Rendering of 4619 Woodland Avenue, courtesy of HOW Properties.
More apartment buildings are in the works on Woodland Avenue. West Philly Local already wrote about the plans to rehab the vacant Wilson Elementary school building at 46th and Woodland and turn it into a residential complex. There is another construction going on a little further west on Woodland, near 47th Street (thanks to readers who alerted us about it). So here’s what we found out about that project.
HOW Properties, a locally owned and operated real estate management firm, is constructing a three-story, 16-unit building at 4619 Woodland Avenue that will primarily serve the living needs of University of the Sciences’ (USP) students, HOW property manager Ashley George told West Philly Local. The 20,000 square foot complex will have a mix of two-, three-, four-, and five-bedrooms, with only one studio (and no one-bedrooms) available that range from $800 to $3,200 a month, although those prices may alter next year.
According to George, the company did not include one bedrooms in the Woodland Avenue complex based on feedback it received while conducting research prior to starting the project, which launched in February. Students, she said, expressed a want for units with multiple bedrooms.
“Our vision for building in the University City area is to bring a higher quality of housing to neighborhoods, which may be in need of additional housing options,” George told West Philly Local. “There is not an abundance of student housing in the University of the Sciences West Philadelphia corridor.”
There is also one commercial retail space available on the ground floor. HOW Properties currently does not have a tenant marked for the space, but they are hoping to work with USP to “find a beneficial tenant for the area and the residents of the building.” ” We would also like to contribute great retail/commercial space to the areas and create opportunities for small businesses to succeed,” George told West Philly Local.
The project was originally slated to finish this August, but HOW decided to delay completion until next summer after hearing student feedback during an information session on USP’s campus last week. According to George, while the feedback was “responsive and excited,” many students also noted that they already signed leases for the 2014-2015 school year. HOW realized there was potential for not leasing apartments to students in time for August 2014, George said.
HOW Properties are also constructing other buildings in the University City area: complexes at 3862 Lancaster Avenue, to be complete in August 2014, as well as 3221 Spring Garden Avenue and 4812 Baltimore Avenue, which will both be complete beginning of next month.
–Annamarya Scaccia
April 14th, 2014 at 1:27 pm
So how would this project, a private venture, be able to lease preferentially to USciences students?
April 14th, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Nice. We need more affordable housing units for the working poor and lower-middle class as well.
April 14th, 2014 at 6:14 pm
UGLY I wonder if it was designed to be ugly, or did they just get lucky? I think we as a neighborhood deserve better, much better. Too bad the students apparently don’t care where their money goes.
April 15th, 2014 at 10:18 am
Yes, I know when I was a student on a limited budget aesthetic qualities were on the top of my apartment shopping list.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:25 am
I, for one, could not be more grateful for all the new development coming to University City. Rent has been rising so much so quickly I can no longer afford to live in this neighborhood I’ve lived and loved in for nearly a decade. I love it here but I’m one of the many being priced out (us ‘gentrifiers’ are being ‘gentrified’! HA!). I feel like a lot of people who complain about development in West Philly don’t understand basic economic concepts, like supply and demand. There is currently less housing in this section of West Philadelphia then there are people who want to live here. This causes prices for housing to rise. One way to mitigate this increase is to build more housing. Preferably more housing then we currently need. Now, I don’t think all these developments are perfect. I would like them (like this one) to be more student centered (as opposed to luxury) as that is our greatest need. Aesthetics are of concern but, let’s face it, very subjective. I for one would like to see some low income/mixed income component to all these developments to keep a mixed socio-economic population in the neighborhood. But to be against any development at all is backward thinking. If you want to see what happens to a place if you eschew density during a population surge in favor of your pretty old houses just take a good hard look at San Francisco. The irony is if you allow nothing to change in neighborhood everything WILL change!
April 15th, 2014 at 11:28 am
(By the way that comment was not directed at anyone commenting on this thread just what I’ve really wanted to say reading my neighbors comments about development over the past year or so).
April 15th, 2014 at 1:22 pm
Bianca, your argument makes sense in a purely abstract terms. However, the housing market is based on speculation rather than mere supply and demand. Many new developments in University City are not interested in bringing median rates down. A lot of new development is either centered on student housing (which is usually rented on the higher end of the spectrum) or luxury units designed for young professionals who work for universities and hospitals or empty nesters. The latter two categories have typically lived in the suburbs rather than inner city. But now with the upper middle class professionals moving back into cities in droves, developers are following suit by building what they call luxury units which usually go for above market value. This is what happened in Manhattan over the last 20 years. Zoning changes allowed developers to tear down four story buildings so that they can build humongous condo buildings, some of them are only held as investments for foreign investors. Of course, West philly is not Manhattan, thank god It is just a counter example to the notion that increased development is not necessarily related to rent stabilization.
