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October 2023 Philadelphia Mastermind Group Key Take Aways!

  • Jefferson Hospital may be opening in 2024, though there are a lot of details to get ready before it can actually open. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects, Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Healthcare facilities are very specialized and some architects specialize in very specific areas, such as dental schools. For the new CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), they put the architects, engineers, contractors and hospital staff together to keep a flow of communication. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)
  • The market is always going to be more exacting than the government. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Things have been slow in the absence of capital. There have been lots of pauses and delays in existing deals, which is difficult on service providers. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr)
  • A groundbreaking took place at the Bellwether District. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr)
  • Business has been slow. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Rents are holding but it feels slower because 2021/2022 were so fast. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Philadelphia has had a lot of population growth and high-paying job growth. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Rate of inflation is slowing. When the rates drop expect lenders to fall behind it. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Projects seem to be halted all over the city. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr)
  • There are lots of inexperienced investors and developers who are now finding themselves in a predicament because they don’t know what they’re doing. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • Young people are getting really high priced mortgages. There are boom and bust cycles and this one has gone longer than most. It may be more sustainable because there’s enough growth. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)
  • New home buyers are taking 20-30 year mortgages at very high rates. They were at 11% many years ago, which younger people are too young to have experienced. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr, Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)
  • Homeowners with low rates are not selling, which is slowing the cycle. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr, Christina Lutz – Counter Management)
  • The stadium project for the Sixers has run into issues, many of which seem to be coming from the local government. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management, Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr)
  • The city’s administration has checked out and is not present at all and the city keeps standing in its own way. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management, Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr)
  • The Rebuild program used private and public money and began with good programming, but once the Mayor and City Council started negotiating it fell apart. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)
  • Unions aren’t recruiting young people from neighborhoods where projects could be built. They won’t waive driver’s license requirements, which is an obstacle. Some people are using non-union labor. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects, Matt Musilli – Johnson, Kendall & Johnson)
  • KMA is very busy and are the fullest they’ve ever been. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)
  • Work mostly with larger projects and clients tend to be knowledgeable and understand timelines and how things work. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)
  • There is still FEMA money leftover from the floods that hasn’t been used. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
  • There was a presentation at City Hall to start another campaign to paint the dome, but there are questions regarding color. The current color was chosen to obtain a warranty from the manufacturer. (Jim Karmolinski – Kelly Maiello Architects)

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