This Building Was Slotted to Become Philly's Newest Boutique Hotel

This past summer a local Philadelphia architect was approached by a potential client to investigate the necessities for converting this historic building from a skateboard shop into a luxury boutique hotel to cater to the Old City tourism market.

Last I heard the project was moving ahead through the design development process.

I am rather curious whether the project moved far enough ahead to secure funding prior to the relative collapse of American and world financial systems. In recent months many projects have been put off (some for a brief time ... others indefinitely).

Depending on how you look at it these delays are either a boon or a blight. Current estimates from professionals within the building industry and from outside analysts estimate that the building industry markets will not stabilize until the middle of March 2009 at the earliest. Perhaps surprisingly, these estimates are applicable both to much of the US and Canada as well as to the UK.