A rendering of the proposed Trolley Car Station restaurant at 40th Street Trolley Portal.
Update (April 8, 2016) – The Zoning Board of Adjustment approved the plan for the Trolley Car Restaurant following a March 29 hearing. Specifically, the ZBA approved a variance for the building as a sit-down restaurant. Construction is expected to begin this fall.
The public got a look at plans on Tuesday evening for the development of the 40th Street Trolley Portal, which includes a two-story, 125-seat restaurant with take-out beer and outdoor seating.
University City District officials and the owner of the Trolley Car Diner in Mount Airy presented the plans to the Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee and about a dozen members of the public.
Now an expanse of concrete criss-crossed with trolley tracks, the portal will be turned into a more navigable public space complete with moveable tables and chairs, enough racks to accommodate 48 bikes and “vegetation everywhere,” Nate Hommel, UCD’s director of planning and design, told the zoning committee. The trolleys will still run through it, but it will be more pedestrian friendly.
The centerpiece will be “Trolley Car Station,” the new restaurant, which will be located along Baltimore Avenue near the intersection with 40th Street. The building will set back from Baltimore and on land that is slightly elevated.
Real estate developer Ken Weinstein, who owns Trolley Car Diner and Trolley Car Café in East Falls, has been eyeing University City for several years.
“The reason I like this so much is that I think our branding that works in Mount Airy would work here,” Weinstein told the committee.
Trolley Car Station will include a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu and likely be open seven days a week and close at 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 p.m. on weekends. It will also have a variety of ice cream and take-out beers – Weinstein estimates 150 to 200 different kinds – that will be sold as mix-and-match six packs, much like the Local 44 Bottle Shop and a couple of other retailers in the neighborhood.
A rendering looking east from near 40th and Baltimore at part of the new public space at the 40th Street Trolley portal.
“We’re not selling 40s,” Weinstein said.
The building will include outdoor seating with service, a green roof and a large trellis that designers say will help blend it into the landscape.
UCD is paying for the $2.1 million renovation of the portal through money it raised for that purpose, including $30,000 to $40,000 raised from residents to pay for pavers. Private financing is paying for the restaurant. UCD is leasing the land for the whole thing from the city and will provide trash collection, maintenance and security.
Developers hope to break ground on the project by early fall and hope to have it all done, including the restaurant, by September 2017.
The next step is getting through the Zoning Board of Adjustment. That hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 30 at 2 p.m. at 1515 Arch Street, 18th Floor. The official address of the project is 3940 Baltimore Avenue.
– Mike Lyons
March 16th, 2016 at 11:10 am
Getting in before the inevitable “it’s so ugly!” and “it doesn’t fit with the community!” comments to say that that strip of Baltimore is being poorly utilized right now and I am a big fan of the idea of adding a restaurant and re-doing the portal.
March 16th, 2016 at 1:48 pm
This is awesome! They should also consider adding a safer cross walk to the Woodlands Cemetery from the trolley portal
March 16th, 2016 at 2:07 pm
@Jul
We raised exactly that question at the meeting and, while recognizing that the crossing is a problem, it is beyond the scope of the project. Worth lobbying for in the future though.
– Mike Lyons
March 16th, 2016 at 5:29 pm
Fantastic, and so far the renderings look nice, not ugly or out of context. A lot of vegetation will really help make the area appealing.
I agree about safe crosswalks — that goes for all the locations you have to walk across the tracks.
March 16th, 2016 at 10:56 pm
Will there be parking for the restaurant?
March 17th, 2016 at 12:11 pm
I hope the new plans include where to pile snow when it needs to be removed from tracks. R
March 17th, 2016 at 1:44 pm
To be sure, not everyone is thrilled with the proposed changes to the portal. I’m entirely unimpressed to the point that I’d say the proposal is stupid at best.
First, nothing I’ve seen presented pays any attention to the fact that the portal exists mostly for people to travel through. The pictures presented show nice gardens of greenery & boulders without a trolley or catenary wire in sight. I expect reality will be much less bucolic once SEPTA is allowed into the picture. There are simple things that could make the area much more pleasant for pedestrians, cyclists & SEPTA riders. If these issues aren’t addressed I wonder what the point is.
Stop allowing people to block pedestrian travel by parking on the sidewalks. Bollards or some of the artistic boulders could easily be used but there’s no sign that anyone has thought about it at all.
Despite a month of work last summer there is still a large puddle that covers the tracks in the sidewalk & bikelane area on the Woodland side after every heavy rain. It’s probably not doing the new tracks much good either.
Add traffic signals for the trolleys! It’s ridiculous that the trolleys have to wait for all other traffic to get in or out of the portal area. Signals linked to the trolleys could reduce delays & congestion & on the Woodland Side, provide safer pedestrian crossing.
In addition to the proposed changes not addressing real issues involving everyday use of the portal I also seriously question the appropriateness of a quasi-governmental agency that asks for donations from neighborhood businesses turning around and subsidizing a new business that will directly compete with existing businesses only blocks away.
March 17th, 2016 at 7:21 pm
This plan makes perfect sense to me. Dearly would I love to skip the latest installment of “Save University City’s Historic Blight”, the long-running New Left neighborhood soap opera that dates back to the 1960s!
There is no harm in noting that this barren transit plaza is & always been ugly as sin, overflowing with pointless pavement. While it may be a necessity, that does not make it a virtue.
I (& a lot of other W Philly denizens) think our trolley system is the cat’s meow! 4 trolleys disgorge there. It lies at the foot of a major shopping street. The location is a natural place for people like us to meet.
And Ken Weinstein is the kind of hipster-developer that should have a feel for University City. He’s a well-known community leader in Mt. Airy, which shares a lot of demographics with our beloved corner of West Philly.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:16 am
@Zaphod: With modest expectations like those and your hopes for incremental change, I am willing to bet you’re a Hillary Clinton supporter 😉 Seriously, though, greenery in place of pavement will help to solve the puddle problem that’s vexing you.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:18 am
@Mike: I hope this is a very funny joke like I think it is
March 19th, 2016 at 1:56 pm
@Mike, it’s a trolley portal, so I assume the trolley will be the best transportation to the restaurant.
March 21st, 2016 at 11:34 am
Will the zoning decision be made at the meeting on the 30th or will it take longer than that for a decision to be made?