You have many interesting ideas about 40th St. development, Guy, that
deserve deeper thought than a snap response on an unmoderated listserve.
I'm sure the people in the business are giving it thought, amicably or
otherwise.
One caution ordinary readers should note is that a long-term business
plan based on a "high end restaurant" is even shakier than a plan based
on an "extended stay hotel". The Campus Inn concept has been justly
criticized for that very weakness: of hiding the longterm risk of
downmarket users behind an initial promise of an upmarket user. If
Campus Inn goes belly up, foes argue, it could be converted to rooms
where students might sleep ... and there goes the neighborhood. We don't
want no students sleeping in Spruce Hill, do we now? Ew.
The entertainment industry, I must warn readers, is even more volatile
than the travel industry. It's great for Penn, and flattering for West
Philadelphia, that Distrito is pitching in such monstrous rents for
(gasp!) 40th St. nightspot square footage. Maybe a new high-end
entertainment district will coalesce around 40th St. someday soon. I'm
up for that. But I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it today.
Long-range planners for a sustainable 40th & Pine property are free to
dazzle the public with visions of another Distrito ... but should gladly
settle for another FuddRuckers, if that's what washes up on the beach.
Still beats a stop & go. There will be no intrinsic protection, however,
against that site's becoming a stop & go in the future.
There's nothing wrong with either risk, in my opinion. None of the above
worries me. I could live with walking past any of the above outcomes.
For me, an upscale restaurant beats a dorm, but an extended-stay hotel
beats a stop & go. The true challenge for the neighborhood, as it mulls
over these options, is to figure out how to honestly compare apples with
apples.
-- Tony West
I dream that the 40th and Pine site is developed by Campus Apartments
and Tom Lussenhop as a high end restaurant with 25 car parking and
either classroom or community space on the second and third floor.
Guy
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