tourism : Development News

The 25-year-old, 200-store shopping mall and outlet center formerly known as Franklin Mills has announced a major redevelopment project, and a new name to boot.

The mall, which was originally developed by the Mills Corporation which is now owned and operated by Simon Property Group (which also owns the King of Prussia Mall), has been renamed Philadelphia Mills.  
 
According to The Mills President Gregg Goodman, Simon Property Group had been actively working on plans to upgrade and update the property since as far back as 2007, when it acquired the mall. New customer amenities, he says, were always part of that plan.

Along with mall-wide Wi-Fi, lounge areas with device changing stations will be installed when interior renovations begin early next year.

"The long and short of what we're doing should add up to a completely new shopping experience," he insists.               

New landscaping, updated signage and a modernized façade will all play major roles in the redevelopment. And the mall's interior will be considerably brightened thanks to new flooring and skylights. Even the restrooms will be renovated, and roughly a dozen new retail stores and eateries, including Express Factory Outlet, will be added.     
 
As for the mall's name change -- the original moniker was a nod to Benjamin Franklin -- Goodman says it was led by a formal branding study.

"But in the end, the reason we went with 'Philadelphia Mills' is probably the most straightforward of all reasons -- the fact that we're actually in the city of Philadelphia," he explains. "Not a lot of people realize that. But we're proud of it, and wanted a name that was emblematic of that."   
 
A grand reopening event is tentatively scheduled to take place at the Bucks County-bordering Philadelphia Mills sometime in fall 2015.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Gregg Goodman, The Mills

Until recently, Philadelphians with a miniature-golf habit had exactly one option within the city proper: the 18-hole course at Center City's Franklin Square, with its family-friendly vibe and Spirit of '76 theme for tourists.
 
Fortunately, that's no longer the case.
 
Keystone Mini-Golf and Arcade, an indoor facility with nine holes and a grown-up, party-friendly atmosphere, recently opened at 161 Cecil B. Moore Avenue in Olde Kensington. And, in an unrelated venture, an 18-hole glow-in-the-dark putt-putt course known as Adventurer's Mini-Golf is due to open any day now at 38 Jackson Street in South Philly.
 
Both businesses feature arcade games and Skee-Ball, and both offer dedicated party rooms. At Keystone Mini-Golf, which proudly advertises itself as a BYOB facility, the party takes place in a backyard gravel lot, open to the elements and outfitted with picnic tables.
 
Keystone was started by Bucks County natives Bill Cannon and Drew Ferry, who stumbled onto their lightbulb moment after a session at a driving range in Southampton.

"We were walking back to the car and saw a mini-golf course," recalls Ferry. "We thought we could do a little spin on it [in the city], and do it BYO."

The old-school, DIY-style course was put together in about six weeks with the help of Ferry's father, who works in construction. And while Ferry hasn't yet given up his day job as a mover, Keystone's first month went much better than expected.

"It's been amazing," says Cannon. "Yesterday, a guy came in with his girlfriend. Later at night, he came back with a buddy."

On September 21 Keystone is hosting its Inaugural Mini-Golf Open with a $25 buy-in, free beer and prizes. 

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Bill Cannon and Drew Ferry, Keystone Mini-Golf 
 

As Flying Kite has reported, City Hall's Dilworth Park opened on September 4. Folks from around the city came out to get aquainted with Philadelphia's latest revamped public space.

Among those visitors was esteemed Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, and she was, well, slightly disappointed.

Dilworth's new comforts, which won't be complete until November, are undermined by an uptight and controlling sensibility...The new design was intended to be the polar opposite of the 37-year-old plaza, a hardscape extravaganza by the late Vincent Kling, the same midcentury modernist who exhausted a couple of quarries building LOVE Park, the Centre Square towers, and Municipal Services Building and its plaza. In place of Kling's tricky level changes, gratuitous barriers, shadowy hiding places and puffed-up monumentality, we now have a flat, multipurpose surface, wide-open views -- and a new kind of puffed-up monumentality. There are vast amounts of hardscape...

