150 N Independence Mall W

Where 150 N Independence Mall W is

Its block in Center City Philadelphia, drawn from Philadelphia's own building outlines and street centerlines.

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

32 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.

The typical floor has 1,882 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 13,173 ft of it in total, divided among the 407 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.38: a slab or an L, which is why so much of the floor lies within reach of a window: the outline buys daylight that a square plan of the same area would not. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 58.1 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 150 N Independence Mall W scores 25 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 23, Interior depth 0, Scale 100, Finance 0 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from scale, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 0 out of 100: deepest interior point 114 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1976

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1976, which puts it in the late-modern stock.

As a rule, typically the hardest to convert: the deepest plates of any era, large central cores, and floor-to-floor heights tight enough that running residential drainage under a ceiling can be the thing that ends a project. That is the era’s general tendency rather than a finding about this building — the model reads an outline and a height, and can see nothing inside — but it is the first thing an architect would want to know, and it colours how much confidence the 52% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 740,967 sq ft of converted floor, or $266.7M in total — about $655K for each of the 407 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 359,035 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $197K a home, which for 407 homes is $80.1M.

What would have to be true

A $186.7M gap before any grant, $176.7M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 69% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $186.7M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 407 homes finishing at $655K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 233% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $108 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $631K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $176.7M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 150 N Independence Mall W, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 150 N Independence Mall W re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

150 N Independence Mall W ranks 96th of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 8% of them, and shallower than 5% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 35th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 103 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within the CMX4 zone

12th of 15 zoned CMX4 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

15 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX4. 150 N Independence Mall W ranks 12th of them against a median score of 58. 5 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 64 ft from a facade against this building’s 114 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 4,016 homes. The group’s top scorer is 901 Arch St, at 84.

Its nearest match in size: 615 Chestnut St

The screened building closest to 150 N Independence Mall W in converted floor area is 615 Chestnut St: 743,461 sq ft over 17 stories, against 740,967 sq ft over 8 here.

615 Chestnut St scores 36 and 150 N Independence Mall W only 25, and the difference is a hard fail rather than a matter of degree: the lower one is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 114 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,400 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 150 N Independence Mall W $10.0M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.

That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.

It does not sit in a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, so it would not draw that Section 201 priority.

Other buildings screened near 150 N Independence Mall W

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 580 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 736 Arch St
  7 stories · 97% daylit · 129 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 580 ft away
• 117 N 8th St
  8 stories · 95% daylit · 63 estimated homes · scores 84/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 600 ft away
• 801 Arch St
  6 stories · 71% daylit · 133 estimated homes · scores 56/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 770 ft away
• 701 Market St
  5 stories · 40% daylit · 247 estimated homes · scores 15/100 (Unlikely)
  about 850 ft away