Comcast Center (office building)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section contains information about expected future buildings or structures.
It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the building approaches completion.

This article is about the office building. For the arena in College Park, Maryland, see Comcast Center (arena).

Computer Generated vision of Comcast Tower

Comcast Center is a skyscraper currently under construction in the Center City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is scheduled to be completed in 2007. Upon completion, it will become the tallest building in Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It will also be the tallest structure in the United States between New York City and Chicago, stripping away that title from the Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.

1 Design
2 Ownership
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Design

Designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, LLP, it will rise to a height of 975 feet (297 m), Comcast Center will have 57 floors, 56 rentable with 1,248,000 square feet of office space and about 23,000 square feet of retail facilities. As of 2005, over 70% of the office space has been reserved. In 2006, the building was valued at $523 million.^[1]

Comcast Center will lie between Arch Street, 17th Street, and John F. Kennedy Boulevard. While its official address will be 1701 JFK Boulevard, the tower itself will sit towards the Arch Street side.

Part of the public space includes a new entrance to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's Suburban Station with a 120-foot high glass-enclosed winter garden. Other features include:

multiple three-story stacked atria rising on the south face of the building
½ acre landscaped public park
expansion of Suburban Station's underground retail concourse
500-seat concourse level dining court
120 private space underground parking garage
new entrance lobby addition to historic Arch Street Presbyterian Church
sustainable building design with the goal of achieving a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council
Waterless Urinals

The project had originally been named One Pennsylvania Plaza. However, when Philadelphia-based Comcast Corporation agreed to a significant presence in the tower -- taking 873,000 square feet on 39 floors in a 15 1/2-year lease -- the entire project was named after Comcast.

[edit] Ownership

The building was begun by Liberty Property Trust of Malvern, Pennsylvania. In a controversial move, the Pennsylvania state government has contributed $30 million for the building's public spaces. In 2006, Liberty Property Trust sold 80% of their interest in the building to CommerzLeasing & Immobilien AG, a German company and subsidiary of Commerzbank AG. Liberty will continue to operate the Comcast Center as a joint venture with Commerzbank. The 80%-Part of the CommerzLeasing & Immobilien AG will merge into a closed end fund, sold in Germany by another daughter of the Commerzbank, the Commerz Fonds Beteiligungen, CFB.