Construction is well under way on the Cira Centre, which will bring a high rise building to the area just west of the Schuylkill River.
The 727,725-square-foot, 28-story office building will be joined to 30th Street Station by a pedestrian bridge across Arch Street to make traveling easier for commuters.
Construction on the $200 million building is currently on schedule, and tenants are likely to take occupancy in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to Jerry Sweeney, president and chief executive officer of Brandywine Realty Trust, the building's developer and owner. Sweeney added that about 65 percent of the building's space has been leased to six different companies so far.
Sweeney said that he is counting on a November "topping out" ceremony -- a celebration held when all the steel superstructure of the building has been erected, marking its halfway-to-completion point.
Upon completion, the building designed by architect Cesar Pelli will have space for a fitness center and a restaurant, in addition to the office space.
Sweeney explained that Penn and Drexel University's eastward expansion plans are likely to lead to development in the area surrounding the Schuylkill River, which is one reason the company chose to build on 30th Street.
"Our hope is that over the next decade, there will be a lot of additional development around the station," he said, adding that the Cira Centre "will sit right in the middle of all that activity."
Located between Center City and University City, the Cira Centre "is going to bring West Philadelphia and Center City together," City and Regional Planning professor Eugenie Birch said.
Sweeney agreed, adding that this was one of his company's main goals.
"We've used the Cira Centre as a great addition to the University City area, and we think that it will spur a lot of additional development that will create more jobs and more residences and more amenities within the University City area," he said.
Birch said that she hopes these amenities will include "everything from open space to retail to entertainment to ... housing, along with the office space."
With such development, "a very lively downtown area could be created," she added.
According to Birch, the way that Penn chooses to develop its postal lands -- the recently purchased 24 acres east of campus -- is especially important in light of the construction of the Cira Centre.
"It's going to be necessary to have very careful planning how to integrate the postal lands with what's happening at Penn," she said. "This is a real chance to transform that no-man's land that links West Philadelphia to Center City."
