205 Race Street

Developer Jeffrey Brown revisits a proposal he once had high hopes for years ago before development across the city came to a halt.  Brown is once again hoping to transform the vacant lot he owns at 205 Race Street into a 16-story, 128-unit apartment building with commercial uses on the ground floor.

New Proposal

Last Tuesday the project was presented to the Old City Civic Association, where it was voted on and rejected 11-to-1.  The site is located in a C-3 zoning district which has strict restriction on height and building width.  The portion of the project that fronts on Race Street would be 5 stories and 60 feet high, up from 52 feet in the previous plan.  A residential tower, to be set back 14.5 feet from Race along the Ben Franklin Bridge, would be 197.5 feet high, up from 178 feet in the previous plan.  The first floor would be dedicated to commercial uses, and the developer hopes to bring in a big client, like a supermarket to fill a large retail space.

Past proposal

The proposal exceeds the 65-foot height cap and the 70-foot width cap contained in Old City's overlay. It also violates the 450% maximum gross floor area of the C-3 district, with a proposed total area of 695 percent of the lot.  Officials feel that the current proposal is an overbuild and blatant disregard to the support it received on its past proposal considering its violations then, with a current proposal that pushes the envelope even more further violating district restrictions.

The proposal also includes plans for 34 interior parking spots, accessible via Florist Street, which runs parallel to the Bridge.  This does not meet the minimum of 90 spaces (7 per 10 units) required under the old zoning code, nor would it meet the 38-space minimum requirement of the new code (3 spaces per 10 units).  If the ZBA grants the zoning relief requested, construction would likely begin in the first quarter of 2013.