Drexel University is selling medical building on North Broad Street for apartment conversion
The apartment project is only the latest in a boomlet of conversions just north of City Hall.
Drexel University is selling the Arnold T. Berman building at 219-25 N. Broad St., while securing permits for its conversion into 90 apartments.
The 11-story building is part of Drexel’s College of Medicine Center City campus, and the move comes amid the university’s larger retreat from downtown, as it pulls its operations back to its West Philadelphia base.
The permit for 90 “multifamily” units was issued last Friday, and the university confirms that the property is under agreement of sale but declined to reveal the probable buyer.
“As part of its ongoing master planning and financial stewardship, Drexel University regularly reviews its real estate holdings and leases to identify strategic opportunities for space consolidation, optimization, and monetization,” said Britt Faulstick, a spokesperson for Drexel.
“Drexel is currently in the process of consolidating its College of Medicine operations on its main campus in University City,” he said in an email statement.
The building is directly across North Broad Street from the former Hahnemann University Hospital patient towers, which the Dwight City Group is planning to convert to 361 apartments.
Dwight City Group specializes in adaptive reuse projects for older commercial and industrial buildings. On South Broad Street they are adapting a former University of the Arts building.
This section of North Broad Street where Drexel’s building sits, just north of City Hall, has seen a marked trend of apartment approvals in the past six months.
There are 99-units slated for a former auto showroom at 142-144 N. Broad St. and 463 units permitted in reaction to a bill from Councilmember Jeffery Young that would ban residential construction from the former Hahnemann campus. The legislation is currently on hold.
The Drexel building is the first on the east side of Broad Street to be slated for residential conversion during this boomlet. It is in Councilmember Mark Squilla’s district, and would not be affected by the proposed housing ban across Broad Street.
The Arnold T. Berman building is surrounded by surface parking lots to the south and east, which could be developed.