Reinvention in convention zone
Portion of former YMCA on Arch St. sold for an upscale hotel.
For two decades, it housed many of the City of Philadelphia's attorneys. Soon, the former YMCA building on Arch Street will become home to a posh hotel.
Great West Mutual Life has sold part of the building, at 1421 Arch St., to Arch Street Hotel Partners L.P., a subsidiary of Development Services Group Inc. of Memphis.
The $8.5 million sale, negotiated by CB Richard Ellis Inc., includes the main lobby and floors five through 10 of the condominium building.
DSG said it planned to redevelop the property into a luxury hotel for a chain that has not yet been announced. The rest of the building houses Sweat Health Club, offices, and retail space.
Preliminary plans for the hotel include 194 rooms, a 90-seat restaurant with a 40-seat bar at the lobby level, and meeting space. Also, a ballroom would be restored.
"We are bullish on downtown Philadelphia," Gary Prosterman of DSG said in a statement yesterday. "This is a spectacular building.
"The planned expansion of the Convention Center is icing on the cake," he said. "We are thrilled that we can bring this high-quality European-styled hotel to the city center of Philadelphia."
Renowned Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer designed the 10-story, 125,000-square-foot, Georgian Revival building. It was built in 1911 as the Elkins Memorial YMCA. Last renovated in 1985, it housed the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office from 1986 to 2006.
A key attraction was the location, a half-block from the Convention Center's planned Broad Street entrance, said CB Richard Ellis vice president Christian Dyer, who represented Great West Mutual Life in the deal. The center's scheduled $631 million expansion is expected to be completed in 2009.