April 15th, 2014 at 3:23 pm
Nope Lawrence, Philadelphia does not have a special exemption from the basic economic laws of supply and demand. Opposing new development won’t keep demand from continuing to rise. Increase demand and flat supply means prices rise. Increased demand and increased supply will keep prices flat or may even cause them to fall.
http://thisoldcity.com/advocacy/graduate-hospital-and-northern-liberties-rents-went-down-last-year
April 16th, 2014 at 2:02 pm
I wouldn’t say that the picture of the new developmenr is “ugly.” Maybe it would be ugly in comparison to the original Victorian style homes that’s been in University City for over a hundred years. They simply don’t make them like they use to. I find it so important to preserve the properties in U-city that they can. The detail and the brick by brick construction is incomparable. Today’s buildings seem to be constructed in a hurry. Time is money I assume.
To live in a comparable neighborhood like University City in let’s say Brooklyn,NY, would cost at the very least, twice as much as what you’d pay here. I just hope that Philadelphia doesn’t totally become a refugee camp to those who are priced out of NYC. Supply and demand will dictate.
When I told my Brooklynite girlfriend what I pay rent for my apartment in University City, she was floored. You should hear her try to explain the convenience of the trolley’s subway surface operations to her family, it’s hilarious! The more time I spend in Brooklyn, the more grateful and proud I am of Philadelphia and what a diamond in the rough it is.
April 16th, 2014 at 2:44 pm
Lawrence… this is true not just in the abstract but in the very concrete reality of our cities current housing/rental market (and not Manhattan’s market, which is apples/oranges. San Francisco is a better comparison). When you make it hard to build density in an area what happens is developers will buy up existing, lower priced properties and rehab them to rent out at higher rates. This lowers the overall supply of cheaper housing. This is happening in this neighborhood right now. While I have already stated my preference for more mid-priced and mixed income development even NEW and DENSE luxury development can have a stabilizing effect (because its not drawing on the existing housing stock). And I think you are very wrong about student housing, in this neighborhood especially. Yes, these new student centered developments are more expensive but what they will do is get the students out of the Old Victorians and into new, modern buildings (which is what they generally want anyway) freeing up the Victorians for the non-student residents who are here partly because of the aesthetic of the neighborhood. With enough new development that caters to students and young professionals this should stabilize the prices on the older houses. “Nope” up there provides you with some very concrete numbers. Neighborhoods that have had a lot of development like Graduate Hospital and University City have seen dramatic drops. Even Nolibs/Fishtown which has got to be one of the fasting growing sections of the city saw a 1% drop because they have been keeping pace with the growth with a ton of new development. Not surprisingly Cedar Park saw the biggest jump with practically no new development. Now I’m not saying we should just develop without a solid plan for how we want this neighborhood to look in the future and I’m certainly not advocating tearing down our beautiful housing stock to make room for high rises. But demonizing density and new development where appropriate is wrongheaded, ill-informed and will actually succeed in changing our neighborhood MORE if we build nothing. Many people in this neighborhood seem to think that “if we build it they will come”. But they are already here! And continuing to come so we need someplace to put them. 🙂 Lastly, I would love to hear your plan for stabilizing housing costs in this neighborhood? Perhaps there is another alternative to development I have not thought of.
April 17th, 2014 at 1:04 am
I’m not sure exactly how “Southwest Philly’s Main Street” is somehow in West Philly? Really, this isn’t even remotely close to Baltimore Ave.
Still, I’m glad to see development moving this far along Woodland Ave. That thoroughfare has too many abandoned or missing houses and underutilized buildings. Plus I would love to see the Woodland turned into a legitimate theatre again someday.
April 17th, 2014 at 8:19 am
“Not remotely close to Baltimore Ave?”
It’s only 4 blocks away: Baltimore, Springfield, Chester, Kingsessing, Woodland.
Sure, Woodland and Baltimore span into arguably different territories of West and SW, but 46th is only a few blocks from where they converge at the trolley portal.
April 17th, 2014 at 10:10 am
Four blocks away might as well be a mile, and you know that. Also, it’s not even close to being a few blocks from that. That happens at 39th St, a full 7 blocks away, and after about 40th St, Woodland plunges south at such a sharp angle that there’s no way you could say anywhere west of the Woodlands Cemetery is West Philly. Take a walk north from 46th & Woodland to 46th & Baltimore sometime and tell me they’re close. Once you go immediately south of Baltimore Ave, the direction of the streets completely changes, so I don’t know how all of that is supposedly West Philly when it clearly is pointing southwest.
It’s not even close to that. It’s well south of that. You’re just trying to annex land from SW by claiming the “RR tracks” are the boundary when they aren’t. Kingsessing Ave is well into SW Philly so how are you going to claim this is West when it’s below that? Contrary to popular belief, SW doesn’t start with the Kingsessing neighborhood.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:53 pm
Long ago before realtors, PAS, and Penn pushed their marketing scheme West Philly started once you crossed the Schuylkill river. Then one day University City came to pass, and kept inching along well past 40th and Market Streets. Kingsessing was always part of West Philly. Even in time of Clarence H. Clark. Call it what you will. Soon University City will stretch all the way to the bloody zoo. Then Parkside will be called something else too. Then they’ll have to come up with a new name, code for bad part of town… until it becomes useful to the landholders and money changers.
