‘Manhattanizing’ Philadelphia could help make Camden the next Brooklyn

Looking west on Market Street in Camden you can see the renovated RCA building and rising fortunes of Center City. (Alan Tu/WHYY)
Looking west on Market Street in Camden you can see the renovated RCA building and rising fortunes of Center City. (Alan Tu/WHYY)
 

COMMENTARY  BY HOWARD GILLETTE

Could it simply be a coincidence? Hard on the exciting news that celebrity Iron Chef Jose Garces will soon be serving exquisite dinners priced between $150 and $250 a person pre-performance at the Kimmel Center, we learn of a new tower apartment complex overlooking historic Independence Hall.

For those unlucky enough not to grab a multi-million dollar condo on Rittenhouse Square, developer Tom Scannapieco is offering a second chance at 5th and Walnut. Prices for the 40 new units aren’t public, but Scannapieco’s research assures him that among the 2,000 people in the Philadelphia metropolitan area worth more than $10 million, there are bound to be enough customers to fill the new structure. Certainly, he thinks, the city’s 10-year tax abatement program offers “a very valuable incentive.”

Philadelphia doesn’t project the image of “super luxury” easily. That Quaker frugality so firmly associated with the city may be a thing of the past, but surely these new efforts to cater to the super wealthy must mean something.

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