The aesthetic is all wrong for a city eager to remake itself for an expanding creative class...Yes, there is real magic when the fountain's jets of water shoot into action, but inactivated, the granite landscape is dry and stiff. The new Dilworth is a suit in a jeans-and-T-shirt world.

Saffron goes into details about her frustrations, which extend to the materials and a lack of greenery.

It sounds strange, but the designers' emphasis on perfection is suffocating. They bludgeon you with "high quality" materials that evoke the atmosphere of a slick corporate lobby. Five types of granite are used, ranging from speckled white to dark black, on the plaza surface.

Olin's sculpted benches, which are seductive and beautiful forms, also are granite. A wooden version, similar to Olin's design for nearby Lenfest Plaza, would have softened the official feel of the place. So would some additional shade, but all the greenery has been relegated to the periphery. The nicest spot is a small grove where the chairs have been arranged on crushed gravel rather than granite.

Maybe I spent too much time in beer gardens this summer, but I found myself longing for some of their laid-back, serendipitous vibe.
 
All that said, Dilworth Park remains a vast improvement over its gray, dreary, lurker-shielding predecessor. There's a cafe and interactive water feature; there is also ample space for public events, be it protests or concerts. And, it's a huge project completed thanks to a public-private partnership.

There is no doubt that this important civic space, once a smelly, run-down municipal embarrassment in the heart of Philadelphia, has been greatly improved by the Center City District's Paul Levy, who marshaled a dream team of Philadelphia's most renowned designers and engineers. The amenities, from the food vendor to the picnic lawn, are reason enough to applaud.

How about you? What do you think of the new Dilworth Park? Tweet us @flyingkitemedia or hit us up on Facebook.
 

The rebuilding of Dilworth Plaza from a drab, inaccessible concrete slab encircling Philadelphia's City Hall into Dilworth Park, a green public space set to become one of Center City's most exciting outdoor areas, has been one of the most closely watched local development stories for three years now.
 
Finally, the $55 million project's official opening date has been made public. During an August 19 press conference, Center City District CEO Paul Levy announced that the park will be unveiled Thursday, September 4 at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
 
As Flying Kite reported in late 2010, a 185-foot-wide programmable fountain operating on recycled rain water will be one of the park's centerpieces; it will be transformed into an ice skating rink during the winter months.
 
And because the 120,000-square-foot project's main mission has always centered on enhancing access to the nucleus of Philly's public transit system, it makes sense that two subway entrances made of glass -- and seemingly inspired by the Louvre Pyramid -- are architectural standouts as well.   
 
Perhaps the most exciting Dilworth update, though, involves Chef Jose Garces being attached to the cafe that will sit in the Plaza's northwest corner. The breakfast-all-day eatery will be similar to Garces' Rosa Blanca and offer light Cuban-inspired fare.
 
Although roughly 10 percent of the project's construction won't be complete for another six to eight weeks, an entire weekend's worth of events will celebrate its opening, beginning with an all-day arts and culture festival on September 4.

Click here for a complete list of the weekend's scheduled performances and events.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Center City District

Architectural renderings courtesy of OLIN and KieranTimberlake

 

If you've already whiled away a pleasant evening or three this summer at the pop-up Spruce Street Harbor Park but haven't yet stopped by the reimagined Eakins Oval at the center of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, you'll want to consider making room in your schedule for a visit.
 
Officially dubbed The Oval, the temporary eight-acre public space sits directly in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It popped up last summer, and following a number of spring and fall events, celebrated its seasonal return to the Parkway in mid-July.
 
For the next four weeks (through August 17) the color-saturated urban play space will be home to a huge schedule of free events, activities and community programming. There will be fitness boot camps and yoga classes; Quizzo contests and film screenings; Tai Chi lessons and DJ nights. And along with a monster-sized chess board, a ping-pong table and a mini-golf course (all free!), The Oval also features a rotating cast of food trucks and a beer garden built from reclaimed construction materials.    
 
