities have little character left. I really hope I’m wrong but if I’m not and nothing gets done the Philly we come to love will no longer exist. My true home is Miami. My chosen home is Philly. I really want true Philly to thrive.

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OK this is bullshit, but at the same time considering that what's done is done and the buildings are gone, isn't Pearl a better developer than Toll? I mean as far as what the end product is going to be, generally speaking isn't it preferrable to have a Pearl building than a Toll one?

Or maybe not. I don't really know either way.

At least they destroyed a couple of beautiful historic buildings for us! Plus now we have this awesome pit. Yay Toll Brothers!

It’s certainly not for the faint of heart but I’m actually with you on the schools part. I’m hoping the city turns some things around there when I’m ready to have kids

I don't know much about Pearl but I've never heard anything good about Toll.

this was toll brothers plan from the beginning and they've done it before with the society hill playhouse. they find valuable sites and wow review boards with big plans so they can demolish the existing building.

then they let it sit vacant long enough (since they had zero intention of building, it wouldn't have been profitable enough) and then wait for a smaller more eager developer to buy a hole in the ground at top dollar. then the new developer builds something 10x worse and cheap. everyone loses, except toll bros

Toll brothers is super trashy. Maybe these other guys do something better? At least something is moving forward

They rushed to clear it because the anti development zealots who want to poor amber over the city and never let it change, were rushing to block them with historic designation. Resulting in the worse of both worlds, an empty hole in the ground.

Luxury is just a word for new at this point.

When me make building housing as difficult and expensive as possible, the only thing developers will be able to build is high end construction.

Parking is only an issue here because we give it away for free. Some of the schools are over crowded because we don't fund the school district. Landlords do nothing when they have no competition or reason to, because lack of housing supply gives them effective monopoly power.

The rent in center city is stable because we don't have enough housing, and housing being both a necessity and a zero sum game means price stays high. Plenty of cheap rent in the badlands, but demand isn't as high to live there.

it won't lol

You gotta pay the Toll Toll if you want to get in that there hole

Local businesses selling blood diamonds. If Pearl properties builds a 40 story apartment building on this site, it will be worth it. That area is very transit accessible and needs more density to support existing restaurants and other stores.

Pearl is Philly based and they’ve done a lot of nice projects. They take mixed use development seriously and look to bring great retail to their projects.

Most people, including preservationists, would have been fine with an overbuild there. It was absolutely possible and the development would have taken a nearly identical form except the podium cladding would've been original walls instead of new materials.

Toll wasn't willing to waste any brainpower on that. Ironically Pearl, on the other hand, has done overbuilds with at least one more planned near Rittenhouse.

Most buildings that are affordable today were once built as “luxury”. When it costs $450k per unit to build a building and years of bureaucratic red tape, you need to charge a certain rent level or else the whole project loses money.

More housing units is what keeps housing prices down. We should welcome more. It’s supply and demand.

Sounds like an upgrade then.

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Then don't live here.