April 18th, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Nobody: I’m not sure what your quibble is, but I’m not trying to annex anything for anyone. I’m not even arguing the SW/West Philly/Ucity divide. I was just pointing out that this intersection is geographically closer to Baltimore Ave than it is to the stretch of Woodland I think of as the “main street of SW,” i.e. mid-60’s blocks.
BTW, I live south of Baltimore (in SW Philly, by my reading of the map). I’m aware of the grid’s tilt and thankful for it. We get more sun. 🙂
April 19th, 2014 at 11:54 am
Sorry “Thatguy” but no part of Kingsessing is in West Philly, and West Philly is not everything west of the Schuylkill anymore. A lot has changed in 20 years, let alone 50, let alone 100.
Schmoe, it’s nowhere near Baltimore Ave compared to the only part of Woodland one could actually consider “West Philly”. Either way my point was it’s not even “on the border”; it’s solidly in Southwest. The Planning Commission defines Southwest Philadelphia as everything west of 51st St south of Baltimore Ave, and from 49th & Springfield the boundary goes down 49th to Kingsessing Ave, east along Kingsessing to 46th, and then south along 46th to Paschall Ave and finally to Grays Ferry Ave. Southwest CDC further includes USP as a part of Southwest. Either way, no matter how you slice it this is Southwest Philly. To a lot of people, once you cross 43rd on Woodland, you’re in Southwest.
Why this matters is because instead of this being great news for Southwest Philly, which it should be, it’s instead just another development in “West Philly”. I have no problem with the name University City and think it’s perfectly accurate given the three major universities within its boundaries. I have a problem with University City somehow automatically meaning “West Philly” when University City is clearly made up of two separate sections of the city. Developments like this should show people how nice parts of Southwest are, not push the boundary of West Philly further and further south or southwest.
April 20th, 2014 at 2:52 pm
They close a school down to turn into housing for college students? Yup this makes plenty of sense. If one doesn’t know what they are planning to do to urban residents of Philadelphia, then your blind, I notice many areas are changing not for the best for residents who are from the area but for ”rich, wealthy” people who aren’t from the area. This is just another development to push residents out the area its ashame
April 21st, 2014 at 6:07 pm
As they have been doing, the newcomers will continue to improve the neighborhood.
April 22nd, 2014 at 9:39 am
You know what pushes rental residents out? USP students cramming into the little houses south of Woodland because they can’t find apartments nearby. THAT causes the house rental rates to rise. Does anyone here complaining have any understanding of supply and demand?
April 22nd, 2014 at 12:06 pm
Okay nobody… I guess you’re okay with red lining too? Systematically keeping a working family from buying a home because you don’t want them around. @guest your comment stinks of ignorance. The folks that have been living in our communities long before the newcomers though it was charming where the ones that kept things going in the neighborhood, people who talked to each other. People who believed in equity and fairness. Boy there is lots of fake morality and liberalism all over the place. If you want homogony go somewhere else. It happened to south street, and now west philly. What a sad state.
April 22nd, 2014 at 3:04 pm
“The folks that have been living in our communities long before the newcomers though it was charming where the ones that kept things going in the neighborhood, people who talked to each other. People who believed in equity and fairness.”
…You mean the Lenapehoking?
May 9th, 2014 at 10:02 pm
Oh now that’s funny right there. So now because I educate Thatguy, who seems to think he’s an expert on a place he’s not even remotely from, now I’m okay with redlining? Considering I’m from a working class neighborhood, I’d say it’s plainly obvious I’m against redlining, just as I’m against people like you trying to take from one section and give to another just because you’re scared of the name Southwest or because it doesn’t seem as glamorous to you. You’re a joke.
It’s Southwest kid. Get over it.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:04 am
I don’t care for this project. I have been a resident of this neighborhood for over 30 years. The changes while are nice they do not accommodate the people who are here now. Once they are completed the value of the other properties will go up and the residents who live there now will not be able to afford the property nor the taxes. All the students are worried about is their housing and the property owners are worried about the profit. What about the people already there.
November 24th, 2014 at 11:54 am
The people already there are more likely to be pushed out by students driving up the existing rental market if no new housing is built than if it is. As long as there is a growing university located in, cough, cough, SW Philly they are going to rent the housing that exists on the rental market. If you want lower rents, blocking them form building student housing is not how you pursue that goal.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:22 pm
The people already there probably would also enjoy having schools that are better funded. New housing equals more property taxes without raising anybody elses, equals less chronically broke schools.