Philadelphia Meetings, Day 2

More business meetings all day today in Philadelphia with my boss, eight in a row. That’s tiring. But we’re getting plenty of great speaker ideas and potential topics to cover at our Philadelphia real estate conference this Spring.

Like you care, but the hottest topics in Philadelphia real estate are:

1. Condo Conversions. The city’s becoming more 24/7 (as New York is) as older office space downtown is converted to condos that cater in price to young professionals or even baby boomers that are moving into the city from a house in the suburbs. (Suburban sprawl in Metro Philly has reached the point where the highway infrastructure is no longer sufficient and there are traffic jams of nightmarish proportions.) Developers are so ape over conversions, they’re converting factory space, warehouse space, apartment space and in one case, an entire parking garage. But how many condos are too many condos, and is there a lack of affordable space?
2. Gambling. Donald Trump has his busy hands in a project to bring a few slot-machine casinos to the Downtown area. On one hand, who wants that influx of shitmongers that is attracted to gambling? On the other, the city could use the taxes generated by such ventures, particularly since it’s still in the python-like grip of an inexplicably anti-business stance, tax and incentive-wise. This in part has resulted in:
3. Office Vacancies. There are more of ’em downtown than some Philly real estate execs are comfortable with, and although job growth is positive there, it’s nothing to write home about. How can the city attract business to locate or relocate in Philly? Will developer Brandywine build a second Cira Centre skyscraper, as has been rumored, and what effect will that have on an already generously available inventory of space? And what effect will there be from the Comcast Center tower, slated to open next year?

On the train back, I got to listen to my boss have a cellphone conversation with his young son about how he (the son) had been throwing up for most of the day. We sat in the dining car, recapping the day and our notes, while eating bad nachos and drinking canned Budweiser. They gotta start including perks like this on the subway.