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N.Y.-based boutique hotelier sets sights on Philly’s Old City

Ash NYC's past hotel projects include the Dean in Providence, R.I., and the Siren hotel in Wurlitzer Co.'s former Detroit headquarters.

Historic former paintbrush factory in Old City, which developer Ash NYC is planning to redevelop into a boutique hotel.
Historic former paintbrush factory in Old City, which developer Ash NYC is planning to redevelop into a boutique hotel.Read moreJacob Adelman / Staff

A Brooklyn-based developer that specializes in renovating historic buildings into hip hotels is planning a 150-guest-room project in a former paintbrush factory in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood.

Ash NYC Inc., whose past hotel projects include the Dean in what had been a historic Providence, R.I., boarding house and the Siren hotel in Wurlitzer Co.'s long-vacant former Detroit headquarters, is negotiating a long-term lease for the Elder & Jenks Inc. brush company building and an adjacent parking lot on Vine Street, between Lawrence and Fourth Streets.

The plans, which call for a full interior rehabilitation of the five-story building with a newly constructed annex on the parking lot property, were detailed in an application for a state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant provided to the Inquirer.

Ash is seeking $5 million in state funding for the $41 million project, which is also slated to include two restaurants, a spa, a gym, an events space, and a rooftop bar, it said in its RACP grant application. The state program is designed to support redevelopment projects that officials deem capable of having a big economic impact.

“This project will repair a blighted block with a vacant warehouse and surface parking lot and serve as a catalyst for area developments,” Ash wrote in its application. “The street life on this block will transform from blank brick walls and empty parking lots to active food and beverage outlets run by local restaurant entrepreneurs with pedestrian-friendly programming.”

Ash spokesperson Nicole Savitsky acknowledged in an email that the grant was being sought but said that there is “nothing to report moving forward at this point.”

The group also is working to convert the historic nine-story Latrobe Building in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood into a hotel, according to its website.

Ash cofounder and finance chief Jonathan Minkoff told Conde Nast Traveler magazine in 2015 that the firm aims to offer smaller cities with cultural draws the sort of independent hotel experience available in large metropoles such as Los Angeles and New York from boutique chains like the Ace and the Standard.

“We want to be one step ahead by going to the places with intrinsic cultural drivers in the market," Minkoff said.