PHILAPHILIA Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week: Corestates Financial Center

A weekly series of foul-mouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other design phenomena in Philadelphia. Find more stories like this at Philaphilia.blogspot.com.

This low-res corner of a picture from an unrelated dead-ass proposal is the only surviving picture of this one.

"There is no question in my mind that over the next four to five years, this street will be a very, very exciting place to visit." -Mayor Wilson Goode in reference to Market East, September, 1989.

800 Market St. -- You know what? Fuck Market East! Especially between 7th and 11th Streets. This area seems to be some kind of development vacuum -- even when an experienced developer comes along to blast the hell out of it and bring it back to life, this cursed location finds some kind of way to bring them down. After spending over a century as one of the most premier shopping streets in America, Market East is now a big sopping pile of dogshit.

The worst part of Market East is what we now call the "Disney Hole," the 84,000-square-foot sea of asphalt at the southwest corner of 8th and Market. Ever since the old Gimbels Store was demolished in 1979, this corner has seen dead proposal after dead proposal after dead proposal come and go over the last 33 years. This is the story of just one of those many proposals: the Corestates Financial Center.

Back in 1989, when the Disney Hole was only 10 years old and was still being referred to as "the Gimbels Site," Corestates Financial Group was having a problem. The company's headquarters was filling two separate office buildings and was so overcrowded that they were forced to rent space in a few other buildings just to have room for their workers to breathe. At the time, Philadelphia was going through a period of massive construction. The whole West Market area was filling up with the tallest buildings the city had ever seen. The city's old-heads were calling it the "Manhattanization" of Philadelphia and there was no end in sight. It was generally understood back then that once West Market was filled with skyscrapers, Market East would be next.

After scouting 30 locations over an 18-month period, Corestates chose 8th and Market because of its public transit access, $12 million in recent streetscape improvements, and the potential of Market East as a new business district (HA). The new building would be 45 stories tall, 1.2 million square feet, and would include an extension to the SEPTA/PATCO transit concourse nearby. A Chicago-based developer, JMB/Urban Development Company, the folks behind the Four Seasons Hotel and I/II Logan Square, would head up the project (they owned the Gimbels Site since Gimbels was destroyed). Construction was to begin in 1991 with a completion date set for 1993.

The architect selected for the tower was the fancy shmancy folks from NYC's Fox and Fowle firm (now called a ridiculous string of capital letters, FXFOWLE). The structure would be covered in a facade of green-tinted glass and capped with a pyramid. The Mellon Bank Center had not been built yet, so a pyramid on top of a Philly skyscraper was still a new concept. A 1,000-space parking garage would be installed underground with some spaces leased to the nearby retail centers.

The developers saw so much potential in this new tower that they bumped up the project by 300,000 square feet. The half-billion-dollar building would now be 54 stories with a smaller companion tower that would sport a 1,200-space parking garage and a five-story glass-enclosed garden space. They thought they would be able to attract even more tenants this way, turning 8th and Market into a major commercial center that would lead to more business-scrapers being built. As you probably know, this was dead wrong.

While all of this designing and planning was going on, the amount of vacant office space in the city was one the rise. When this thing was proposed, the shitload of tall-ass office construction at West Market was already over a third vacant and older office buildings were a fifth vacant. The building boom of the time period was headed for a crash and economic confidence was going to shit. Corestates, knowing that a downturn was on its way, backed out of the project in April of 1991. JMB/Urban Development declared the building stalled, but not dead, claiming they could still pull some tenants out of their asses and get the thing built. Well, we all know how that turned out. Corestates ended up staying in their multiple buildings, and presently, as Wells Fargo, occupy even MORE space in MORE buildings (though they did attempt a move to Parkway Plaza).

After all these years, 8th and Market is much worse than it was than when this building was proposed. The streetscape improvements from 1988-89 are still there and have not aged well. The Gallery's vacancy rate is at an all time high (though plans are in motion for its rebirth). The block is a Ghost Town at night and shitbagious by day. More proposals have come and gone for this location but none made it, though one of them got as far as a $44 million taxpayer-supported hole in the ground.

Currently, the only construction permits associated with this corner include an addition to the parking attendant box and more free-standing signs that will probably say something to the effect of "Park Here, You Morons!!" The 5-year zoning allowance for the parking lot expired last month but has been renewed for another 5 years, so this corner's destiny of surface parking will be allowed to reach the 38-year mark in 2017. Yay.