What Becomes a Building Most?

Here's a lovely picture taken by someone who appears to live about two blocks from FCB World Headquarters. For those of you who are checking in from outside the Philadelphia area, the building on the left is the 30th Street train station. The building on the right is the new Cira Center, whose interesting architectural and lighting elements this picture does not quite capture.

I usually call the Cira Center the "No Tax Tower" because of its most interesting, if non-architectural, feature: As part of the deal to get it built, the area where the building stands was declared a "Keystone Opportunity Zone," and income from partnerships was exempted from both state and city taxes for 15 years. Many law firms are partnerships, and the management of Dechert and Woodcock Washburn, two large and very profitable City-based firms, quickly realized that some opportunity zones present more attractive opportunities than others. So they agreed to move a few blocks to the new building and -- poof -- now some of Philadelphia's highest-paid people (note that the tax break applies to partners, but not to the significantly lesser paid staff or even associates) won't be paying those pesky state and City taxes, which total a little more than seven percent, for another decade or so.

My application to make my dining room table a Keystone Opportunity Zone remains pending.