Let's dig through the Curbed Crates on this one, shall we? Way back in 2012, we featured one of the units it Tony Goldman's White Building at 105 S. 12th St. Why should we, you ask? Well, to revisit how incredibly wrong the New York Times was when profiling Goldman's "losing propositions" in Midtown Village back in 2000. Actually, let's put that on simmer for a minute. This 1-bed, 1-bath loft asks $395K and offers tons of exposed bricks, mainly due to the gorgeous 17' barrel-vaulted ceilings. It also boasts Brazilian cherry hardwood floors and a stainless steel kitchen complete marble counter tops and even a drop-down sushi bar. So how did the New York Times get is oh-so-very wrong about Goldman, the surrounding neighborhood and even Philadelphia as a whole? From a NYT profile of Goldman's Philadelphia Vision, so to speak:
"What he sees is an infinitely walkable town with nothing to walk to. Mr. Goldman has every intention of lifting the curse off Philadelphia, a shrinking city of 1.5 million people, semifamous for greasy food, high taxes, a surfeit of bricks, a dearth of style and a lack of news. In five years, he says, Philadelphia could be the Paris of the Northeast, a town of affordable, comfy live and work quarters, bustling with so much alfresco dining and strolling that people would actually make Philadelphia the kind of destination that South Beach has become. Without the beach, of course."
Fast forward a few years to what we now know to be true: Philly's population is on the upswing, boasts nationally acclaimed food (on Goldman's 13th St. and well beyond), taxes (meh), a generous mix of shiny glass buildings and them beautiful bricks, a boutique shopping strip in Old City with a growing style corridors in Center City and, let's face it, we're never short on news. For goodness sake, the Pope is coming here next year! All it needed was a bold vision. Hell, with Spruce Street Harbor Park, we even had the beach come to us this summer. In short, it was developments like Goldman's White Building redevelopment that kick-started much of what we know as modern day Center City. Looking to own a pretty cool loft in the thick of it all? You can for well under $500K.
· 1130 Chestnut St. Unit 301 [Estately]
· A Tony Goldman Exposed Brickapalooza Gets $100K Chop [Curbed Philly]
· ON THE STREETS WITH: Tony Goldman; Writing a New Philadelphia Story [NYT]
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