Wayne Junction gets historic designation, PA transportation funding woes, new Dilworth but same SEPTA, vacancy in Center City office buildings

Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Review Board approved the Wayne Junction National Register Historic District, reports Amy Z. Quinn for NewsWorks/PlanPhilly. The new National Register district approved on Tuesday is comprised of 17 industrial buildings, and the designation makes the properties eligible for historic preservation tax credits. A proposal to designate the district locally is also under consideration.

Pennsylvania’s dire transportation infrastructure and transit funding needs were not answered in Governor Corbett’s budget. The Governor proposed a 9% cut to transportation funding and said the problem was too big to be a budget item. No word, however, on how Corbett plans to pay to rebuild the state’s thousands of structurally deficient bridges and crumbling roads.

Dilworth Plaza’s facelift won’t extend to the SEPTA platforms below. Because the Governor’s budget froze transit funding, the Inquirer reports that the $100 million renovation of the SEPTA platforms at City Hall will have to wait. As Jeff Knueppel, chief engineer for SEPTA put it: “once you get past the fare line, it’s the same station that it is now.”

Center City office buildings have an overall vacancy rate of 14.1%, reports the Business Journal. Tenants are using less space, seeking higher quality offices, or moving for business reasons like mergers or bankruptcy. All of that leads to a lot of empty square feet in Center City. The most vacant buildings? When GlaxoSmithKline moves to the Navy Yard, 3 Franklin Plaza will top the list with 800,000 square feet available. Runner up is Centre Square West, owned by Commonwealth REIT, which has 198,000 square feet empty. Click through this slideshow to see the top ten buildings with the most vacancy.

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