Breaking Ground at Cottman & Castor!

Dave and Elisa with their golden shovels.

all the people that make the projects happen

Clover in the mid 80s?

bringing the site into the 21st century

1954... the original

Dave, Elisa, Katie and Mike Schmitt have been working diligently for the last few months to get the Cottman and Castor job off the ground for Kimco Realty. This morning, ground was sort of broken for the project, if you count just holding a ceremonial golden shovel as breaking ground.  Other than no ground actually being broken, it was your typical celebratory event complete with all the local politicians and deal makers.  There was a ceremonial sledgehammer to take down some of the existing building.  Although this particular project isn't the most glamorous, it is a pretty big deal for the Great Northeast. What was once a Lit Brothers store eons ago, then a Gimbels, and then a Clover store, and then JC Penny for a short while, then just a vacant building for a long time, is now going to be given new life as a Burlington Coat Factory, a Bob's Discount Furniture and a soon to be TJ Maxx if everything goes as planned.  So the site has a long and storied history as a retail anchor in the Bustleton neighborhood.  This is a game changer for this area, which believe it or not happens to have the highest concentration of retail in Philadelphia outside of Center City.

Annual Phillies Outing

You need a drink before you see the Phils these days.

After a minor rain delay, the Phils got back to beatin on the Cubbies.

Butch hooking up the specials.

Serious Sergi and a photobombing Jose.

the Boss getting his birthday on.

If it seems like our office is a lot of fun, that's because it is.  In keeping with our yearly tradition, which started way back when the Phillies were actually good; last Thursday we had our annual JKR day at the Phillies.  This year was special in that it was also the Boss Man's 65th birthday.  He took full advantage of his newly granted senior citizen status and wisely got his subway ride to the ballpark for free. With age comes wisdom I guess. And like we always do, we all went back to our second favorite watering hole where we got our celebratory drinks.  The drinks taste much sweeter when the Phils win big. 

we do homes, and home brews

Believe it or not, Tim concocted some delicious booze in his basement over the last few weeks and he was gracious enough to share some with the good folks up in the holler.  The holler being his lunch crew. It was a rich full bodied Irish Red Ale.  For some reason he didn't tell anyone on the third floor. Either way, we're looking forward to the next batch out next week. And don't let that six pack label confuse you, this was legit.

La Vita e Bella

Fresh off the boat from Italy, Glenn Werner brought back some delicious ice cold limoncello for us all to enjoy...well, at least the few lucky ones that happened to be enjoying lunch on the deck with him.  I can't wait to see what Dave brings us when he comes back from his European vacation in a few weeks.  The standard has been set.

With spring, comes a new deck, new furniture, new flowers

After many years of walking out on the "dock," the tired deck boards could last no longer. If it lasted one more day, there could have been a slapstick comedy filmed up there with one of us stepping on a board,only to have it flip up and hit us in the face. The deck's days were numbered. The landlord graciously replaced the deck with a brand spankin new one, and then good things followed. An employee, (to remain nameless), pumped up the beauty factor with some fresh new flowers, and G-dubs and Michael Jack finally retired that pile of plastic and dirt we called patio furniture with some bangin' new deck furniture. Cuatro de Mayo watch out, we're having a deck party!

What Darth Vader would look like if he were on a survey

HOLY! A NEW DECK!

Izzo Here:  Good things happen to those who wait. It's been a long time coming, but we can finally say that we have a bangin' new deck! Not many people can say they have a deck in the city! I mean we sorta had a deck before, if you could call that sorry excuse of a pile of rotted out boards laying across some planks as a deck.  It was more like a rickety old dock.  Now it's a bona fide brand spankin' new deck! A deck to be envious of.  The usual crew christened it this afternoon with its ceremonial first lunch. 

DISASTER AT JKR PARTNERS

Tim Here: At approximately 11:37 this morning, JKR Partners was crippled by a devastating power outage.  Within minutes, chaos had spread throughout the office.  

David Urffer, Principal at JKR partners, is being lauded as a hero after his daring call to PECO, shortly after which all power was restored.  Thanks to Urffer, no casualties have been reported.

Many suspect that the power outage was the result of unannounced maintenance conducted by PECO. However, PECO could not be reached to either confirm or deny these allegations at the time of writing. 

Lunch on the deck

Izzo Here: Sometimes when the weather is nice, we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy lunch on the deck. I mean the deck could use, well, new everything, but the umbrella is a good addition.  But sometimes I get pretty bored eating on the deck because Greg and Schmitty aren't all that interesting, but it's still better than eating at my desk.  I'm just kidding... They're alright.

Roof Plank Is Here!!

Mike S. Here:  Glenn and I were out at our weekly construction meeting over at West Oak Lane Charter School.  The roof plank had finally arrived and was being put in place.  It will add much needed classrooms, computer lab, library and gym to the growing school.