EM Race Vine Venture, LLC, Breaks Ground For Apartments Next to Cathedral

March 9, 2021 by HughE Dillon 2 Comments

Shot from the new 18th on Terrace apartment building in February 2021

In 2016 I first wrote the story about the the plan for building housing units as it was presented to my condo building which is also on the Parkway (here).

In 2019, the Archdiocese selected EM Race Vine Venture, LLC as the master developer for the redevelopment of the Cathedral Block. In September 2019, the parties entered into a Master Development Agreement. On November 23, 2020, the Archdiocese entered into a 99-year ground lease agreement with the Master Developer. (Rendering by the firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz)

(Rendering by the firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz)

CATHEDRAL PLACE – PHASE 1

The roughly four-acre block located in center city between 17th and 18th streets and between Race and Vine streets overlooks the city’s main locus of arts and culture, Logan Circle and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which hosted visits by St. John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Francis in 2015.

The building will be twenty-three stories containing 273 apartment units, 2,500 square feet of ground-floor retail, and include 18 underground parking spaces.

CATHEDRAL PLACE – PHASE 1 at 17th and Race Streets (Rendering by the firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz)

Financial terms of the agreement on the Cathedral Block Project with master developer EM Race Vine Venture were not disclosed in an announcement Nov. 23. (Catholic Philly) EM Race Vine Venture was incorporated in Delaware in August 2019 and selected as the lead partner for the project on Sept. 27 of that year.
Chicago-based firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz has been selected as the lead architect for phase one of the project.