1625 Market St

Where 1625 Market St 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

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

The typical floor has 597 ft of exterior wall, and across 18 residential floors the building carries 10,744 ft of it in total, divided among the 270 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.62: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 15.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1625 Market St scores 67 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 82, Interior depth 44, Scale 100, Finance 26 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 26 out of 100: remaining gap is 44% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1964

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1964, which puts it in the post-war stock.

As a rule, the period when plates got deep and facades became curtain wall: sealed glazing, lower floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical systems designed around a sealed box. Conversions here usually turn on whether the windows can be made to open and whether ceilings survive new plumbing. 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 81% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 314,279 sq ft of converted floor, or $113.1M in total — about $419K for each of the 270 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 60,466 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 270 homes is $53.1M.

What would have to be true

A $60.0M gap before any grant, $50.0M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 48% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $60.0M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 270 homes finishing at $419K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 113% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $169 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $382K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $50.0M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1625 Market St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1625 Market St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

1625 Market St ranks 52nd of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 51% of them, and shallower than 42% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 44th 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 CMX5 zone

33rd of 65 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

65 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 1625 Market St ranks 33rd of them against a median score of 67. 28 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 58 ft from a facade against this building’s 62 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 30,650 homes. The group’s top scorer is 112 N Broad St, at 93.

Its nearest match in size: 1524 Walnut St

The screened building closest to 1625 Market St in converted floor area is 1524 Walnut St: 271,959 sq ft over 21 stories, against 314,279 sq ft over 19 here.

1625 Market St scores 67 to its 81, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 44 out of 100 here, 78 there (deepest interior point 49 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). 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 1625 Market St $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 1625 Market St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 170 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1628 John F Kennedy Blvd
  23 stories · 90% daylit · 246 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 170 ft away
• 1701 Market St
  18 stories · 68% daylit · 422 estimated homes · scores 51/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 190 ft away
• 1601 Market St
  36 stories · 74% daylit · 702 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 220 ft away
• 1600 John F Kennedy Blvd
  20 stories · 75% daylit · 414 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 260 ft away