Toll Brothers: Jewelers Row tower to shrink by six stories

After a busy start to the year with community meetings, multiple appeals, and potential historic designations come and gone, news about the proposed 29-story tower on Jewelers Row remained relatively quiet over the spring and early summer. But now, after hitting a roadblock with a government agency, the developer says it has the tower has shrunk in size by six stories.

Toll Brothers told the Philadelphia Inquirer Thursday that it has decided to build a shorter, 23-story tower. The news came shortly after Licenses & Inspections (L&I) announced that it had closed the developer’s application for a zoning permit due to lack of response from Toll Brothers.

“L&I was awaiting additional information in support of Toll’s assertion of unity of use as a justification for the size of the 29-story building,” L&I spokesperson Karen Guss confirmed to Curbed Philly in an e-mail.

Earlier this year Toll Brothers had filed an application for a zoning permit to build 29 stories instead of the originally proposed 16, under the “unity of use” argument. This would allow multiple parcels and their air rights to be combined into one, thereby allowing a taller tower to be built.

L&I then requested more information from the developer to back up its unity of use argument, and have spent the past few months waiting for a response.

With notice that the application’s deadline to respond had expired, Toll Brothers then announced its decision to shorten the tower by six stories.

The developer remains as the owner of five properties located on from 702-710 Sansom Street and its demolition permits are still valid. The plan is to raze the five structures to make way for the residential tower, which originally called for 115 units.

We’ll continue to update our timeline as this story continues to develop.

• Toll Bros. downsizes Jewelers Row condo tower by six floors [Inquirer]