Ken Weinstein wants to bring a version of South Philly’s Bok Building to Nicetown

The office market may be in the midst of one of its weakest periods ever, but Northwest Philadelphia developer Ken Weinstein is confident there is appetite for small working spaces in the city’s neighborhoods.

That’s why he wants to convert and expand an old industrial and office building at 3939 Germantown Ave., known as the Olympian, into a towering space for nonprofits, start-ups, artists, and service providers. The project cost is estimated at $12 million.

“Everyone talks about the softness in the office market right now, and that’s certainly a reality,” said Weinstein, president of Philly Office Retail. “But we’re finding that it doesn’t exist as much with small offices as it does with large offices, and it doesn’t exist as much in the neighborhoods outside of Center City.”

Weinstein has included flex spaces in four of his other projects, with space ranging from 11 to 23 units. All of them are occupied, and have waiting lists. That’s why he decided to try the model on a larger scale in North Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood.

The Olympian is less than half a mile up Germantown Avenue from the bustling intersection of Broad Street and Erie Avenue and the iconic Beury Building. The seven-story building, with an annex on the back that once supported the trucks of a shipping company, is in a haggard state and hasn’t been substantially reinvested in for decades.

Taking inspiration from South Philadelphia’s Bok Building — Lindsey Scannapieco’s redevelopment of a former public high school into a popular warren of small businesses and studios — Weinstein wants to bring 115 “flex spaces” to the Olympian. These could be used for anything from art studios or yoga practices to small nonprofits and tech start-ups.

He plans to punch hundreds of windows in the side of the historical building and construct an accompanying seven-story addition in place of the old truck docks.

The final project would be 91,000 square feet, with a roof deck and retail uses on the ground floor that he hopes would become a coffee shop or restaurant space for tenants and the neighborhood. The building would include parking for 103 vehicles and have easy access to the 23 bus and the Broad Street Line.

“Clearly a lot of people have left Center City, but they’re now getting a little tired of working from home,” Weinstein said. “We get folks who work for national companies remotely who are getting permission to work from our other flex spaces. They are looking for a place to hang their hat.”

Weinstein won support from some community groups and neighbors, including the Nazarene Baptist Church a little farther up Germantown Avenue.

“We saw it as a great opportunity to bless the community with employment opportunities in the demolition and construction, as well as options for community business owners for office space and as ongoing service jobs within the new construction,” K. Marshall Williams, senior pastor at Nazarene, said in an email message.

Weinstein says an office hub will bring jobs to a zip code with an unemployment rate of over 15%, more than double the city’s overall level.

“We supported the project before zoning because we required and expect Ken Weinstein to deliver on subcontracting opportunities for skilled tradesmen in and adjacent to the 19140 zip code, as well as laborers in the local community,” Williams said.

The long proposed redevelopment of the nearby Beury building gained community support in a similar fashion: The plan is for a new use as a jobs-creating hotel, instead of a multifamily apartment building.

But that’s not to say there was no skepticism of Weinstein’s project during the zoning approval process.

The lead registered community organization (RCO) for the area, the 13th Democratic Ward, did not like the height of the addition to the Olympian.

“One of our concerns with the building is that there are single-family homes behind it, so we thought building another seven stories would block the sunlight and the air,” said Charles Carn, of the 13th Ward.

Carn also said he didn’t think the project would add many jobs to the community, as opposed to just attracting office and studio users from elsewhere.

“The basic thing was it would create jobs, but it wouldn’t create jobs for the community itself,” Carn said. “Jobs for who?”

As it currently stands, many of the Olympian’s upper floors are devoted to personal storage. The lower levels are spaces rented by artists, craftspeople, and social services organizations. Some are still in the building, although their leases will all wrap up by the end of the year. There are just a handful of bathrooms, a single staircase, and an old freight elevator.

Weinstein’s vision for the seven-story addition includes a passenger elevator, more bathrooms, and an expanded number of offices, studio, and maker spaces ranging in size from 150 to 2,000 square feet. He projects rents at $12 a square foot — about a third the cost of the average for the Philly market.

The comparison to the Bok Building in South Philadelphia is instructive, but only to a point.

Scannapieco’s successful renovation of a derelict public high school is almost four times as large by square feet as Weinstein’s project would be, and it offers no parking. Almost three-quarters of the business owners live in South Philadelphia, and three out of five do not drive. Its uses range from a bakery to therapy to a fine art school that occupies an entire floor.

As with Weinstein’s handful of flex spaces in his Northwest Philadelphia developments, Bok’s flex spaces are fully occupied, and there’s a wait-list for admittance.

“There’s 672 people that work here every day,” Scannapieco said. “We’re certainly looking at other buildings to expand and grow to meet the demand for this type of space.”

Weinstein envisions that the Olympian will draw tenants from a wider geographic area than just Nicetown. That’s part of why he thinks it’s important to provide almost one-for-one parking.

“It’s not going to be people coming out of Center City, but I think with the proximity to the Broad Street Line and to the 23 bus, it’s going to be Northwest Philly [residents] plus that would come here,” Weinstein said. “And I think the parking is going to be a major draw.”

Now that he’s secured his zoning approvals and drawn up architecture plans, Weinstein is seeking financing. He intends to use historic tax credits to help rehabilitate the building, but no other public financing.

The self-storage spaces in the building have been closed and emptied. After the current leases in the building end, Weinstein hopes to break ground by the end of the year. He expects construction to take 18 months, with an opening hoped for in 2026.

“There’s not a lot of new development here, and the neighborhood needs jobs,” Weinstein said. “But there’s a lot of people looking for a location to do those start-up businesses, start-up nonprofits. And that’s what we want to produce here.”