An empty apartment tower that became an out-of-character eyesore for a ritzy section of Center City has been scooped up by a developer.
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An entity that shares an address with New York-based Zoria Housing spent $7.7M on the graffiti-laden, 99-year-old property at 257 S. 16th St. last month, according to city records.
The 21-story beaux-arts building previously sold for more than $11M to a company associated with investor Dovid Daniel in 2019, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Renovation work there stopped in 2022, and Daniel lost control of the building the following year when it entered receivership. The condition of the tower has deteriorated since then, with break-ins, shattered windows and a large volume of graffiti drawing the ire of nearby residents.
Zoria tapped Stuart Rosenberg of architecture firm SgRA to continue his work on the building that began under Daniel.
“They’re interested in doing this relatively quickly,” he told the Inquirer. “The planning process has already started. It’s not visible yet, but it’s already in motion.”
The architect expects the project to be complete within the next 12 to 18 months. Zoria will take advantage of Philadelphia’s generous historic adaptive reuse tax incentives, Rosenberg said.
Although the 100% 10-year tax abatement that led to a wave of new apartments in the city expired in 2022 for most projects, it is still in place for adaptive reuse endeavors.
Zoria’s in-house construction arm also made it easier for the company to pencil the project, Rosenberg said.
Residential conversions of ailing office properties have been a key source of new apartments in Center City in recent years.
More units are on the way in the neighborhood through projects like Alterra Property Group’s redevelopment of 1701 Market St. and TF Cornerstone’s work on the Wanamaker Building.
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