This Philly penthouse can be yours for $25 million

At the top of Philadelphia’s tallest luxury residential tower, wraparound windows showcase panoramic views of the greenery in the adjacent Rittenhouse Square and the brick sea of rowhouses in the neighborhoods far beyond. On a clear day, you can see Conshohocken and Villanova.

This penthouse at The Laurel spans the entire top 48th floor. The cavernous, roughly 9,000-square-foot space with 14-foot ceilings is an empty shell that a future owner can hire an architect to customize. It’s on the market for $25 million.

“When you have no budget and you have the opportunity to design anything you want, this is the space,” said Brian Emmons, vice president of business development at Southern Land Co., the building’s developer.

The company completed construction last month and last week, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker called the building “a beautiful addition to our skyline.” It’s the latest luxury high-rise residential tower to mark its official completion, and its penthouses are among the most expensive in Philadelphia.

Agents whose job it is to sell the city’s multimillion-dollar penthouses said that after a lackluster 2023, Philadelphia’s high-end luxury market in the first few months of 2024 has been strong.

“The activity level this year is considerably greater,” said Andrea Desy Edrei, operating partner at the local brokerage for New York-based SERHANT. “It gives us some optimism.”

Philadelphia has a bunch more luxury penthouses now than it did a few years ago. The Laurel, Arthaus, and 2100 Hamilton are high-end condo towers that were built around the same time.

Across the luxury market as a whole, “the city was hot” before the pandemic, said John Bolaris, managing partner at BLACKLABEL Keller Williams, based in Center City. His clients were selling their Main Line estates to move into Philadelphia. But the pandemic and feelings that the city wasn’t safe dampened the market in recent years.

“We weren’t selling high-end condos,” Bolaris said. “We had a really dead market for the last 18 months until now.”

The luxury market “has been gradually coming back up,” said Douglas Pearson, a real estate agent and principal at Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty who specializes in high-end homes. He said sales in Philadelphia were higher in the first quarter of this year than at the same time last year.

“We have noticed in February and March and going into April, a real improvement in the market,” he said. “We’re seeing high-end properties that had plateaued that are now starting to move.”

» READ MORE: The luxury condo market is slow, but some buildings still have strong sales

He thinks “there’s a new feeling of positivity” toward the city because of the new mayoral administration. That’s in addition to the enduring draws of the city’s restaurants, arts and entertainment, history, and diversity of neighborhoods. Philadelphia’s universities and health-care institutions attract lots of luxury buyers.

And more people returning to offices has “definitely been a bit of a catalyst for the increase in activity,” Desy Edrei said.

Last year, getting potential high-end buyers into property showings was the main goal, she said. Now, people are coming to showings, and the goal is getting offers.

Pearson said he’s seen multimillion-dollar properties in Philadelphia sell in one day and others take a year to sell. “The key is to price it to market and to market the heck out of it,” he said.

Sixers star Joel Embiid’s Society Hill penthouse at 101 Walnut St. had a price cut this month from $5.5 million to $4.7 million. Desy Edrei, listing agent for the property, said she thinks the home would have sold without a price reduction if the nearly 12-acre park over I-95 that’s being built in front of the home was finished — an additional neighborhood amenity.

“There’s been some good price reductions recently just to get some of these buyers off the fence,” she said.

More multimillion-dollar penthouses in Philadelphia are scheduled to become available in the coming months, in addition to the ones already available in various neighborhoods, across prices, and at varying elevations — from helicopter height to one on top of a six-story building.

The Laurel’s penthouse spanning the 46th floor sold in 2019 for more than $16 million. “That’s incredible,” Bolaris said.

Some of the luxury penthouses currently for sale include:

Among the penthouses for rent include:

The Ryland announced last month that its penthouses had hit the market. Its developer, LCOR, said it saw a need and an opportunity for high-end rentals in Society Hill.

So who buys or rents a high-end penthouse in Philadelphia?

“You’d be surprised how many people are looking at them,” Pearson said last Tuesday. “We have seen a significant increase in demand over the last 60 days.”

Most buyers pay with cash. They’re more likely to purchase when the stock market and their investments are doing well. A lot of buyers and renters own businesses. And yes, some are professional athletes.

They come from a variety of places, including in and around the city and the usual places such as New York. But Desy Edrei said she’s also seeing inquiries from places that traditionally weren’t feeder markets for Philadelphia, such as Texas and the Midwest.

» READ MORE: Multimillion-dollar housing market in Philly is going strong (From 2021)

Some come from even farther away.

“When you look at these penthouses, your client base, especially with Sotheby’s, is worldwide. And we’re out advertising to the worldwide market,” Pearson said. “We have a lot of high-end customers who are buying here from outside the country because their children are in the Philadelphia university system.”

And, he said, “you’d be surprised how many times it is not their primary residence.”

Residential buildings with high-end penthouses aim to attract buyers with state-of-the-art fitness centers, yoga rooms, indoor and outdoor pools, lounges, boardrooms, screening rooms, golf simulators, spas for pets and people, door attendants, concierges, and chauffeurs.

“Service is everything for them,” Pearson said.

“These buyers, because of the very nature of these listings, are very particular in their requests and their requirements,” he said. That’s why many new buildings sell raw space that penthouse buyers can customize. But some buyers would rather purchase a home that’s finished.

High-end properties are high end because of the level of detail and services available to residents.

“Marketing is the most important thing on any property and especially on the high end,” Pearson said. “You’re not only selling the unit; you’re selling a lifestyle.”

Buyers want big windows and wide-open views. One of the biggest draws is outdoor space.

“A pool is very important for some, and for some it’s not important because they have a place at the Shore, and they’re not [at their Philadelphia penthouse] during the summer,” Pearson said.

A lot of Philadelphia’s luxury high rises offer the same types of amenities, so sometimes a buyer’s decision comes down to location, and they often have strong feelings about neighborhoods. Whether a luxury buyer wants to be in Washington Square or Rittenhouse Square, Pearson said, “that’s like a religious argument.”

This story has been updated to remove incorrect statements about a past penthouse sale at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton.