February 24, 2026
Provided Image/Perkins Eastman
Brevet Capital has secured a $150 million loan to build a 36-story residential tower at 1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. Wharton Piers is slated to break ground in 2027 and will bring 620 units to the Delaware River waterfront in South Philly.
Plans to build a 36-story residential tower on the Delaware River waterfront will move forward in South Philly next year after a New York developer secured a $150 million loan for the project.
Brevet Capital closed the loan Tuesday with Spain's Banco Inbursa to start construction on Wharton Piers, a project that will bring 620 market-rate units to the waterfront. The site at 1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd., between Washington Avenue and Reed Street, also will include ground-floor commercial space and a neighboring one-story building intended for retail.
“The scale of the site, its waterfront location, and the opportunity to deliver high-quality housing and retail in a supply-constrained urban market make this a compelling development," Brevet Capital CEO Douglas Monticciolo said in a statement.
The developer aims to break ground in the first quarter of 2027 and finish the tower in 2029. The project is expected to be the first phase of a larger master plan that could bring "significant additional development" to the 8 1/2 acre site, Brevet Capital said. One rendering submitted to the city's Civic Design Review panel in December showed two other towers that are envisioned for the future.
Brevet Capital declined to comment Tuesday on the cost of the first tower and a potential timeline for further development of the site.
The waterfront property has been the subject of several proposed developments that failed to materialize over the past decade. K4 Associates, a real estate developer based in Maryland, once proposed a 280-unit apartment building as the first of 10 towers in a $1.2 billion plan meant to break ground in 2017. Another New York developer, Silverstein Properties, later proposed a pair of 22-story residential towers at the site in 2023.
Brevet Capital said its first tower will have 32 residential floors and three stories of parking — on the third through fifth floors — with 187 spaces. A surface parking lot will have another 100 spaces. Since the project was first proposed and discussed at a community meeting in the fall, the developer also has added plans for 15,000 square feet of outdoor public space that will include walking trails and pier access.
Other plans include 15,000 square feet of amenity space on the fifth floor and an upper-level pool that will offer views of Center City.
New multifamily construction in Philadelphia fell to a 12-year low in 2025 after years of residential expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city's underutilized Delaware River waterfront, a perennial target for development proposals, has seen a handful of major projects welcome tenants in recent years on the northern end of the river in Northern Liberties and Fishtown.
The Rivermark brought 470 units to the former Festival Pier music venue on North Christopher Columbus Boulevard two years ago, and PECO's century-old power station near Penn Treaty Park was converted into the Battery apartments that opened in 2023. The Northbank townhome and apartment community also has brought hundreds of homes to waterfront.
Plans further south have been slower to take hold.
Near Penn's Landing, New York-based developer the Durst Organization won a bid in 2020 for a $2.2 billion waterfront development. The mixed-use project, which calls for a dozen new buildings at two waterfront sites, has made little progress since the bid was awarded by the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. That development would bookend either side of the Park at Penn's Landing that will cap Interstate 95 in the coming years.
Land along the southern Delaware River has been eyed by developers for decades, including the Columbus Boulevard site where the proposed Foxwoods Casino was defeated in 2010. A Giant grocery store now anchors that property, but residential proposals over the years have not advanced.
The Navy Yard, where the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers meet, also is viewed as a promising site for residential development. Korman Communities recently opened AVE Navy Yard, the first residences built at the formal military base since its transformation into an office and manufacturing district. The $285 million project has a total of 614 apartments.
Brevet Capital expects the start of Wharton Piers to be a turning point for residential and commercial development on the southern end of the Delaware River.
"Our focus is on executing this initial phase to a high standard while creating a vibrant, publicly accessible waterfront environment that will serve both residents and the surrounding community," Mei-Li da Silva Vint, chief commercial officer at Brevet Capital, said in a statement.
