An “Available” sign now hangs on the Apple Storage building, again bringing into question the building’s future. (Photo by Mike Lyons)
Months of neighborhood drama accompanied the sale and re-zoning of the Apple Storage building to a developer who pledged to turn the hulking shell near 52nd and Baltimore into apartments. Now, six months after the plan won zoning approval, the building is back on the market.
Real estate developer Iron Stone proposed to convert the seven-story warehouse into 112 studio, one- and two bedroom apartments and retail space. The neighborhood group Cedar Park Neighbors, many business owners along Baltimore Avenue and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell supported the project. Meetings were held with neighbors who live near the building and feared their property taxes would increase as a result of the development. Iron Stone successfully navigated the often tricky zoning process.
Now the project appears to be on hold indefinitely.
Through a real estate agent, NAI Geis Realty Group, Iron Stone is marketing the building as a “fully approved student housing/apartment project” with an asking price of $2 million.
“They have a couple of other things in the pipeline,” said real estate agent Jack Byers from NAI Geis. “They just want to see if there is any interest.”
Byers said that very little of the planned renovation has been done so far.
The zoning requirements would transfer to the new owners if the building is sold. Here is more text from the marketing brochure (pdf link here):
“Apple Lofts is the next great student housing opportunity. Cedar Park represents stable housing stock in a quickly revitalizing up and coming market. This market is brimming with students seeking unique housing opportunities with off-street parking and supporting retail amenities near University of Pennsylvania and Drexel and St. Joseph’s Universities.”
October 12th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Somewhat related – does anyone know what ever happened with the Croydon development? Orens Brothers, who bought it, were initially projecting to have renters in by September.
October 12th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Yeah! Finally, more abandonment and blight, less jobs in West Philly!
October 12th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Great. A lot of us neighbors put effort into supporting that project, in part because of the developers’ pitch – we liked the plan and the assurances they gave us about parking & other concerns. Now they can’t get it done, so they put it on the block and leave the neighbors at the mercy of whoever comes along that thinks they can make a profit. Thanks a lot, Iron Stone. Next time you pitch a project in a neighborhood meeting, this will come up, and it won’t help your cause.
October 12th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
These people have no idea what they are doing. They clearly don’t understand the first thing about the local market, and probably never had the financial wherewithal in the first place. Luxury housing in that location was always a dubious proposal. Student housing is just as dumb – students will never live that far west – which may be just as well. Was the community or the zoning board ever told that this was intended as student housing? Is this a bait and switch? Probably not – just clueless outsiders.
October 13th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Maybe they just wanted the zoning permission in order to flip it and to make a quick profit, with no intention of actually doing the development.
“students will never live that far west”
Well if you take as data some longitudinal observations of who you see cluttering up the 34 trolley stops along Baltimore, the boundary for Penn/students has gone from 47th to 48th and at least 49th, in just a few years.
October 13th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Stacey – Good point about the Croydon. That is still slowly falling apart. Hopefully it will not ‘accidentally’ burn down.
I think the deal to build some kind of small complex on the parking lot on the SW corner of Spruce/49th has also stalled, or fallen through.
There was a spate of community meetings about both of these developments.
There’s also a gated community of ‘milk carton’ apartments up towards 48th and Lancaster, I was kind of surprised to see that there. I assume there are students living there.
October 13th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Miriam – dunno is you had any involvement with the process at all, but Iron Stone insisted otherwise and made a convincing pitch; part of what made their plans easy to support was that they already manage a bunch of apartment buildings around West & made a plausible case that they knew what the market – and the Baltimore Avenue corridor in particular – would support. They also assured us that they had the financing ready to go.
The local chat rooms are full of speculation that Jannie Blackwell & other political players killed the project with various demands. I certainly would like to know whether that’s true, but there’s not much reason to believe that Iron Stone would ever tell us.
What I *do* know is that Iron Stone made a lot of promises to the neighbors when they needed us – promises they’re not going to keep. I also know that the next time any developer wants to try to do something in this neighborhood, the forces of obstruction and opposition are now significantly empowered. Any developer can stand up there and paint all the rosy scenarios they want, and no matter how credible, people will be able to say, “Why should we believe you? We got suckered last time. Screw you. If it puts my property taxes up five cents, I’m against it.”
I’d like to know what Iron Stone spent on the whole project & process. If and when they sell the building, we can see if they made much of a profit. It seems unlikely but it’s not impossible that their strategy was just to win the zoning and flip it all along.
October 13th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Bill, I am also disappointed but there’s the third options that they really did have financing lined up at the time but that the delays and demands mucked it up and they lost it.
October 13th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
I’m not sure how much better/worse any other developer would be. Seems a moot point. They weren’t “luxury” apartments, they were decent new construction and their suggested rental prices were in line with a decent new rehab in house in the neighborhood. I think if Ironstone had been able to follow through, they wouldn’t have had a problem renting those apartments at all.
The thing is if the councilperson has put up all kinds of “informal” conditions on development that are impossible keep up its often easier to hand off the project to someone else who the councilperson can’t feel as free to put the squeeze on.
There is nothing to regret in giving that building zoning to become residential. It will never, ever be used as a freight depot for trains bringing milk and groceries from Springfield, Delaware County farms, that for sure.
Either it becomes residential eventually or it sits and rots empty for another 40 years before the city is forced to knock the crumbling shell down with our tax money. Those are the only realistic end options. Lets hope this does not mean the latter is what happens.
October 13th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Another housing development meant for college students not residents smh.Soon They will call the whole philadelphia ”univerity city”. What a shame
October 14th, 2012 at 11:18 am
Is the rent of the apartments paid? Do the occupants live there without disturbing or causing nuisance to neighbors? Does their landlord pay real estate taxes and utilities and maintain the property? Then WHO CARES what the majority occupation of the residents is?
