Chestnut Street East Revival
Although the article doesn;t mention it, it's happening on the east end too. Where starr has already taken over half a block but more importantly, new buildings in the area from the victor to th st. james. someday someone is going to "discover" 11th st and it's buildings. it's sort of a 13th st w/o the hookers. and a plug for one of my favorite cd stores, the Sounds of MArket on 11th.
Quote:
Hot Chestnut
Once seedy street lures condos, clubs & restaurants
By SONO MOTOYAMA
sono@phillynews.com
YOU MIGHT not notice it at first glance, but it's happening. West Chestnut Street is clambering out of retail hell.
Condemned there by a Rizzo administration policy that had closed it to all traffic except buses and taxis, and suffering from competition from suburban malls, Chestnut Street has lately seen a burst of interest. New luxury condos, funky retail and high-concept clubs and restaurants are destined for the street.
"You could have your next Old City," said Realtor Mark Wade. "Hip, chic and filled with great new shops and residences."
Walk down Chestnut Street today and it may not be immediately obvious. There's still the dollar store, middling lunch spots and struggling, B-grade shops. But look a little closer, and you'll notice scaffolding littering the sidewalks and workers plastering the drywall of soon-to-open businesses.
Among the most exciting of these will be a warehouse-size Di Bruno Bros. gourmet food store and cafe, styled after New York's Dean & Deluca, slated for March 2005 in the 1700 block. Smith Bros. jeans is said to be opening on the street. The offbeat Greene Street Consignment opened just last week, also in the 1700 block.
And then there's that ultimate sign/catalyst of a neighborhood in turnaround: Next month Stephen Starr will open a (blaring red) restaurant, the Continental Mid-town, at 18th and Chestnut.
SUBHED HERE: Condos a-poppin'
Though it's seemingly ideally located between the office canyon of Market Street and the residential-retail greenery of upscale Rittenhouse Square, it's taken a while for Chestnut Street to get its head above water.
"Only in the past year have we gotten specific requests for condos on Chestnut Street, west of Broad," said Wade, operator of www.CenterCityCondos.com.
When architects James and Karen Moustafellos bought their condominium on the 1700 block of Chestnut St. four years ago, they were pioneers.
When James told his wife about the apartment, "her immediate reaction was, 'People don't live on Chestnut,' " said James, who is from New York.
Since the Moustafelloses began renovating their raw space into a home and office, other luxury condos and apartments have appeared - sometimes office conversions, sometimes mixed-use buildings. They include a conversion on the 1900 hundred block of Chestnut, the Grande at 15th and Chestnut, Pennsylvania House at the same intersection, the Lofts at Liberty across from Liberty Place. Not to mention new stores and restaurants.
"Right now on our street - between 17th and 18th streets - there's so much construction going on, it's impossible to sleep at night," James Moustafellos said.
But what took so long?
"I think it's taken Chestnut Street years and years to recover from the damage that was done" when the street was closed to traffic, said Louis Coffey, head of the Center City Residents' Association.
But now there are two new luxury high-rises proposed - one called the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, by the Arden Group, and another unnamed condo by Mariner Commercial Properties - at 15th and Chestnut/South Penn Square.
"You're talking about something like 500 new luxury condo units" with just those two buildings alone, Coffey said. Currently, though, the two developers are mired in legal disputes.
Perhaps more of a sure thing is Le Crillon, slated to open in March. Albert M. Greenfield III, president and managing director of Albert M. Greenfield & Co., plans to turn the building at the southeast corner of 18th and Chestnut into a luxury apartment building.
With wood floors, exposed beams, high-end appliances, granite countertops and Jacuzzis, he expects to charge rents from $2,500-$6,000 per month. His clients, he said, will be "Rittenhouse Square people who can't get on the square."
SUBHED HERE: The Continental's second coming
Ask restaurateur Stephen Starr what has made Chestnut Street hot, and he'll reply with typical modesty, "I believe the Continental opening there changed it overnight."
He added, "I'm not that smart, really, but everyone else is not smart enough. A block from the hottest area in the city - Rittenhouse Square - and I saw this unbelievable building empty. It takes just one entrepreneur to smack everyone in the head and say, 'Wake up, look at this.' "
The new Continental Mid-town seems geared to smacking people upside the head. It may be channeling Starr's modest Continental diner/lounge in Old City, but it has decidedly grander design ambitions.
Global tapas will be served in a soaring space with a sunken lounge on the ground floor, wicker chairs suspended from the ceiling on the mezzanine and a rooftop dining and cocktail area, complete with a reflecting pool.
But the Continental won't be the only game on the street.
Fellow club owner/restaurateur Avram Hornik gives Starr his props but says that he brokered his deals for a club and restaurant on Chestnut Street before the Continental's coming.
"I think Chestnut Street is one of the more exciting streets in the city, both historically and currently," Hornik said. "Don't look at the security grates on the first floor but at the wonderful architecture - art deco and art nouveau."
Sandwiched between commercial and residential districts, Chestnut Street is ideal for someone in the restaurant business, Hornik said. He plans a second-floor, Argentine-inspired lounge - above the rather scroungy-looking Snow White Diner. (The space was last seen as Denzel Washington's law office in the movie "Philadelphia.") Tentatively called Noche, it will feature small plates and colorful decor.
Next door Hornik plans Amedeo, named for the Italian artist Modigliani, which will be a kosher vegetarian Italian restaurant (go figure). The new spots are slated for late summer and fall, respectively.
Also tentatively on the agenda is the stalled revitalization of the Sameric/Boyd Theater. Owned by the Goldenberg Group, it may pick up steam in the fall. In cooperation with Clear Channel, the Goldenberg Group hopes to turn the theater in the 1900 block of Chestnut St. into a multi-use entertainment venue with theater, music and other live acts.
Said Goldenberg development director Leslie Smallwood, "With the magnitude of our project, we felt confident that other development would come. We saw our project as being a catalyst. Now we're just in addition to other projects that will be going on and are going on... .We feel West Chestnut has a lot of potential."
That potential may soon be realized.
As Stephen Starr put it, "Build it and they will come."
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