The buyers at these towers are a mix of Philadelphia homeowners who want the convenience and amenities of a luxury condo and suburbanites seeking an urban lifestyle after their children have left.
“We have people locating back into the city because they’re empty nesters, their children have moved,” said Mary Genovese Colvin, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Fox & Roach Realtors in Philadelphia, whose office is based on Rittenhouse Square. “They’re trading their multi-million dollar properties in the Philadelphia suburbs for a multi-million dollar condo in Philadelphia.”
Buying Pressure
After selling his townhouse in the city’s Society Hill neighborhood, Stephen Pearson spent two years looking for a luxury property in the city before committing to a two bedroom unit at 10 Rittenhouse Square in 2012.
“There was a feeling of confidence from the people who bought there. I felt the momentum that I needed to get in quickly,” said Pearson, 49, a member of the building’s condo board, on which Comcast’s Roberts also sits.
Pearson, co-CEO of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey-based Contemporary Staffing Solutions, bought a 2,300-square-foot unit on the 24th floor for $1.85 million in September 2012. That was after the Comcast CEO made his purchase. Roberts declined a request for comment through his spokesperson.
“If Brian feels good about it, so do I,” Pearson said. “Being on Rittenhouse Square, in a high-end building, I felt it was the best long-term investment and home.”
Philadelphia Orchestra
Sales more than $1 million in Philadelphia climbed 31 percent to 122 deals in the 12 months ending September 2012, according to data from Zillow Inc. Nine of those agreements were for properties priced more than $3 million, the most since at least 2007. This year so far, eight units at $3 million or more sold at either 10 Rittenhouse Square or 1706 Rittenhouse Square, according to Philadelphia property records.
Philadelphia, unlike New York, is not attracting foreign investors who can bid luxury apartment prices to stratospheric highs. Dranoff says there is still enough demand to keep him busy and set local records.
Last month, he announced plans to build a “New York- style” tower at Broad and Spruce Streets across from the city’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where the Philadelphia Orchestra plays. The 125-unit condo tower will be attached to a 150-room hotel and include an 85-foot lap pool. It will be the first condo-hotel property to be built in Philadelphia in more than two decades, Dranoff said.
Scannapieco, whose company, Scannapieco Development of New Hope, Pennsylvania, is now negotiating to acquire another site in the Center City area where he plans to build more luxury condos, with a single unit per floor.
“There are a lot of high end people who don’t want to go to Florida and New York City and want to stay in the community where they have memberships and business interests and kids,” said developer Scannapieco.