New Skyscraper Proposed Near Comcast Center

A rendering of the 1,500-foot tall American Commerce Center in Philadelphia. (Photo/acctower.com)

Walnut Street Capital has proposed a 63-story office tower in downtown Philadelphia that would be one of the 10 tallest buildings in the world, according to phillyskyline.com.

Known as American Commerce Center, the 1,500-foot tall tower would connect with a 26-story hotel and feature several floors of retail space. It would reportedly seek LEED Gold certification, the second highest level of sustainable design under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program for sustainable design. Architecture firm Kohn Pederson Fox has been hired to design the tower.

The project is slated on a 1.5-acre parcel at 1800 Arch St. on the corner of N. 18th St., a block away from the new 58-story Comcast Center, which is scheduled to deliver this spring.

Walnut Street Capital, a Philadelphia-based commercial real estate developer, purchased the site from Verizon in September for $30 million, according to CoStar information. Walnut said at that time it planned to develop a mixed-use project to compliment Comcast Center. "The 1800 block of Arch Street ... clearly falls within our sweet spot," Walnut Chairman and CEO Joe Grasso said at the time of purchase.

Verizon had planned to use the parcel to build a sister tower to the Bell Atlantic Building, however plans did not materialize. The site is currently used as parking lot.

The project could break ground in 2009, according to phillyskyline.com.