A new high-end Center City residential tower is hitting the market, just as many experts fear an apartment glut

Center City’s newest apartment tower at 210 S. 12th St. is set to begin leasing later this spring, adding 376 high-end units to the market.

Philadelphia has seen a building boom in recent years, and many prominent developers believe there may be a multifamily housing glut — meaning there are more new units than there is demand for them at the prices being charged.

But the developer behind the 31-story tower, New York-based Midwood Investment & Development, believes that in this corner of Center City they don’t have to worry about competition.

“You can look at the market in totality and yes, there’s a record number of units coming online,” said John Usdan, CEO of Midwood. “But we look at the real estate business in terms of a specific block, a specific neighborhood.”

Usdan said that much of the new construction in the city is taking place north of Center City, in the neighborhoods around the Art Museum, Northern Liberties, Fishtown, and other Delaware River-adjacent areas. South Philadelphia is also seeing a lot of construction, he said, but not downtown — and especially not close to East Market Street.

“We think the customer who wants to live in our building is a different customer than certainly wants to live in South Philly, or Northern Liberties,” said Usdan.

The great majority of the units in Midwood’s building are studios and one-bedrooms, many of which have in-home offices. There are also 69 two-bedroom units and five three-bedroom units. Rents start at $1,675 for a studio or $3,579 for two bedrooms.

“We’re not geared to a lot of families, although the building is amenitized so that if you have a family it will be a wonderful place to live,” said Usdan. “It will be [for] somebody who is in medicine or biotech or finance or legal accounting, the kinds of jobs that have been created in Center City that tend to be higher paying.”

The building is largely completed, and Midwood plans for leasing to begin this spring, and the first occupants to move in this summer. The final touches will be completed in the fall.

The new tower will have 17,000 square feet of retail space, 90 underground parking spaces (all of which have electric vehicle charging), and a suite of amenities that include an outdoor pool, a game room, and a pet spa.

Usdan notes that the company utilized both the affordable-housing-density bonus and a zoning bonus that allowed for more density in exchange for a public art installation, which will be added to the ground floor of the building.

Midwood’s tower arose where the old 12th Street Gym used to be, and the company’s plans proved controversial pre-pandemic when it became clear they would tear down the iconic Gayborhood gym with its mural of Philadelphia LGBTQ activist Gloria Casarez.

Originally, mural artist Michelle Angela Ortiz and Midwood were in talks to create a new version of the mural, or another related work, but when the company painted over the old mural prior to demolishing the building she protested and pulled out of the project.

The original mural was not relocated or replicated. Usdan said that the company is selecting an artist now for the new tower, and that they are trying to work with a Philadelphia resident for the fresh artwork.

Jonathan Broh of the Washington Square West Civic Association said that when Midwood’s tower was going through its approval processes, some neighborhood residents were concerned by its scale and by the mural controversy.

But Broh says Midwood’s project is of a piece with other developments in the area, such as National Real Estate Development’s apartment complex on East Market, the Goldenberg Group’s tower at 1213 Walnut St., or Pearl Properties’ proposal on Jewelers Row.

“There’s kind of a high-rise district forming around us,” said Broh, who is head of the zoning committee for the civic group. “For myself, I think it’s exciting to get additional density, additional residents in the area. But I understand there’s some folks who like the quaintness of the townhome scale of Washington Square West.”

Midwood has been in the Philadelphia market since the late 1990s, when it purchased a clutch of retail properties on Walnut and Chestnut Streets. It owns some other smaller residential buildings in the city, but 210 South 12th St. is its first major Philadelphia residential project.

Before the pandemic the company also proposed a large apartment building for the Italian Market, at Ninth Street and Washington Avenue, where Anastasi’s Seafood used to be. But after demolishing the building, the company hasn’t made any further progress.

Usdan declined to comment on the stalled project, saying only that the company has no update at the moment.