2213 Chestnut St
2213 Chestnut St is a 5-story building in Center City Philadelphia with 87% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 45 homes and scores it 71 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.
PA-2 & PA-3 · Screened 2026-09-15 · Strong candidate
Also addressed as 2215 Chestnut St, 2217 Chestnut St, 2219 Chestnut St and 2221 Chestnut St: Philadelphia’s address records place all 5 on this one footprint.
Where 2213 Chestnut St is
Its block in Center City Philadelphia, drawn from Philadelphia's own building outlines and street centerlines.
- Already housing
- Not screened
- 2213 Chestnut St
This building does not pencil at default assumptions, even with a modeled RESIDE Act grant.
Every floor carries 1,584 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 4 residential floors that is 6,336 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.
Modeled conversion metrics for 2213 Chestnut St, 2026-09-15.
| Suitability scoreStrong candidate | 71 / 100 |
|---|---|
| Storiesfrom 93 ft LiDAR height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor | 5 |
| Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint | 12,272 sq ft |
| Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade | 87% |
| Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft | 51 ft |
| Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable | 1,584 sq ft |
| Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average | 45 |
| Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 49,088 sq ft | $17.7M |
| Gap before grantshortfall against completed value | $8.8M |
| Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap | $2.7M |
| BuiltPhiladelphia's own record of the construction year | 1972 |
| ZoningCenter City Philadelphia | CMX4 |
| Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract | No |
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 452 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 1,809 ft of it in total, divided among the 45 homes this screen estimates.
Its plate is compact at 0.75: close to a square or a circle, the most efficient envelope an office can have and the least generous one for apartments: little perimeter to divide among homes. How window line and plate shape are measured.
At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 11.3 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.
Why 2213 Chestnut St scores 71 out of 100
Daylight efficiency 94, Interior depth 73, Scale 30, Finance 42 — each out of 100, then weighted.
Score components for 2213 Chestnut St. Points are the subscore times its weight.
| Component | Subscore | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight efficiency87% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90% | 94 | 45% | 42.4 |
| Interior depthdeepest interior point 51 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft | 73 | 25% | 18.2 |
| Scale45 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150 | 30 | 15% | 4.5 |
| Financeremaining gap is 35% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0% | 42 | 15% | 6.3 |
Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 30 out of 100: 45 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.
Built in 1972
Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1972, 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 87% daylight figure above deserves.
What the conversion would cost
$360 per square foot all-in across 49,088 sq ft of converted floor, or $17.7M in total — about $393K for each of the 45 homes.
All-in cost per square foot for 2213 Chestnut St: 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 6,336 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 45 homes is $8.9M.
What would have to be true
A $8.8M gap before any grant, $6.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 34% down.
The shortfall before any grant is $8.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 45 homes finishing at $393K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 100% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $180 per square foot.
A modeled RESIDE grant of $2.7M moves that threshold to $333K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $6.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.
Nor do all four levers have to move. For 2213 Chestnut St, one alone would close the gap at:
Single-assumption flip points for 2213 Chestnut St, each holding the other three at their defaults.
| Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need | 34% downto 496 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Conversion cost per square foot | 48% downto $135/sq ft |
| Completed value per home | 69% upto $333K |
All four are sliders in the survey, where 2213 Chestnut St re-scores against your own numbers.
How it compares in Center City Philadelphia
2213 Chestnut St ranks 46th of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.
Its floor plate is better lit than 63% of them, and shallower than 59% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 86th 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
5th of 15 zoned CMX4 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.
15 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX4. 2213 Chestnut St ranks 5th 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 51 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: 1225 Locust St
The screened building closest to 2213 Chestnut St in converted floor area is 1225 Locust St: 48,158 sq ft over 5 stories, against 49,088 sq ft over 5 here.
The two land within a few points of each other — 71 here, 69 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 4,800 ft apart.
Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?
The model awards 2213 Chestnut St $2.7M, 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 2213 Chestnut St
The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 260 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.
- 2301 Chestnut St4 stories · 78% daylit · 62 estimated homes · scores 63/100 (Worth a feasibility study)about 260 ft away
- 2300 Chestnut St4 stories · 85% daylit · 54 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)about 300 ft away
- 2400 Market St11 stories · 51% daylit · 460 estimated homes · scores 25/100 (Unlikely)about 520 ft away
- 2301 Market St35 stories · 52% daylit · 1,623 estimated homes · scores 26/100 (Unlikely)about 740 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.