Mixed income apartment project in Center City gets its final approval after almost 11 years
The project was planned to replace PHA's former Center City headquarters but has faced years of delays.
Construction was supposed to have started on a 14-story apartment building at 2012 Chestnut St., a collaboration between the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) and Alterra Property Group.
In late 2025, after years of delays, the partners said construction would begin in early 2026. Instead, the 121-apartment project has stalled for another nine months in the face of hang-ups at the federal level.
But at a meeting of PHA’s board Thursday, the agency promised that this time, really, construction will begin in a matter of weeks.
“The financial transaction was closed today, and so all regulatory approvals are now in hand, and we can move forward,” Kelvin Jeremiah, president and CEO of the authority, said in an interview Thursday. “Mobilization and construction starts before Oct. 6.”
The building will include 30 two-bedroom apartments, 63-one bedrooms, and 28 studios, along with 2,000 square feet of commercial space and off-site parking. These will be PHA’s only apartments in Center City.
According to interviews in 2025, 40% of the project’s 121 units will be rented to market-rate tenants, while the rest will go to tenants at 80% of Philadelphia’s area median income or $78,500 for a two-person household.
The project is designed by JKRP Architects. The general contractor is the Hunter Roberts Construction Group.
The building will fill the vacant lot left by the demolition of PHA’s former Center City headquarters, which the agency left 18 years ago. This mixed-income proposal has been in the works for 10 years, with the agency first partnering with Alterra on the project in 2016.
According to a resolution passed by PHA’s board Thursday, the project hit further snags in early 2026 and experienced difficulties obtaining permits and approvals from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The federal agency has suffered dramatic cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.
HUD “has lost a lot of staff, and so there were a lot of delays,” Jeremiah said. “But they worked very closely with us to navigate some of those issues.”
Alterra will build and manage the mixed-income apartment project, but PHA will hold a 99-year ground lease on the property.
The approval for that arrangement is part of what held up the project in D.C., as any time the agency disposes of an asset, it is subject to environmental and historic review — in this case of a rubble-strewn vacant lot.
As these delays mounted, construction costs for supplies like steel and elevator parts have soared. The project will now cost an additional $5 million, bringing the price to $65 million.
“And then you have the tariff situation, the unending uncertainty around construction equipment and supplies,” Jeremiah said. “It has caused a lot of strain for us as a major developer in the city.”
