And cheap. He notes Frederica Massiah-Jackson, presiding judge of Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas, bought a unit in the tower for $330,000 last year, less than half the initial asking price for units in the complex. "You think Ira Lubert has this good a view? Or my friend Tom Kline?"
Five years ago it was investment moguls like Lubert, senior law partners like Kline, corporate bosses, and the occasional celebrity athlete and rock star who were grabbing the multimillion-dollar condos in Center City.
Now that prices have crashed, the fact Philadelphia judges can afford to live in places designed for people like the law partners who fund Pennsylvania judicial campaigns is a kind of recession democracy, though it doesn't extend to most of their constituents.
"I may buy 10 of these" Waterfront Square condos, Herdelin told me, provoking a broad smile from veteran sales rep Debbie Centofanti.
He flashed me his Beneficial Bank deposit statement, which has so many digits that, if he closed his account today, his local branch manager would have some explaining to do.
Herdelin says he recently sold a home in Loveladies, where the neighbors included the people who run Comcast Corp. and used to run Commerce Bank, for $15 million. He's looking for buyers for another sand castle, in Avalon, for nearly $12 million.
The lead mortgage holder on Waterfront Square's south tower, Ullico (Union Labor Life Insurance Co.), last month hired developer David Grasso to revive sales. The complex is home to the Eagles' Mike Vick and Sixer star Thaddeus Young, but in the south tower 115 of 176 units remain unsold.