The Oval's "has been very, very successful," says Colleen Campbell of the Fairmount Park Conservancy. "It's been tremendously well-received."
 
And although last summer's beach theme was popular with park-goers, this year the design is different. Local artist Candy Coated was commissioned by the Association for Public Art to transform The Oval into a whimsical space with a magic carpet motif.

"It's very fanciful, and it's very bright," explains Campbell. "Aside from our programming, it's just a fun piece of art to interact with."

The Oval is open 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Wednesday - Friday; noon - 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Source: Colleen Campbell, Fairmount Park Conservancy
Writer: Dan Eldridge

Flying Kite has spilled a decent amount of (virtual) ink in the last few months on the various issues surrounding the future of one of South Philadelphia's most important thoroughfares, Washington Avenue. But a recent Pennsport community meeting to discuss a proposed mini-business complex has us wondering why the wide and tree-lined Moyamensing Avenue hasn't been part of that conversation as well. (Moyamensing runs at an angle from Christian Street down to Snyder Avenue.) 
 
"There's plenty of housing in the neighborhood, but there really aren't that many amenities," says architect Alex Duller of FUSA Designs. Duller, along with Brandon Fox of MSCretail, hopes to change that. The pair presented plans at the aforementioned meeting for a small commercial complex of seven businesses on the corner of Moyamensing and Moore Streets.
 
According to Duller, talks are already underway with the owners of a coffee shop, a yoga studio, a specialty food grocer and an ice cream parlor. Duller and Fox also hope to bring in a restaurant, but for the time being, only one local business owner -- Sean Mellody of Mellody Brewing -- has signed a letter of intent.
 
Mellody hopes to offer limited onsite sales and open a tasting room inside the brewery. But, as Duller explains, none of the development plans can move forward unless the complex's buildings -- currently zoned for single-family residential use -- are rezoned as mixed commercial structures.
 
"Right now, no one's willing to sign a letter of intent based on the fact that [the space] is still zoned for single-family," he says.
 
Duller and Fox will present their plan to the Zoning Board of Adjustment at the end of July. If the re-zoning passes, groundbreaking could commence as early as spring 2015.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source:  Alex Duller, FUSA Designs

Philadelphia's extraordinary Mural Arts Program, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, is known citywide for its colorful work. More than 3,600 murals have been produced since Mayor Wilson Goode hired artist Jane Golden to head the program in 1984.  
 
According to Golden, over the past five years the organization has become especially interested in "gateway projects" -- artworks situated at exit and entrance destinations, such as airports, interstates or major intersections.

"I just think it's so important that we think about what people see when they're leaving and entering Philadelphia," she explains.
 
It was that idea that led Golden and her staff to begin a three-year courtship with Katharina Grosse, the celebrated Berlin-based contemporary painter responsible for Mural Arts' latest large-scale gateway project, psychylustro, which was recently constructed along a stretch of Amtrak's Northeast Rail Corridor between 30th Street Station and North Philadelphia Station.     
 
Reminiscent of the grand outdoor projects that have turned artists like Christo and Jeanne-Claude into household names, psychylustro (pronounced psyche-LUSTRO) consists of a three-mile series of seven different color-drenched installations. There are warehouse walls, building façades and random stretches of green space, all meant to be viewed from the window of a moving train.
 
"We really want people to see what we see," says Golden, referring to the industrial, ruined, stunning sites that have been transformed by pops of Grosse's color. "We see the deterioration but we also see the beauty; we see the history; we see Philadelphia’s past."
 
Visit the Mural Arts website for a project map, details about viewing the works from various city bridges, and information about the mobile audio component that accompanies psychylustro.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Jane Golden, Mural Arts Project
 

From its perch on the corner of Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue in North Philly, the ten-story Divine Lorraine -- currently crumbling, nearly in ruins -- has been watching over Philadelphia for 120 years.
 
