Though there's not a lot of historical news included, I thought I;d share a
Philly newspaper article on the Victor Apartments published last week. No
photos on the web site.
Steve
Posted on Thu, Jul. 01, 2004
Urban rehab gives victory to Victor
A year after the Camden landmark reopened, the rentals are popular - and
sparking amenities.
By Elisa Ung
Inquirer Staff Writer
Claire Sullivan has fun telling people she just moved to Camden. She loves
the gasps, the looks of disbelief.
"It has been the greatest move for us," said Sullivan, 55, a college
professor and resident of the Victor luxury apartment building on the
waterfront.
A year after the rehabbed RCA building opened, about 200 of its 341
apartments are occupied, meeting Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff's
projections.
At this rate, he said, the building should be full by winter.
The residents' general verdict: Unbeatable river views, striking apartments,
good security, great neighbors. But not the most vibrant urban lifestyle,
and a hassle when you run out of milk.
Still, the Victor has brought the developing downtown waterfront a dry
cleaner, a rotisserie-chicken eatery, a Subway sandwich shop, and an outdoor
eating area that attracts a lunchtime crowd.
The PATCO High-Speed Line's City Hall stop is now open on weekends.
Several tenants have joined a downtown Catholic parish hit hard in recent
decades by the city's downturn.
And soon the Victor will house three potent symbols of the new Camden: an
Italian restaurant, one of the waterfront's first upscale eateries; a branch
of
Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp.; and a satellite office for the state
Economic Development Authority, which administers the state's Camden recovery
act
and oversees some waterfront projects.
"Camden is getting visitors that it never got before," said Dranoff, who
plans to build hundreds of housing units on the waterfront.
Dranoff said the Victor was leasing at about the same rate as the Left Bank,
his 282-apartment building in Philadelphia's University City. The Victor's
rents range from $775 to $2,750; available apartments begin at $995.
Bill Whitlow, a Rutgers University-Camden professor who moved from
Philadelphia's Queen Village, relishes the quiet and his walk to work.
"It's such a glorious space," he said. The area "doesn't have the life of a
city yet, because Camden is still going through a recovery... . I do miss
going out into the city. There's just an energy about being able to walk out
your door and have restaurants and places to walk to."
There is no nearby convenience store, and that has been the biggest headache
for otherwise happy Victor tenants such as Pam Tucker, 51, a federal
investigator. "Sometimes you just want to go home, but you need milk," she
said.
"You want to stop at the Wawa, and there's no Wawa."
Dranoff is still trying to fill 14,000 square feet of retail space,
negotiating with restaurants such as P.J. Whelihan's. He also is working
fulfilling
his pledge to bring in a gourmet grocery.
Business is picking up, said the managers of the Subway and RC Bistro, which
serves Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee along with chicken and sides.
Downtown Camden resident Kocsha Hurt, 28, said she loved RC Bistro. "It
reminds me of, like, a little catering place out in the suburbs," she said.
About 10 Victor families have joined the Cathedral of the Immaculate
Conception, which once had 1,200 families but dwindled to 60. Sullivan, a new
member, helped organize a fund-raising event at the Victor that netted about
$3,000
toward restoration of an old gym as a catering hall.
According to data provided by the Victor's managers, about two-thirds of the
tenants moved from New Jersey, about 20 percent from Philadelphia and its
Pennsylvania suburbs, and the rest from other states.
About a third of the residents are younger than 30 and almost half between
31 and 50. Most have incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, but 10 percent make
more than $150,000.
Corporate managers are the most common tenants. There also are Camden
officials, academics, doctors, lawyers, students, firefighters, engineers,
airline
workers, retirees, even a cook at the 20 Horse Tavern, a 100-year-old former
stable that opened nearby in May. About 5 percent commute to Trenton on the
River Line light rail.
"The really neat thing about the building is the variety of people who live
there and how friendly everybody seems to be," said Laurel Singer, 26, a
state Superior Court clerk in Camden.
Dranoff is still piecing together $3.5 million in state funding for
environmental work on another former RCA building across the street, the
future Radio
Lofts, where 99 condos are being offered for sale.
Environmental remediation is scheduled to begin in late summer. Radio Lofts'
$20 million privately funded rehabilitation is to start in April, with the
first move-ins in 2006. Dranoff said he had already lined up a major
commercial tenant with offices in Philadelphia and South Jersey, but won't
announce it
until he starts construction.
Dranoff said he was not fazed by the lack - so far - of the proposed
Delaware River tram or development at Penn's Landing, both early selling
points for
the Victor. "It's a good news-bad news story," he said, but the building has
lured residents regardless.
Empty nesters Barbara and John Esposito last year sold the Cherry Hill home
they had owned for 35 years and moved into a two-bedroom corner unit at the
Victor. They plan to stay for a while.
"Where would we go?" Barbara Esposito said. "Unless we go to an Upper East
Side apartment overlooking Manhattan?
"We're spoiled. It's perfectly kept up, and I have never felt safer in my
whole life. It's just really home."
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