417 N 8th St

Where 417 N 8th 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

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

The typical floor has 874 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 3,495 ft of it in total, divided among the 103 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.47: 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 25.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 417 N 8th St scores 72 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 89, Interior depth 63, Scale 69, Finance 40 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 40 out of 100: remaining gap is 36% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1930

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1930, which puts it in the interwar stock.

As a rule, steel or concrete frames with punched windows and plates still narrow enough for daylight to reach the middle, often with high ceilings. Among the most convertible stock there is, and the reason so many early conversions were of buildings this age. 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 85% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 114,725 sq ft of converted floor, or $41.3M in total — about $401K for each of the 103 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 17,745 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 103 homes is $20.3M.

What would have to be true

A $21.0M gap before any grant, $14.9M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 36% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $21.0M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 103 homes finishing at $401K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 104% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $177 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $6.2M moves that threshold to $341K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $14.9M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 417 N 8th St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 417 N 8th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

417 N 8th St ranks 44th of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 55% of them, and shallower than 52% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 71st 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 CMX3 zone

8th of 14 zoned CMX3 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

14 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX3. 417 N 8th St ranks 8th of them against a median score of 73. 8 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 53 ft from a facade against this building’s 55 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 1,122 homes. The group’s top scorer is 461 N 3rd St, at 84.

Its nearest match in size: 399 Market St

The screened building closest to 417 N 8th St in converted floor area is 399 Market St: 111,989 sq ft over 5 stories, against 114,725 sq ft over 5 here.

417 N 8th St scores 72 to its 40, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 89 out of 100 here, 54 there (67% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 3,300 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 417 N 8th St $6.2M, 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.

This building does sit in census tract 42101037600, a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, which Section 201 lets HUD favor — one of the few statutory priorities this screen can actually check.

Other buildings screened near 417 N 8th St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 430 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 421 N 7th St
  7 stories · 85% daylit · 229 estimated homes · scores 79/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 430 ft away
• 448 N 10th St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 52 estimated homes · scores 84/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 1,140 ft away
• 990 Spring Garden St
  7 stories · 76% daylit · 109 estimated homes · scores 63/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 1,150 ft away
• 441 N 5th St
  4 stories · 73% daylit · 48 estimated homes · scores 46/100 (Marginal)
  about 1,320 ft away