Crews today were wrapping up the demolition of a cluster of two-story buildings that housed apartments and a couple of small businesses next to the 46th Street El stop.
The demolition has been licensed by the city, but so far there is no word on what, if anything, will be built on the site. New York Fried Chicken and a Donuts Plus were located in the building. The demolition leaves the west side of S. Farragut between Market and Ludlow streets vacant.
By the way, if you are wondering about construction or demolition work near your home, the City’s Department of Licenses and Inspections has a fairly robust property search feature on its website. Just enter the address of the property in question into the “Property History” search window and it will (usually) show you any licenses, permits or violations associated with the property.
The view from Farragut Street toward the EL stop at 46th Street as a crew wraps up the demolition.
The view (via Google Street View) of the intersection before the demolition.
November 29th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Why did they tear that down?
November 29th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
The demolition also included a stretch of four or five row homes that were boarded up and condemned for at least the four years that I’ve lived near the 46th Street El stop.
November 29th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
A few years ago, there were plans by the Enterprise Center for a large development on that block called Enterprise Heights, or something similar. I have no idea if that’s still the case.
November 29th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
As far as I know the land will be prepared for development by the Enterprise Center, although building is on hold until an anchor tenant can be found.
November 29th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Yes, this demolition is n preparation for our Enterprise Heights development. It will be a 4-5 story office building with ground floor retail. We are seeking anchor tenants and financing now. I’m always happy to discuss this and our other projects. I’ve been pretty busy with the Center for Culinary Enterprises, but now that is complete and open, I’m turning my attention to Enterprise Heights. Feel free to drop me a line any time at 215-895-4075 or gheller@theenterprisecenter.com.
November 29th, 2012 at 6:01 pm
Glad to see preparation for a good change. I only wish that little street would get somewhat wider considering all the heavy [buses as well] traffic it takes. I trust there will be some improvement that way as well.
November 29th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Been watching it come down for a few weeks, and it looks so much nicer without those delapidated buildings. Very excited to see the new one go up. Yay, Enterprise Center!
November 29th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Something else to move the low- income people out smh probably going to be something for college students
November 29th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Uh p, you don’t know what the Enterprise Center is?
“Founded in 1989 by the Wharton Small Business Development Center, The Enterprise Center provides access to capital, building capacity, business education and economic development opportunities to high-potential, minority entrepreneurs. Through our portfolio of business-acceleration initiatives, TEC seeks to better position minority enterprises to compete in the local, regional, and global economies.”
Do you really live in West Philly? Starting to wonder…
November 29th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
TEC sounds pretty rad. I do a lot of education/outreach showing people how to use computers and write resumes and apply for jobs. It is much needed. For those who have those things mastered, it’s great to have a place coming about for them to take that next step and start their own business.
I hope you can find good tenants for the ground floor. It would be nice to have an affordable cafe/food place there. They could get their produce from that little farm down the street.
November 30th, 2012 at 12:38 am
p also posted the same thing on the squirrel rescue thread.
November 30th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Fingers crossed that ground-floor retail includes a place or two open late. It’s good to have more eyes on the street instead of a closed dark corridor.
November 30th, 2012 at 10:09 am
GoldenMonkey, we’ll do our best. We are committed to trying to bring good businesses to the community. With the culinary center I turned down offers from chain businesses to lease space, because it’s our mission to support locally-owned businesses that can contribute positively to the community. We have the same goal for this project. Stay tuned, and as always feel free to drop me a line if you have questions.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:34 am
Thanks!
I’ve worked with Ms. Clark in the past and have full faith in the EC.
November 30th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Says: Actually I was born and rasied on 46st, I’m one of the originals. Honestly what has enterprise do for the community? From being from the area the only Black own business they had were the deli, and the record store and they tore that down to put the train station. So if you would be kind I would really like to know what ”minority” bussiness there are? I really hate that word
November 30th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
FYI, regular readers will recall from earlier threads that “p” left the neighborhood in part due to unacceptably high levels of “white do-gooderism.” Keep that grain of salt handy when reading his/her comments.
