New York developer plans 620 apartments on Columbus Boulevard and an extension of Delaware River Trail

A New York developer is planning a 620-apartment development at 1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. in South Philadelphia.

The 36-story project from Manhattan-based Brevet Capital Management makes use of multiple zoning bonuses to allow a taller, denser project than would otherwise be legal.

In exchange for those development benefits, the developer will pay into Philadelphia’s Housing Trust Fund and upgrade and maintain the Delaware River Trail below Washington Avenue, where its conditions currently get much rougher.

The zoning was changed before the pandemic to allow developers to build taller in exchange for extending the trail, but Brevet would be the first to do so.

“To me the most exciting aspect of this project is that they will be paying for and constructing the waterfront trail along their property,” said Matt Ruben, chair of the Central Delaware Advocacy Group, which has long pushed for responsible development on the riverfront.

“That’s one of the most important and consequential public benefits a developer can provide” in this area, said Ruben, who has not seen renderings of the buildings.

Jack O’Brien, who posts in JackPhillyRE’s Substack, first reported the latest project for this parcel in advance of a Wednesday night meeting with the developers before the Pennsport Civic Association. The permit with Brevet executives listed as owners was pulled on July 3 of this year.

“We are pleased to see the first major investment in Pennsport’s historically underutilized waterfront,” said Patrick Fitzmaurice, president of the Pennsport Civic Association. “We look forward to neighbors safely enjoying the waterfront with the proposed retail and recreational plans.

The project is designed by the international architecture firm Perkins Eastman, with its Philadelphia office listed, and is called Wharton Piers in plans filed with the city. The developer is represented by Matt McClure and Meredith Trego of the law firm Ballard Spahr.

Although no parking is required, the developer is providing 187 parking spaces on floors two to four of the housing tower. Over 10,000 square feet of commercial and office space will be on the ground floor, with amenity space on level five.

A small, neighboring one-story building will include 20,650 square feet of retail space.

The property at 1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. has had multiple development proposals over the years. Most recently, in 2023, New York-based Silverstein Properties proposed 612 apartments and 500 parking spaces across two towers.

Before the pandemic, it was the site of a 2,000-unit project that would have spanned 10 buildings. That plan, from Maryland-based developer Jeffery Kozero called Liberty on the River, drew widespread skepticism and went nowhere.

Kozero’s company at that time, K4 Associates LLC, is still listed as the permit holder. His proposal was met by backlash from the Central Delaware Advocacy Group and other neighborhood organizations.

They felt that the developer was taking advantage of zoning incentives put in place during former Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration. The overlay along the Delaware was meant to encourage smaller developments on the waterfront — not the mega projects frequently proposed by big developers, including one involving President Donald Trump, who often failed to follow through.

K4 “tried to warp the entire overlay to allow the construction of 10 huge towers that many of us knew would never get built,” Ruben said.

Following the backlash, City Council changed the zoning overlay covering the waterfront in part by allowing developers to build taller in exchange for growing and maintaining the bike path, part of a larger plan.

“It’s ironic that this [new proposal] is the first project that will make use of the new density bonus system,” said Ruben, given that the old K4 project on the same site is the reason the zoning incentive exists at all.

Until recently, the vast vacant lot at 1341 S. Christopher Columbus had been used as an encampment by people who are homeless. Last December, The Inquirer reported that the property was being swept, with the tents and residents removed, at the behest of the property owners.

Today, an established encampment instead lines much of the bike and pedestrian trail below Washington Avenue.

This story has been corrected to note that the river bike trail does extend below Washington Avenue and that the developer promises to upgrade and maintain that part of the path.