Developer Parkway renews effort to build apartment tower on Chestnut Street lot

Philadelphia's Parkway Corp. is taking another crack at developing the parking lot it owns next to the Union Trust banquet hall on Chestnut Street, with plans for a 27-story tower at the property.

Parkway is proposing 279 rental apartments for the 709 Chestnut St. site, which is also designed to include 135 "mechanical access" parking spaces above its first floor, according to a project application posted Wednesday to the website of the city's Civic Design Review board.

The proposal comes about two years after a previous plan for the site was abandoned, once Parkway's then-project partner, Mack-Cali Realty Corp. of Jersey City, backed out.

The new project requires special permission from city zoning officials to include above-ground parking and a curb cut to access the garage, which are prohibited by the area's land-use regulations, according to the project application. Those zoning "variances" have been presented to the Center City Organized for Responsible Development community group, which did not oppose them, it said.

The project is scheduled to be presented to the Civic Design Review board on Sept. 4. As part of Philadelphia's planning process, relevant community groups and the city design board are entitled to offer nonbinding feedback for big development projects.