Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds reached a milestone in its redevelopment of a former Philadelphia Electric Co. generating plant in Fishtown.

Lubert-Adler opened the leasing office for the residential component of The Battery, a 500K SF mixed-use redevelopment overlooking the Delaware River on the north end of Penn Treaty Park. The 173 apartments, of which 45 are furnished units for variable-length stays, are expected to begin move-ins this summer.

The Battery also contains a 35K SF creative office space called The Hub, 100K SF of traditional office space, a 25K SF event venue operated by local company Cescaphe and a 75K SF main hall rentable for special events. Residential hospitality company Sentral has been tapped to manage The Battery's apartments.

FINANCING

An institutional investor group advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives secured a $45M floating-rate loan for a 1M SF distribution center it owns in the Northeast Pennsylvania town of Tobyhanna. The loan was originated by Northwestern Mutual and arranged by a Cushman & Wakefield equity, debt and structured finance team.

The facility, called Arcadia North, was completed in 2020 and is fully leased to national hardware store chain Lowe's.

CONSTRUCTION

LCOR launched leasing for its 31-story, 267-unit apartment tower at 1 Dock St. in Society Hill, which it named The Ryland. Move-ins are slated to begin by the end of the summer, with full completion expected in the fall. The Ryland's amenity space takes up three full floors of the building, including the top floor, which contains two lounges, a roof deck and an outdoor pool.

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Local developer Frankel Enterprises and the Philadelphia Housing Authority broke ground on a 73-unit affordable housing development called Bucknell Square and Girard Commons on the Sharswood neighborhood site of the Blumberg Apartments public housing project, which was demolished in 2016.

Bucknell Square will consist of 36 single-family homes available for purchase, while the Girard Commons plan includes 37 homes split between single-family and condo-type units. Frankel received financing for the $17M project from Mid Penn Bank and PHA, with the latter using some of the $30M Choice Neighborhoods Grant it received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for redevelopment in Sharswood.

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RREI opened the doors on the residential portion of its 12-story apartment tower The Carson at Fifth and Spring Garden streets. The 373 units are split between studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, with monthly rent starting at $1,691 for studios, $2,183 for one-bedroom apartments and $3,370 for two-bedroom units.

In addition to 25K SF of amenity space — including two roof decks, makerspace, coworking space, and indoor basketball and pickleball courts — the Carson was also supposed to contain Philadelphia's first Amazon Fresh grocery store on the ground floor. The future of that retail space remains up in the air as internal construction remains unfinished and Amazon has new grocery store openings on indefinite pause.