Construction on Hub 3939 will begin this spring

For the Hub buildings on the west end of Penn's campus, the third time seems to be the charm.

Hub 3939, an avant-garde apartment building, will break ground this spring, according to Paul Sehnert, director of real estate development at Penn.

"Hub [3939] will bring a new vibrancy to the corner," he said.

Although it took longer than expected, "all the pieces are now in place," Sehnert added.

The construction site - 3939 Chestnut St. - presented fewer difficulties than Hub II's site at 40th and Chestnut streets, Sehnert said, which is why Hub 3939 will be built before Hub II.

It's slated to be completed in fall 2010 and will cost about $21 million, according to Ahsan Nasratullah, CEO of Teres Holdings, a Philadelphia-based development firm.

Hub I was completed in 2006 for $23 million.

Sehnert said Hub 3939 will be very similar to Hub I with the same prices, the same target consumer market and the same multicolored design.

The two buildings will be "complementary," Nasratullah said.

Plus, Hub 3939 will have a glass lobby so that the two buildings appear to be attached.

The three Hubs, along with the Radian, add to the University City area's retail and housing options - though, Sehnert said, they do so in different ways.

The Radian is geared to undergraduates, he explained, while the Hub buildings are more suited to graduate and professional students.

Hub 3939's 60 units are mostly one- to two-person studios, making for a more independent atmosphere.

The seventh and eighth floors will have bi-level rooms.

The second floor will house the restaurant Thai Singha House, which is currently located in the same place as the Hub's future site.

More retail options will be announced as construction progresses, Nasratullah said.

"The three Hubs together will anchor the north corner of 40th and Chestnut," Nasratullah said. "It will make it a nice, vibrant community with restaurants, a hair salon and post-modern buildings."

Students see the current Hub building as "vibrant" and look forward to the construction of the next two Hubs.

College freshman Lauren Meepos said the Hub is "a little too abstract for my taste," but the building adds an interesting flavor to the area surrounding Penn's campus.