New 3-story apartment building with ground floor retail space at 4619 Woodland Avenue (photos West Philly Local).

Commercial and residential changes in recent months are beginning to reshape a couple of blocks of Woodland Avenue a block from the south end of Clark Park. Here is a look at some of the developments:

• A boxy, 3-story apartment building next to Gold Star Pizza and Chicken with ground-floor retail at 4619 Woodland Ave. is complete. No businesses have opened in the storefronts yet, but the apartments upstairs, which are aimed at University of the Sciences students, are open for business. The retail rental seems pretty reasonable at $15 per square foot. The apartments range from two to five bedrooms and rents are reportedly running between $800 and $3,200 per month.

“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,” Ashley George from HOW Properties, the property manager, told West Philly Local back in April 2014. “There is not an abundance of student housing in the University of the Sciences West Philadelphia corridor.” 

• On the other side of Woodland, Lil’ Pop Shop just opened another retail location, which will include a bigger kitchen and a lot more baked goods and a more year-round appeal. “This will greatly impact the products we can make; it will better serve the neighborhood,” owner Jeanne Chang told us last week.

• A project that will vastly reshape that part of Woodland is still in the planning stages. The redevelopment of the Alexander Wilson School, which the School District of Philadelphia shuttered in 2013, will bring a lot more residential space (and likely retail) to the block. The University of the Sciences acquired the building last fall and plans to convert it to student housing and student-focused retail, the latest in a flurry of building projects on the USciences campus.