Property at Broad and Washington Will Have Over 1,400 Units Spanning 1.9M Sq. Ft., Developed in Partnership with Tower Investments
Post Brothers, the nationally recognized leader in mixed-use community development, innovation, and sustainability, has partnered with the iconic Tower Investments in building the largest residential project in unit size in the U.S. The developers – both Philadelphia-based and dominant players in the city’s residential and commercial development for over 20 years – announced today the closing of financing and have already broken ground on the multi-family project, which will total 1.9 million square feet in building space. Total project costs over multiple phases will exceed $750 million. There will be 1,457 apartments, over 65,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, and an off-street parking garage.
“In our 16th year as an organization, Post Brothers, in partnership with Tower Investments, continues to push the envelope in terms of sustainability, project scale and quality,” said Matthew Pestronk, CEO and co-founder of Post Brothers. “The anticipation of the transformative nature has been extensively discussed in the civic and development domain, and the execution of the project itself will greatly exceed all expectations. The project is now financed to go forward and we are excited to deliver what people have been waiting to see.”
Specializing in consumer-oriented, class-A apartment buildings in prime northeastern metropolitan markets, Post Brothers will continue to raise the bar with its construction of the long-awaited development, which broke ground in 2021 and is expected to complete the first phase by 2024 and the entire project by 2026. Based upon publicly available information including property records, Broad and Washington is the most substantial market-rate multifamily development by unit count and costs to be built without subsidy outside of New York City in at least the past 50 years. BKV Group is project architect.
“It’s an honor to work with Post Brothers in developing such a monumental community within in our own backyard that will not only set a record for mixed-use housing in Philadelphia, but also the entire country,” said Bart Blatstein, founder and CEO of Tower Investments. “Post Brothers is known for offering the most exceptional apartment living in only the most desirable neighborhoods, and the Broad and Washington development will set a new national standard.”
Post Brothers has a track record of repeatedly demonstrating the largest and best projects in the submarkets in which it operates by continually setting new high rents while simultaneously establishing market-leading absorption. For Broad and Washington, the developers secured a $400 million construction financing and project recapitalization loan with financial partners Bank OZK and Starwood Property Trust. Russell Schildkraut and Christine Zivkovic of The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group LLC arranged the financing, which will fund the first phase of the development with over 600 apartments, four interconnected structures, and 50,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Bank OZK and Starwood Property Trust are long-term lending relationships of Post Brothers. The construction loan for the Broad and Washington development includes $250 million from Bank OZK and $100 million from Starwood Property Trust, with the lenders having also provided construction financing of over $450 million, and $1 billion across Post Brothers’ portfolio, respectively, including The Atlantic, Presidential City, and the newly delivered Piazza Alta.
“Due to the size and complexity of Post Brothers’ latest project at Broad and Washington, a capital stack was required that included the most sophisticated capital providers in the marketplace today,” said Russell Schildkraut, principal of Ackman Ziff Real Estate Group. “All parties including the Sponsor, senior and subordinate lenders, their legal and closing teams, and Ackman-Ziff worked cohesively to effectuate this transformative project. “
Broad and Washington is the largest project in the U.S. to be built to date using load-bearing wall panels as a structural element, which saves 25 percent on hard costs versus traditional concrete and steel construction for high-rise buildings under 20 stories. This structural technology is what allows Post Brothers to develop lower cost, class-A housing in a way that both traditional construction methodologies and other prefabricated technologies cannot. For more information, please visit www.postrents.com.
About Post Brothers
Founded in 2006 by brothers Matthew and Michael Pestronk, Post Brothers is a vertically integrated residential real estate company creating innovative, upscale developments that promote culture, community, and well-being. Based in Philadelphia, Post Brothers actively invests in key metropolitan communities throughout the Northeast and has a current portfolio exceeding $1.6 billion plus a $1.3 billion owned development pipeline. The company has developed or acquired more than 30 properties, and upon completion of its current owned development pipeline will have developed over 7,000 apartment units. This includes the largest apartment community in the U.S. to be developed in 2022, Piazza Alta. Post Brothers has a proven track record of recognizing a property’s potential and delivering its vision with meticulous and keen attention to even the smallest details, from responsibly sourced building materials to quality, high-end finished. For more information, visit www.postrents.com.