Here is the real “problem” with this and other area developments: after those people graduate, some choose to stay in the area and make lives here. And after 10, 15 or more years of living here, they may tire of constantly being told that they’re not “real” residents, that they and their opinions don’t count and that they must respect the wishes of “real, original” residents over all else.
There is going to come a time, probably much sooner than even p fears, that they will band together and elect one of their own to public office. Not because they don’t believe in affordable housing, safe streets, clean parks, open libraries and pools, good schools and diverse, stable communities. No, it will be because they believe in and want all of that so much but at the same time understand that FUNDING those things require a TAX BASE and a city cannot grow its tax base while shutting out development.
October 14th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
It’s a shame to see so many negative posts about this situation. I thought this was a good idea to help bring more people to the area and produce more store fronts for small business. Store fronts that could be quickly rented, unlike the boarded up shells past 50th street. I thought more people here meant more people spending money in the community. I know i try and spend my money in the community. I moved here from south jersey because I like it here. There’s not too many places like this area. It’s unique in many ways.I would like to buy a house here and fix it up. If do that and pay my taxes and contribute in a positive way, I would consider myself a “real” resident or anyone else who does the same. But the negativity towards this sort of approach is disheartening. In jersey my taxes were thousands more than over here, but there were perks that came with that. The kind that “anonymous” mentions. There are so many buildings here that should be bought and fixed up to help encourage growth. The positive impact of that outways the negatives I believe. I have built new buildings and fixed old ones, I know what’s involved in both. I don’t intend to be offensive I just would like to offer a opinion to see if anyone else shares the same views. Just so I know what I’m getting into if I decide to buy here. Thanks
October 14th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
I’m not too surprised being it’s still a tough economy. I haven’t been paying full attention since I’m not in the area much these days.
October 14th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
It’s really discouraging to be sometimes surrounded by the attitude of, if your great-grandparents didn’t live here, you’re not actually a resident of this community. Especially when a lot of us Penn-affiliated people work so hard to take part in the community, frequent local businesses, and try to keep our time and money within the community. Maybe some people should stop being so mean and ungrateful, and extend a hand towards the rest of us “not-real residents.” We aren’t squatting here. We LIVE here, just the same as you do. <3
October 14th, 2012 at 9:59 pm
I am a small developer who lives in the neighborhood. I was looking forward to this project. I thought it would really enhance our community and be a catalyst for dealing with so much if the blight. After fighting with community groups for zoning support for close to a year to develop apartments on one of the worst blocks in Point Breeze, I have decided to longer invest and develop in Philadelphia. The hostile environment is too costly for a small business like mine.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:30 am
I had a storage unit in Apple years ago. Maybe my stuff is still in there and this delay will allow me to retrieve it.
But seriously, folks. Stop giving the developer so much credit. He got the zoning and probably secured the funding too. Then he convinced everyone to go with a property that had a bigger upside. He probably had that going from the beginning. It’s a business he’s running, not a community development non-profit. People only for money. You have to see that there was never an intention to build there.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:38 am
In many ways, the Apple Lofts zoning fiasco, where one individual was able to stall the process for several months, may signal the end of an era. Point Breeze, as LWD points out, has had similar problems but unfortunately to a much worse and nastier degree. The new zoning code requires that community organizations be registered and meet some basic criteria, such as actually being an organization of more than one person. I hope that the old bad elements are not allowed to infiltrate the new zoning process. Developers will be able to build more by-right and when requesting variances will be required to go before only legitimate and competently run community organizations.
For those unfamiliar with what happened with Apple Lofts, this article provides some background. http://www.citypaper.net/news/2012-04-05-community-achievement-association-shawn-kelly-west-philly.html There are rumors that the councilwoman may have mucked up the process further by requiring the developers to keep the first floor retail open for a year while she tries to find some agency in our broke government, in our broke city to put a senior center in there. You know, what every banker loves to see in a proposal requiring them to lend in the millions – 12 months of mandatory empty first floor retail.
October 15th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Thanks for the update on the Croydon, LW. So is is officially dead at this point? Such a shame to have these buildings abandoned and crumbling.
October 15th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Nope, I do not have any info on the Croydon, unfortunately, or on the parking lot that is opposite. All I can see is that nothing is happening. Seems a bit weird that there can be all this activity with meetings, and developers bringing plans, and council people showing up, and then nothing happens.
Thanks for the link Anonymous, an interesting if slightly weird tale.
Of course, in general, it is well known that perpetuating blight is one way for owners to get what they want at some point in the future (as in, anything is better than this eyesore).
October 16th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Oren Borthers
Main office:
4415 Chestnut St. – suite 202
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 222-4412 – office
(215) 387-1618 – fax
(215) 387-0800 – maintenance
Satellite office:
2200 Arch St. – suite 101
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 567-8888 – office
(215) 567-2013 – fax
E-mail: realestate@orensbrothers.com
http://orens.prospectportal.com/Apartments/module/website_documents/website_document%5Bid%5D/18845
October 16th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Since we’re on the subject, what’s the deal with the vacant lot across from the Green Line at 43rd and Baltimore? I heard something about it being owned by someone who lives in New York (don’t know if that’s true)… has there been any interest in developing this lot?
October 27th, 2012 at 6:33 pm
There’s been some activity at the Croydon over the past few days, a couple of blokes in construction hats taking the ply off the windows and pulling out the window frames. Seems a bit weird in view of the forecast for Sandy, or perhaps they think they are making the building safer (less ply to fly off in the winds, etc.)..