Residents anticipate proposed 110-key hotel at site of Broad Street Diner

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Residents are awaiting more information about a hotel slated for the site of a classic diner in South Philadelphia — but as of now, some are uncertain it’s the ideal proposal for the neighborhood.

The latest plans from the owners of the Broad Street Diner, located at 1135-43 South Broad St., is to turn the property into a 110-key hotel operated by Hyatt Studios, a new, extended-stay extension of the Hyatt brand. The hotel will rise to five stories and require the demolition of the diner and a neighboring, six-unit apartment building.

The hotel will also include parking, Maria Petrogiannis, the daughter of property owner Michael Petrogiannis, told WHYY News. If it moves forward, the proposal would alter the landscape of another long-standing spot in a neighborhood that has seen a spate of development in recent years.

It would also bring a hotel to a neighborhood between Center City and the Sports Complex that has limited lodging options — especially on game days, said David Kazarov, who used to live four blocks from the diner and visited dozens of times.

“There really is a lack of hotel space in this area,” said Peter Zutter, president of the South Broad Street Neighborhood Association.

But, he added, “I don’t know that this is the kind of hotel space that we really would need or want.”

While Zutter said he was keeping an open mind, he added that residents are concerned about the “low-end” status of the proposed hotel and how the current owners have managed the diner property.

“It’s a little worrisome to have a facility like that with 100 and some rooms that don’t have an active presence there, and an active security presence, an active cleaning presence,” Zutter said, citing concerns reported by residents to management about unhoused people living and congregating behind the diner.

Candace DiCarlo, a longtime resident who lives three doors down from the diner, said she was worried that the hotel’s proposed entrance on Ellsworth Street would disrupt a “nice, quiet street.” She and other residents have had difficulty contacting the diner’s owners about her concerns about the “conditions” outside the restaurant.

“These plans are not just a point in time,” DiCarlo said. “They all have dimensionality, or they have depth, and then they have life going forward.”

Maria Petrogiannis said she was aware of people experiencing homelessness throughout Philadelphia, but has not heard about any neighbors attempting to contact the diner’s management. The owners have not yet presented their plans for the diner site to the local registered community organization — which Zutter, its president, expects to happen in the next few months.

Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose district includes the Broad Street Diner site, said it’s possible that the construction of a hotel at the location — right next to the Ellsworth stop on the Broad Street Line — could have a “positive impact” given that hotels often increase activity and security in the neighborhood.

But he said that the owner would need to “re-engage” with the South Broad Street Neighborhood Association to solicit input on the driveway location, height of the building and impacts on residents.

The Broad Street Diner, perched on a 0.2-acre spot at the corner of Ellsworth and South Broad streets, first opened in 1964. It closed in 2007 before renovating and reopening in 2011 under its current ownership, MR Realty Associates.

The owner originally obtained a demolition permit for the site in 2022, when the plan was to replace the diner with a 31-unit residential building and ground-floor commercial space. A new zoning permit was approved in December for “limited lodging” as plans changed to propose a hotel instead. The new plans will require a variance to be granted by either the Zoning Board of Adjustment or City Council legislation.

Petrogiannis said the hotel will include a “good mix” of suites and smaller and larger rooms. Hyatt Studios, launched in 2023, announced two locations in Pennsylvania on Jan. 27. The brand offers king and queen studio suites with amenities including kitchens, a fitness studio, a 24-hour market and a grab-and-go breakfast bar.

“The real challenge is to present this to the neighborhood in a way that they like it, they like the look of it, they like the idea,” Petrogiannis said.

MR Realty operates several diners throughout the region, including the Melrose Diner several blocks south. The Melrose, a South Philadelphia landmark, was demolished in September 2023 and is slated for a 65-unit apartment building with two commercial spaces. The diner will return on the ground floor with 136 seats and some of its old decor.

The Broad Street Diner will not return in any form, and Petrogiannis said that Hyatt Studios told them that they do not typically operate ground-floor commercial space. The diner will close and be demolished once the Melrose is opened, she said, with construction hopefully commencing sometime in 2025. Broad Street Diner employees will then move over to the new Melrose.

While South Philadelphia loses another landmark property, development is booming just around the Broad Street Diner. A block away, a 1,400-unit apartment building operated by the Post Brothers, called One Thousand One, opened its lower floors last summer. OCF Realty has plans for a mixed-use building at the corner of 16th Street and Washington Avenue.

In January, a permit was approved for a sit-down restaurant at 1123 Broad St., the site of a check cashing store that Zutter said will become a comedy club.

The loss of the Broad Street Diner brought back memories for many of its patrons, who noted a yearslong trendline of diner closures throughout Philadelphia — robbing residents of cheap, convenient breakfast food around the clock.

“It was not the best food in the world, but it was certainly not the worst,” said Alan Lutton, a library administrator at a liberal arts college in Maryland who spent his “formative years” going to diners like the Broad Street and Melrose after nights out at the bar Woody’s.

“The chrome plated diner is kind of a dying breed” in the city, said David Kazarov, a content developer who estimated he’s visited the Broad Street Diner dozens of times.

The Broad Street eatery, while not “a super special place” to Kazarov, represents to him the very few diners in Center City that gives him the “warm and fuzzies.”

While acknowledging the logistical challenges of finding employees to work at a 24-hour establishment, Kazarov was adamant: “I think there’s a real hunger for that kind of dining experience … no pun intended.”