Developer Bart Blatstein beams with pride as he looks up at a 26×16-foot-tall LED screen, which is situated on a stage nearly twice as big and serves as the anchor for his Piazza at Schmidts project.
“I guess you could call the stage and screen my favorite part of the Piazza because it does what the whole space does: creates a central point of excitement for people to gather around and enjoy,” says Blatstein, founder and president of Tower Investments, Inc.
The Piazza, an 80,000-square-foot open-air plaza with free year-round events like concerts and movie screenings, was unveiled last weekend to much fanfare and media coverage. It’s the second phase of Blatstein’s 28-acre, $500 million project in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood, widely considered the country’s largest urban renewal initiative. Liberties Walk, the first phase of the project–which began in 2000–includes a four-square block of mixed-use development with apartments over ground-floor commercial spaces.
The Piazza is surrounded by three new buildings, including 35 artist studios and boutiques, four new restaurants, 500 apartments and 50,000 square feet of office space.
“In this day and age, more and more city dwellers are turning in their cars and opting to live more locally, and generally investing in the areas immediately surrounding their homes,” says Blatstein.
The third and final phase of the development focuses on retail and living space and is expected to be open by 2011: The Shops at Schmidts, a two-story, 100,000-square-foot, supermarket-anchored retail development; and The Residences at Schmidts, 600 residential units in three buildings that surround a one-acre park.
Source: Bart Blatstein, Tower Investments, Inc.
Writer: Joe Petrucci
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