Recently, the latest chapter in the life of this gorgeous relic was made public: A New Jersey-based real estate mogul with an impressive record of rescuing stalled development projects has agreed to lend just over $31 million to the building's current owner, Eric Blumenfeld, who purchased the building in late 2012 but underestimated renovation costs. So, after sitting empty for the past 15 years, a bit of optimism is in the air.    
 
"It seems my entire career, I came in to finish things other people couldn't get done," says Billy Procida, the lender who's now working with Blumenfeld on the building's renovation. The Lorraine may become a high-end apartment building, Procida says, or perhaps a hotel.
 
Either option will include 21,000 square feet of commercial space -- likely a mix of restaurants, lounges and retail, according to Procida, who feels that a highly visible boutique hotel could turn the neighborhood's fortunes around almost immediately. "I've just got to see if we can find an operator who can move fast enough," he adds.  
 
Procida and Blumenfeld are also exploring a 50-50 option for the building -- turning half of it into apartments and the other half into a hotel. But when it comes to the Lorraine's crucial status in North Philly, Procida has few doubts.

"If this building was finished, that neighborhood would be on fire right now," he says. "The one thing holding that neighborhood back is that building. It's that simple."

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Billy Procida, Procida Funding & Advisors
 

Way back in April 2011, Flying Kite brought you the story of Manayunk's Venice Island -- which sits between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River -- and its nearly ruined Venice Island Recreation Center.

At the time, the rec center was preparing to undergo a $45 million rehab that would include athletic fields, a park, a small spray pool, a multi-use building and a 250-seat performing arts center. The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) helped arrange the capital funds as a compromise after announcing that an EPA-mandated sewage overflow tank was being constructed in the area.
 
Some three years later -- and eight years after the project's planning and preparation stage first kicked off -- Manayunk's community development organizations are finally ready to announce the upcoming grand opening of what has been dubbed the Lower Venice Island Park and Performance Center.
 
"What's really interesting about the site is that it's in the center of a lot of options for outdoor recreation," says Kay Sykora of Destination Schuylkill River, adding that in conjunction with the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the park and performance center (which will probably happen sometime in September), an outdoor recreation event called Play Manayunk will be hosted for the general public.
 
The "adventure for city dwellers" organization known as Discover Outdoors will be on hand during Play Manayunk, and opportunities for both kayaking and dragon boating should be on offer, according to Sykora, who also hopes to make bicycles available for those who'd like to ride on the Schuylkill River Trail. A geocaching event is also being scheduled, along with an attempt at earning a Guinness World Records entry, possibly by way of a sit-up competition.
 
A concrete date for both Play Manayunk and the Venice Island ribbon cutting ceremony should be available come mid-summer; stay tuned to Flying Kite for more details.     

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Kay Sykora, Destination Schuylkill River
 

As part of its increasingly ambitious master plan for the Central Delaware, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) has announced its latest seasonal project.
 
Dubbed a "summer waterfront installation," the Spruce Street Harbor Park at Penn's Landing Marina will be a two-month-long landscaping and programming pop-up project that will temporarily transform the space into an outdoor oasis.
 
Scheduled to run June 27 through August 31, the installation will feature a boardwalk, an urban beach, fountains, misting areas, a pop-up restaurant and bar, and, perhaps most exciting of all, "a series of floating barges complete with lily pad water gardens," according to a release, "and nets that will suspend visitors over the water."
 
According to DRWC's Jodie Milkman, the Spruce Street Harbor Park was developed as an expansion of the group's most recent seasonal installation, Waterfront Winterfest, which brought a pop-up beer garden and fire pits to the Blue Cross RiverRink last winter. The Winterfest installation was wildly successful -- despite being closed for a record 13 days due to inclement weather, the rink's attendance numbers were still 30 percent higher than last year's.   
 
