The rapid expansion of Comcast’s media empire over the past few years has caused their downtown Philadelphia headquarters to fill up quickly. The company’s growing workforce has included adding thousands of employees through their acquisition of NBC Universal. As a result, there is talk around town about a new tower the company may build in Center City.
Although plans for expanding its commerical real estate holdings have not been fully released to the public yet, some say that they could be looking at several new towers to create a sort of vertical corporate campus.
For companies that are looking to expand within an urban area, it is important to keep in mind zoning laws for prospective sites, and to consider the needs of the community using the space surrounding a new building. This might mean included not only office space but also other amenities for the employees in their buidlings and surrounding buildings.
Previous plans for the site now being considered by Comcast included a mega-complex with office space, a hotel, shopping, movie theaters, and parking. However, those concepts were proposed before the recession and insiders now say that the project will be more modest but also more robust than a basic office building. Some sources have said that developers for the site have already met with a group of city building officials to find out what their options are for the site.
A local advocate for downtown improvement told reporters that new Comcast development would be a positive asset to downtown Philadelphia, where the City Center district has not expanded signficantly since the 1990s.
Source: Philadelphia Post-Inquirer, “Buzz builds on another Comcast tower,” Inga Saffron and Bob Fernandez, Sept. 13, 2013.
