Fill This Front: 1725 Chestnut

1725 Chestnut Street

               Ok, so some folks think this is a cursed storefront unable to keep a tenant for very long, evidenced by how this place went from being Nextel Wireless to Goodburger to Famous Dave's to Moe's Southwestern Grill in a very short amount of time.
               Well, those people don't know shit. This location, 1725 Chestnut Street, definitely has the ability to hold onto a store. From 1982-2005, the Nathan Muchnick Audio/Video Store kept itself going in this very front. Before that, a music and later video store that went through a lot of names but closed as Video Place was there, and before that, a store called Music City occupied the space. That brings us all the way back to the early 60s, when it had been vacated by the first store to use this space after it had been overhauled into its modern configuration in 1955, Marshall Millinery.
               Therefore, though the place has seen 4 different stores in the last few years, before that, it only had four different occupants. That's crazy. To add insult to injury, this place has been completely empty now for well over a year.
                Another potential occupant, IT'SUGAR, the place you find in tourist traps where you can buy giant versions of candy bars and shit, applied for a permit for this location in December 2013. It either never happened or somehow, 9 months later, is still in limbo. This last April, the son of Nathan Muchnick sold the building to the NYC-based Midwood Management for $2.2 million.
               Wow-- $2.2 million? That's $367 per square foot! Obviously I'm not the only one who sees the value in this place. After all, its located on the 1700 block of Chestnut Street, only two blocks from Rittenhouse Row and has been catching new stores like flies lately. American Eagle Outfitters just moved in next door and Nordstrom Rack is coming in down the street. Uniqlo is under construction a block away. This little area is the shiznit!
               Let me put it like this:

            This is the storefront space at 1725 Chestnut, which consists of the 2000 square foot first floor and 2000 square foot basement. You also have the option of taking the 2000 square foot second floor, making 6000 total (roughly-- the building is 17'4" wide and 115' long). The place is entirely fit out as a restaurant and is available for immediate occupancy. This means you can just walk right in and start cooking shit! The location of this place is key-- very close to Rittenhouse Row, our highest-end shopping district. One block away from Liberty Place, which, in addition to a shitload of trophy office space with workers who make a shitload of money, there's also multi-million dollar condos with residents that have lots and lots of disposable income. Did I mention that Liberty Place also has a hotel?
             Even if all that shit wasn't there, you also have the entire Central Business District to the immediate North, lots and lots of monied residents to the immediate South. The area is VERY accessible by public transit, served by a countless number of bus lines, a whole bunch of trolley lines, and regional rail not too far away. Truly, it doesn't get much better than this for a location. Be like Nathan Muchnick. In 1982, he moved all the way from 52nd street and took a risk on this location and his store flourished there for 33 years, ten years after his own fucking death! Here's a song about this storefront by another guy from Philly named Nathan Muchnick (I'm thinking he's probably related):


               What the fuck are you scared of? Here's the listing for the place, which is being managed by CBRE | FAMECO. FILL THIS FRONT!!!