1800 John F Kennedy Blvd

1800 John F Kennedy Blvd is a 20-story building in Center City Philadelphia with 98% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 278 homes and scores it 92 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

PA-2 & PA-3 · Screened 2026-10-04 · Strong candidate

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Where 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd is

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

1880 John F Kennedy Blvd: scores 92 out of 1001625 Market St: scores 67 out of 1001701 Market St: scores 51 out of 1001801 Market St: scores 40 out of 1001835 Market St: scores 36 out of 1001701 John F Kennedy Blvd: scores 35 out of 1001818 Market St: scores 35 out of 1001901 Market St: scores 35 out of 1001900 Market St: scores 25 out of 100925140363592JOHN F KENNEDY BLVDN 18TH STCOMMERCE ST TUNLN 19TH STCUTHBERT STCOMMERCE STN100 ftCenter City Philadelphia
Suitability score
0–29
30–49
50–69
70–100
  • Already housing
  • Not screened
  • 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd
1800 John F Kennedy Blvd and the 1,000 ft of Center City Philadelphia around it. The streets are drawn at the width of the right-of-way they run down, sidewalks included, and named, and every building on these blocks is drawn. What is left open and stippled is neither: a surface lot, a plaza or a vacant parcel. The screened buildings are colored by the ramp above, the same one the district map uses, carry their score, and each is a link to its own page. Each casts a shadow as long as its measured height lets it, so towers stand out from the low buildings around them; the unscreened buildings have no measured height and cast none. 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd is outlined in its own score color at the outline it covers at ground level. Its windowless core is hatched. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.
38 ftAA100 ftDaylit 98%Core 267 sq ft
Floor plan: 98% of each floor sits within daylight reach of a facade. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 267 sq ft per floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 38 ft from the nearest window. A–A is where the section beside it is cut.
Windowless core20 floors25 ft
Section A–A: cut across the depth of the plate, through the middle of the core. Daylight reaches 35 ft in from every facade, fading as it goes, and the hatched stripe left between the lit edges is floor that gets converted and can never be rented: 267 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 5,076 sq ft over 19 residential floors. The shaded ground floor is converted like the rest and counted as no homes.

This building does not pencil at default assumptions, even with a modeled RESIDE Act grant.

Every floor carries 267 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 19 residential floors that is 5,076 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.

Modeled conversion metrics for 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd, 2026-10-04.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate92 / 100
Storiesfrom 304 ft LiDAR height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor20
Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint13,999 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade98%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft38 ft
Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable267 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average278
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 265,987 sq ft$95.8M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value$41.1M
Modeled RESIDE grantat the statutory per-award cap$10.0M
BuiltPhiladelphia's own record of the construction year1983
ZoningCenter City PhiladelphiaCMX5
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tractNo

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 540 ft of exterior wall, and across 19 residential floors the building carries 10,253 ft of it in total, divided among the 278 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.60: 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 14.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd scores 92 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 100, Finance 46 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd. Points are the subscore times its weight.

ComponentSubscoreWeightPoints
Daylight efficiency98% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%10045%45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 38 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft10025%25.0
Scale278 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 15010015%15.0
Financeremaining gap is 32% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%4615%6.9

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 46 out of 100: remaining gap is 32% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1983

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1983, 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 98% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 265,987 sq ft of converted floor, or $95.8M in total — about $344K for each of the 278 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.

Base conversion cost$260/sq ft
Plumbing risers to every unit$40/sq ft
Operable windows and glazing$30/sq ft
Additional egress stair$18/sq ft
Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R)$12/sq ft
All-in$360/sq ft

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 5,076 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 278 homes is $54.7M.

What would have to be true

A $41.1M gap before any grant, $31.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 36% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $41.1M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 278 homes finishing at $344K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 75% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $206 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $308K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $31.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need36% downto 479 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot45% downto $143/sq ft
Completed value per home57% upto $308K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

1800 John F Kennedy Blvd ranks 9th of the 100 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 80% of them, and shallower than 79% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 39th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 100 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within the CMX5 zone

9th of 63 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

63 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd ranks 9th of them against a median score of 67. 28 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 57 ft from a facade against this building’s 38 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 30,185 homes. The group’s top scorer is 112 N Broad St, at 93.

Its nearest match in size: 1880 John F Kennedy Blvd

The screened building closest to 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd in converted floor area is 1880 John F Kennedy Blvd: 259,202 sq ft over 20 stories, against 265,987 sq ft over 20 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 92 here, 92 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd $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 1800 John F Kennedy Blvd

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 160 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

  • 1801 Market St
    27 stories · 66% daylit · 527 estimated homes · scores 40/100 (Marginal)
    about 160 ft away
  • 1880 John F Kennedy Blvd
    20 stories · 99% daylit · 272 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
    about 210 ft away
  • 1835 Market St
    29 stories · 63% daylit · 565 estimated homes · scores 36/100 (Marginal)
    about 270 ft away
  • 1818 Market St
    40 stories · 62% daylit · 852 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
    about 450 ft away

A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.