700 Spruce St
700 Spruce St is a 4-story building in Center City Philadelphia with 82% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 129 homes and scores it 35 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.
PA-2 & PA-3 · Screened 2026-09-15 · Marginal
Also addressed as 702 Spruce St, 704 Spruce St, 706 Spruce St, 708 Spruce St, 710 Spruce St, 712 Spruce St and 714 Spruce St: Philadelphia’s address records place all 8 on this one footprint.
Where 700 Spruce St is
Its block in Center City Philadelphia, drawn from Philadelphia's own building outlines and street centerlines.
- Already housing
- Not screened
- 700 Spruce St
This building does not pencil at default assumptions, even with a modeled RESIDE Act grant.
Every floor carries 8,904 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 3 residential floors that is 26,711 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.
Read with caution. This footprint carries 8 street addresses across 49,257 sq ft, which usually means the city’s GIS has merged a block or complex into a single polygon rather than describing one convertible building.
Modeled conversion metrics for 700 Spruce St, 2026-09-15.
| Suitability scoreMarginal | 35 / 100 |
|---|---|
| Storiesfrom 70 ft LiDAR height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor | 4 |
| Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint | 49,257 sq ft |
| Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade | 82% |
| Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft | 81 ft |
| Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable | 8,904 sq ft |
| Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average | 129 |
| Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 147,771 sq ft | $53.2M |
| Gap before grantshortfall against completed value | $27.8M |
| Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap | $7.7M |
| BuiltPhiladelphia's own record of the construction year | 1995 |
| ZoningCenter City Philadelphia | RM4 |
| Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract | No |
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 1,571 ft of exterior wall, and across 3 residential floors the building carries 4,712 ft of it in total, divided among the 129 homes this screen estimates.
Its plate is elongated at 0.25: 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 43.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.
Why 700 Spruce St scores 35 out of 100
The weighted components add to 56, but the score is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 81 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well.
Score components for 700 Spruce St. Points are the subscore times its weight.
| Component | Subscore | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight efficiency82% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90% | 84 | 45% | 37.7 |
| Interior depthdeepest interior point 81 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft | 0 | 25% | 0.0 |
| Scale129 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150 | 86 | 15% | 12.9 |
| Financeremaining gap is 38% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0% | 37 | 15% | 5.6 |
Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 0 out of 100: deepest interior point 81 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.
Built in 1995
Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1995, which puts it in the modern stock.
As a rule, newer systems and better structure, but usually built deep and sealed for office use, and rarely cheap enough to buy at a price that lets a conversion pencil. 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 82% daylight figure above deserves.
What the conversion would cost
$360 per square foot all-in across 147,771 sq ft of converted floor, or $53.2M in total — about $412K for each of the 129 homes.
All-in cost per square foot for 700 Spruce 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 26,711 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 129 homes is $25.4M.
What would have to be true
A $27.8M gap before any grant, $20.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 41% down.
The shortfall before any grant is $27.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 129 homes finishing at $412K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 110% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $172 per square foot.
A modeled RESIDE grant of $7.7M moves that threshold to $352K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $20.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.
Nor do all four levers have to move. For 700 Spruce St, one alone would close the gap at:
Single-assumption flip points for 700 Spruce St, each holding the other three at their defaults.
| Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need | 41% downto 440 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Conversion cost per square foot | 52% downto $124/sq ft |
| Completed value per home | 79% upto $352K |
All four are sliders in the survey, where 700 Spruce St re-scores against your own numbers.
How it compares in Center City Philadelphia
700 Spruce St ranks 82nd of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.
Its floor plate is better lit than 54% of them, and shallower than 18% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 65th 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.
Its nearest match in size: 2401 Walnut St
The screened building closest to 700 Spruce St in converted floor area is 2401 Walnut St: 138,098 sq ft over 8 stories, against 147,771 sq ft over 4 here.
2401 Walnut St scores 70 and 700 Spruce St only 35, and the difference is a hard fail rather than a matter of degree: the lower one is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 81 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 7,600 ft apart.
Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?
The model awards 700 Spruce St $7.7M, 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 700 Spruce St
The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 1,180 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.
- 508 Walnut St20 stories · 48% daylit · 712 estimated homes · scores 23/100 (Unlikely)about 1,180 ft away
- 734 Sansom St6 stories · 95% daylit · 42 estimated homes · scores 79/100 (Strong candidate)about 1,210 ft away
- 170 S Independence Mall W12 stories · 43% daylit · 476 estimated homes · scores 18/100 (Unlikely)about 1,210 ft away
- 105 S 7th St4 stories · 63% daylit · 66 estimated homes · scores 33/100 (Marginal)about 1,410 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.