232 Market St

Where 232 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

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

The typical floor has 549 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 2,197 ft of it in total, divided among the 39 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.39: 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 9.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 232 Market St scores 83 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 26, Finance 58 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 26 out of 100: 39 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1895

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1895, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.

As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. 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 100% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 37,164 sq ft of converted floor, or $13.4M in total — about $343K for each of the 39 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the circulation and service area that earns nothing directly. Against it the model sets a completed value of $197K a home, which for 39 homes is $7.7M.

What would have to be true

A $5.7M gap before any grant, $3.4M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 25% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $5.7M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 39 homes finishing at $343K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 74% 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 $2.3M moves that threshold to $283K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $3.4M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 232 Market St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 232 Market St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

232 Market St ranks 25th of the 100 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 100% of them, and shallower than 89% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 93rd 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 CMX3 zone

3rd of 13 zoned CMX3 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

13 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX3. 232 Market St ranks 3rd of them against a median score of 73. 8 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 51 ft from a facade against this building’s 34 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 1,053 homes. The group’s top scorer is 461 N 3rd St, at 84.

Its nearest match in size: 1435 Walnut St

The screened building closest to 232 Market St in converted floor area is 1435 Walnut St: 36,522 sq ft over 6 stories, against 37,164 sq ft over 5 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 83 here, 82 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 5,700 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 232 Market St $2.3M, 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 232 Market St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 540 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 123 Chestnut St
  4 stories · 88% daylit · 41 estimated homes · scores 73/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 540 ft away
• 330 Market St
  4 stories · 77% daylit · 45 estimated homes · scores 53/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 540 ft away
• 399 Market St
  5 stories · 67% daylit · 80 estimated homes · scores 40/100 (Marginal)
  about 580 ft away
• 325 Chestnut St
  13 stories · 87% daylit · 211 estimated homes · scores 80/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 620 ft away