As for the Enterprise Center, I had the chance to interview director Dellah Clarke this summer about the EC’s plans for that area. In a nutshell they see it as an underused spot ripe for residential, commercial and cultural development, due to the transit connections and the expanding job opportunities at the new institutions in the area – the Youth Study Center, the health center at 48th, etc.
Clarke told me that she feels 46th/Market could be more of a “gathering place” for residents of the Walnut Hill neighborhood, and she was particularly interested in expanding its culinary offerings, reasoning that food is something that brings everybody together across racial/cultural boundaries – something that’s important in a diverse ‘hood like Walnut Hill, which is home to African Americans, Asians, Indians and Pakistanis, and whites of the do-gooder and non-do-gooder variety.
November 30th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
That was a different WPL crank, Bill. It’s hard to keep them all straight.
November 30th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
What@bill
November 30th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
And we aren’t african Americans either, that’s something that the europeans came up with
November 30th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Greg,
Any idea when you’ll start buidling? Do you have a projected opening date? Thank you.
November 30th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
JD, not yet. We are still in the early phase of seeking tenants and assembling financing. In the next six months the program and schedule should become clearer. In the meantime, we’ll do our best to keep the lot clean and well maintained.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
I am just so pleased to see a.) plans for community improvement, and b.) another battle against the blight. This makes my night! 🙂
Also, I think it’s best that we all just ignore “p” in general and stop feeding the troll. It’s really sad, that this person, regardless of race or socioeconomic class or anything else, prefers blight and ugliness and community depression over positive improvement. But this person is an outlier and has never had anything constructive to add to any exchange. Take a moment to pity this person, and then move on.
December 1st, 2012 at 2:01 pm
It’s reality. nothing fiction. It’s something that most people are blind to see on what’s really going on in their community. It’s always going to be that way rather if you say it’s not, but it is. We live in America, if one is smart then they will know the truth. ”Kate” I never said anything about me perfering for ”ugliness and community depression”. I would love for positive improvement,but just for people that already live here, not for people who parents are rich and go to a ivy league school. I would like to see something for the children to do in the area. There’s nothing positive for the children to do in the area, There building a prison, moving the police headquarters to the building on 46th st, Which before in the building there were all kinds of education sources for all people. In closing my statement, I personally don’t think a cafe, or a produce junction should be on 46th market, like come on. After school activties, tutoring, sports something in that nature, to bring the less fortured kids up, maybe this is something to keep them out of trouble, and not getting judge for negative things as everybody thinks of us
December 1st, 2012 at 6:59 pm
All of the below are projects of the Enterprise Center CDC. Proud to have them in our neighborhood.
Walnut Hill Community Farm (fresh food access and employment of local youth):
http://www.westphillyfood.com/food/
Walnut Hill Community Playground:
http://mapofplay.kaboom.org/playspaces/10931-walnut-hill-community-playground?utm_source=psf&utm_medium=se-redirect
Center for Culinary Enterprise (provides licensed commercial kitchens to budding food entrepreneurs:
http://philafood.net/wp/
Walnut Hill Street Team (local employment and local outreach):
http://citizensplanninginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Walnut-Hill-Street-Team_One-pager.pdf
December 2nd, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Since the chicken place was rarely open, the only real casualty here was the Donuts Plus. One of the employees there now works at the location on Chestnut, the others had to find other work, so I hope they’ve had luck.
I understand that some people are concerned about development pushing out long time residents, but as GoldenMonkey pointed out, the other buildings in that row were condemned for years. Additionally, the two empty lots had some interesting debris in them from time to time. As someone who uses the El everyday, I look forward to a safer (and hopefully better lit) block.
December 3rd, 2012 at 11:51 am
If I understand correctly the idea is to develop retail and businesses upstairs that will
a). bring jobs to the whole community
b). make that corner a little more active and less empty feeling which seems like it would be a win for anyone who catches the el there.
Can’t see either of those being a bad thing for any “longtime residents” or newcomers.
December 3rd, 2012 at 4:36 pm
I find it funny how no matter what the story is, the comments always turns into a battle of who is a ‘real’ resident of west philly.
February 6th, 2013 at 10:54 pm
Although making excellent points about youth needs, p: should be just as concerned about the embarrasing grammatical and spelling errors.