Retail, a signature restaurant, seven floors of valet parking and a spa will take up the bottom 14 floors. The hotel will run from the 16th through the 27th floors, and condos will occupy the 28th through 58th floors.
The hotel is expected to open in the summer of 2012; at 670 feet, it would be the sixth-tallest building in the city.
"There's nothing stopping the demographic trend, with the baby boomers coming to the city and wanting that urban lifestyle," Mahoney said.
He also could use a healthier economy.
Donald J. Trump, for one, is having a tough go making a similar project happen. A Wall Street Journal report yesterday said Trump was struggling to sell high-end condo units in his 92-story hotel tower in Chicago.
The credit crisis has forced other hotel projects planned for Center City, including one at 12th and Arch Streets and another at 1601 Vine St., to delay construction.
Occupancy is down for several Center City hotels, industry watchers say, and the luxury-condo market has also cooled. The Waldorf would add to a crowded field of top-tier residences that includes Two Liberty and Symphony House.
The 48-story Residences at the Ritz Carlton tower, with 270 units that start at $600,000 each, opens in early December.
"Typically, mixed-use projects such as this one require a certain level of condominium presales to finance the overall project," said Peter Tyson, vice president of PKF Consulting, who focuses on the region's hospitality industry. "So the ability to get the entire project under way will depend on the project's ability to presale the condominium units."
Mahoney acknowledged he was facing tough conditions.
