March 22: [Development Roundup] Goldex | Lancaster Square | 43rd and Baltimore | Community Legal Services | developer/delinquent Mark Sherman | 2000 Market

Good morning, Streeters. Here’s a development roundup for your Friday Buzz:

After a long and nasty feud with trade union members, Post Brothers is almost finished with the Goldtex conversion project at 12th and Wood. Brad Maule checks in on this key project’s progress for Hidden City Daily. Come May 1 tenants can start moving into the 163-unit apartment building, a restaurant will occupy the ground floor sometime soon, and eventually (we hope) the Goldtex building will have a direct connection to the Reading Viaduct park. 

Drexel’s proposal for a 24-story student-housing tower at 34th and Lancaster is intended to decrease the number of students living in Powelton and Mantua. But neighbors wonder if Drexel’s plans for Lancaster Square are adequate to relive neighborhood pressure as enrollment booms? Drexel hopes the project will draw students out of neighborhood housing, improve a key campus gateway, and provide density to invigorate the Lancaster Avenue commercial corridor.

A 92-unit apartment complex could rise across from Clark Park at 43rd and Baltimore, West Philly Local reports. Earlier this month the project received conditional zoning approval. Thylan Associates acquired the property in 2008 and promptly demolished the site’s building (at the time a shelter). Thylan’s other properties include the Biddle Building at 12th and Sansom, LIFE UPenn at 45th and Chestnut, and the Heid Building on North 13th.

The new Community Legal Services building at Broad and Erie is reason to celebrate, writes Inga Saffron in her Inquirer column today. Though greater transparency and better messaging at the sidewalk level could have helped CLS communicate its mission, the terra-cotta and glass building designed by Atkin Olshin Schade Architects fills a key gap on Erie Avenue. “The Legal Services building isn’t showy architecture. Its strength comes from its determination to make sure those with the least are treated as graciously as those with the most.”

If he doesn’t pay taxes this year East Falls developer Mark Sherman will owe the city nearly $900,000 in back taxes, reports City Paper. Sherman is a major East Falls property owner and developed the Dobson Mills condos and Sherman Mills, live/work spaces in former factory buildings.

Does the sale of 2000 Market at double its 2009 value signify a turnaround for Center City’s office real estate market? PhillyDeals reports CBRE Investments purchased the building or $56 million from Prudential in 2009 (buying out a defaulted owner) and wonders if its recent sale to Santa Fe-based Rosemont Realty Co. means recovery or that CBRE got a steal four years ago.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.