The Alexander adds an upscale apartment building to Franklintown and the Art Museum area. The Art Museum area, north of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is an upscale group of neighborhoods near many of Center City’s biggest corporate office buildings. The smaller neighborhood of Franklintown was created in a formerly industrial area, after the Ben Franklin Parkway was created. It consists of several high-rises and some townhouses and mid-rise apartment buildings, too. Franklintown still had some undeveloped sites, mostly used as parking lots, but almost all of them are being developed now. Two lots on Vine Street, between 16th and 18th Street, were bought by the Church of Latter Day Saints to be redeveloped. The lot between 16th and 17th Streets now has the Philadelphia Mormon Temple, and another smaller lot on the other side of 17th Street has a new Mormon meetinghouse for the local Center City congregation. The rest of the lot at 1601 Vine Street has recently been redeveloped with a big new upscale apartment tower. This new apartment tower is called The Alexander, and it was developed by the Church of Latter Day Saints and Driscoll, and designed with a classic design by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Greystar Management is managing the building now.
The Alexander has 277 luxury rental units and a total of 34 floors, towering above Vine Street. It has a mix of studios, one-bedroom units, two-bedroom units, and three-bedroom penthouses, as well as, ten four-bedroom townhouses for rent at the base between Vine Street and the circular Alexander Court at the entrance. The first floor, also, has retail space on 16th Street being used by a new nursery school and pre-school academy. Each unit has quartz kitchen countertops, Whirlpool stainless steel kitchen appliances, GE washers and dryers, American Standard showers and toilets, and Grohe bathroom sink faucets. Many units have balconies and custom blinds.
The second floor has many amenities, including an indoor 25 meter lap pool, a 24-hour fitness center (with spin classes), a demonstration kitchen, a dining area, a conference room, an indoor lounge with a pool table, a private lounge, and an outdoor terrace with grills, tables and seats, and a fire pit. The building has storage for residents, bicycle storage, Luxor1 package service, a pet wash station, and Tide Cleaners dry cleaning service. The top two floors have a yoga room and terraces, with amazing views of the city in all directions. The building is pet-friendly and has various community events, including events for pets like “yappy hours”, on a regular basis. Parking is underground.
Franklintown has seen much new development in recent years. Around the corner from The Alexander, The Hamilton will bring a total of nearly 600 apartments, a block over from The Hamilton, Hanover North Broad has brought more than 300 rental units to both sides of North Broad Street, and to the west, North by Northwest and Dalian on the Park have brought hundreds more luxury rental units to the neighborhood. The Alexander is the tallest of the recent developments in the neighborhood and is designed with a classic, traditional exterior and a modern interior with many modern amenities. These new developments, many of which include retail spaces, are making Franklintown and the Art Museum area feel more and more like Rittenhouse all the time.