A $300,000 grant from ArtPlace America, which offers grants to civic organizations and cities to activate public spaces through art, provided a portion of the funds for both installations; according to Milkman, DRWC will match those funds.   
 
And what will happen to the fountains and floating barges once the season comes to an end? There are no guarantees just yet, but Milkman says conversations about repeating both installations are already underway.  

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Jodie Milkman, DRWC
 

For just over a decade now, Sarah McEneaney and John Struble, an artist and furniture-maker respectively, have been campaigning to transform North Philly's old Reading Viaduct into a stunning elevated park.

Their inspiration -- like that of so many other urban rail-to-park projects that have popped up across the country -- was the celebrated rehabilition of the High Line in Manhattan.
 
And while McEneaney and Struble had been specifically focused on developing the quarter-mile section of rail that curves through the Loft District east of Broad, they've since teamed up with another pro-rail park group -- originally known as Viaduct Green, and now referred to as Friends of the Rail Park -- who've had their eyes on the railroad's entire three-mile stretch since 2010.
 
According to McEneaney, the two organizations are now collectively known as Friends of the Rail Park. And thanks to their years-long fundraising and grassroots letter-writing efforts -- along with donations from the William Penn Foundation and Poor Richard's Charitable Trust -- the first phase of the railway's development (the aforementioned quarter-mile spur east of Broad) is inching closer to groundbreaking. McEneaney expects the shovels to hit dirt in 2015.

Following phase one's completion, the group plans to shift its focus to the railway's west-of-Broad section.

In the meantime, Friends of the Rail Park are still actively raising funds for the project's capital costs and maintenance. After the spur's completion, the organization will transpose into a voluntary friends group responsible for the park's upkeep. Center City District will be managing the construction of the elevated Rail Park, which will then fall under the purview of the Fairmount Park Commission.
 
To donate to the cause or view a mini-documentary on the Rail Park produced by Good Motion Project, visit therailpark.org.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Sarah McEneaney, Friends of the Rail Park
 

If you need a sign that Philly's retail infrastructure is getting back on track, look no further than the stretch of Germantown Avenue that runs through the northwestern neighborhood of Chestnut Hill.

In early April, the Chestnut Hill Business Association (CHBA) announced that five new shops have either recently opened on the avenue or will soon, while a sixth shop has moved into a larger location "to accommodate its rapid expansion," according to a release.
 
The avenue's latest addition, the children's boutique Villavillekula (the name is a Pippi Longstocking reference), celebrated its arrival with an opening reception at the end of March. The Chocolate Hill Candy & Fudge Shop, meanwhile, opened in December and has already proven popular with kids and grownups alike.
 
Also new for the toddler set is a youngsters-only version of the popular Greene Street consignment chain. Known as Greene Street Kids, it'll open sometime this month, as will Greenology, a gardening and organic lifestyle store across from the Chestnut Hill Hotel. Newly launched inside the hotel is Paris Bistro & Jazz Café, the third offering from Chef Al Paris, who also runs the acclaimed Heirloom and Green Soul eateries in the neighborhood. 
 
According to CHBA Executive Director Martha Sharkey, the growth of the neighborhood's retail scene owes a large debt to the organization's retail recruitment program, which launched four years ago. The neighborhood has welcomed 15 new shops and eight new restaurants in that time.  
 
"We are very lucky to have this program," says Sharkey. "For a downtown district, it's always challenging -- with malls, and with other places for people to shop -- to really create a vibrant, thriving community. The retail recruitment has really been essential to us."  
 
The retail recruiter position has recently become available; interested candidates can view the job description here.
 
Source: Martha Sharkey, Chestnut Hill Business Association
Writer: Dan Eldridge

Michael Harris has been executive director of the South Street Headhouse District -- the city's second-oldest business improvement district -- for two years now. One of the first things that struck him about the historic stretch of South Fourth Street known as Fabric Row -- which runs between South and Catherine Streets -- was the dated and run-down feel of the strip.

"There are certain basic streetscape elements that are lacking down there," says Harris. "Like trash cans, pedestrian lighting, and places to sit."
 
Harris was also struck by the fact that many of the new businesses and contemporary boutiques moving into the area are investing in their own properties. Meanwhile, the public elements of Fabric Row, he says, "don't really reflect all the good things that are going on."

And so, along with the Community Design Collaborative, Headhouse District put together a conceptual design for Fabric Row that includes streetscape improvements -- park benches, planters and pedestrian-level lighting, for example. The plan also calls for building façade renovations, an aspect of the project Harris hopes to have funded via the Department of Commerce's Storefront Improvement Program.   
 
Because construction funds for the proposed improvements haven't yet been raised, there's no official timeline for the plan. At the moment, Headhouse District is still rolling it out to the street's stakeholders and attempting to gauge interest.

"There's a tremendous energy going on along Fourth Street right now," says Harris, adding that Fabric Row today has an amazing mix of businesses both brand-new and generations old. "What we're trying to do is to draw that identity out, and make it more apparent."

Source: Michael Harris, South Street Headhouse District
Writer: Dan Eldridge

At a press conference hosted last week at Sahara Sam's Oasis in West Berlin, N.J., representatives of the five-year-old water park announced an upcoming project that will be followed as closely by the area's elementary school set as it will by their parents. A construction-themed adventure park known as Diggerland USA will be built on a 14-acre footprint directly behind Sahara Sam's. 

Though there are currently four locations in the United Kingdom, Diggerland USA will be the first park of its kind in this country. Sahara Sam's, which is overseeing the construction, is projecting an opening date in early-summer 2014. The project received approval at a late-November planning and zoning board meeting in Berlin Township. The Girlya family, which owns both Sahara Sam’s and South Jersey’s Sambe Construction Company, will build the park; they have already broken ground.

"The Township of West Berlin -- the City Council, the Council members -- have been very supportive [of the project]," says Sahara Sam Director of Marketing Chris Peters. "West Berlin itself is not necessarily a very dense area," he adds, though because the park will be located roughly 90 minutes from Manhattan and across the bridge from Philadelphia, "this has been looked at as a great location for an expansion of an entertainment venue [of this sort]."

Twenty-three separate rides and attractions (most of them made of "modified JCB heavy construction pieces," according to a release) will be on offer when Diggerland USA opens its South Jersey gates. Faux construction machinery designed for child and adult use alike will range from small excavators and dumpers to backhoes and tractors. The park will also sport a ropes course and rock-climbing area. 

Source: Chris Peters, Sahara Sam's Oasis 
Writer: Dan Eldridge

Philadelphia, already one of the country's most bike-crazy cities, is going to have to learn to share.

The City of Philadelphia recently completed the Philadelphia Bike Share Strategic Business Plan; they have now opened up the floor to station location suggestions and potential hosts. This is another huge step on the road towards Philadelphia joining New York City, Washington, D.C. and countless other cities around the world in the bike share game.

The proposed plan calls for 150 to 200 bike sharing stations (housing 1,500 to 2,000 bikes) serving the urban core, from the Delaware River into West Philadelphia, from the Navy Yard through Center City to North Philadelphia. 

The estimated cost is between $10 and 15 million. Those funds will come from state and federal transportation grants, and private sponsors. If all goes according to plan, the system should generate enough income to operate without continued public investment. Planners anticipate nearly two million trips per year by residents, commuters, students and visitors.

Locals are encouraged to visit phila.gov/bikeshare. Not only will you see pictures of Mayor Michael Nutter in a bike helmet, you can also suggest station locations or join some of the city's biggest employers and offer to host one.

LEE STABERT is managing editor of Flying Kite; follow her on Twitter @stabert.