The small building at 46th and Walnut that has housed a halal food store and convenience stores over the years has been torn down to make room for an apartment building likely aimed at students.
University Realty bought the parcel at 4525 Walnut St. in January 2014 and confirmed that it will build a 40-unit apartment building on the site. The parcel is zoned CMX-2, meaning that an apartment building with limited commercial or retail space is permitted on the site. University Realty does not have to go through Zoning Board of Adjustment or seek community approval for its building plans. The building will have a maximum height of 38 feet.
The building’s last tenant, Mohamed’s Halal Center (pictured left), closed in the summer of 2012, and the building has been vacant since then.
A spokesman for University Realty said he was unsure when the building might be ready for occupancy.
– Mike Lyons
March 13th, 2015 at 4:03 pm
Instead of MORE student housing, why not expand the disabled/senior (section 202/811) housing that’s next door. There is a huge need for such affordable housing. Clean, safe, decent 1 bedroom accessible units.
Why should the people living next door be subjected to even more college students, especially right next door to them?
March 13th, 2015 at 5:12 pm
I was hoping for one of those new Target Expresses that I read were planned for Center City and University City, or a decent grocery store! Oh, well …
March 13th, 2015 at 5:44 pm
@mizz, beggars can’t be choosers. Yes, affordable housing for disabled/senior individuals is important. But I don’t think living next to college students is something that these people can complain about when they’re already getting reduced cost housing. Plus, I doubt many undergraduates will want to live all the way out on 46th St, so this will be mostly grad students, who tend to be quieter and better neighbors.
Also, this building has been vacant for several years, and the funds for section 8 housing are not available. Would you rather this lot sit unused than have new apartments on?
March 13th, 2015 at 7:20 pm
is this going to be built based on the existing zoning (by right)? I wonder why I’m so sure this will look like crap even without seeing any drawings. I might actually prefer that nothing be built here instead of yet another factory to make the owners cash w/o giving anything back to the environment. Maybe I’ll be wrong but I expect to see a parking lot with a 4 story brick blob sitting along the back edge, a race to the bottom.
March 13th, 2015 at 7:52 pm
This is excellent news. One less suburban-style store blighting the neighborhood. I hope campus housing has some foresight to build ground floor retail space there. It’s a great location down the road from the el. Don’t waste your time mourning this building.
March 13th, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Correction: I hope University Realty has some foresight…
March 13th, 2015 at 8:42 pm
When I was homeless, the people in this building when it was a halal store used to let me use their outlets to charge my phone. Back in the good ol’ days hahaha
But yeah, ground floor retail space would be an excellent idea.
March 14th, 2015 at 10:51 am
There is no parking included in the zoning requirements. Add this to the 21 units that just got dropped in across 46th St from this site, also with no provision for parking….
March 14th, 2015 at 11:46 am
And how many undergrads and graduate students own cars? The millennial generation this is aimed at are driving less than their baby boomer parents. Also, this is less than three blocks from the 46th Street stop on the Market Frankford Line.
March 14th, 2015 at 11:51 am
Take a look in the block of 46 th just below Walnut. It is not in zone two, so there is no time limit. It is almost entirely student cars . It is almost entirely or-of-state cars… O taxes paid to the City or to the State.
March 15th, 2015 at 8:32 am
There’s simply no reason to build parking in an urban apartment complex that is close to transit. It keeps the cost of construction down and the rents lower, and attracts primarily residents without cars.
March 15th, 2015 at 11:04 am
This sounds like it might be yet another parking war, where both sides are partially right and nobody wins. I wish more people were concerned with what this new building will look like and what can be done to pressure the owners to care about the built environment.
March 15th, 2015 at 2:17 pm
Don’t students have to register and plate their cars in PA at some point? Or can they drive around with out-of-state plates indefinitely?
March 15th, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Why don’t they build a Target Express at the old printing place at 4100 Sansom? They just wrapped up a Hilton hotel there a couple of years ago.
March 16th, 2015 at 9:45 am
what the article doesn’t mention is that also last week a series of houses went up across the street on 46th — there had been abandoned homes there for a number of years which burned down several years ago and were razed leaving an empty, fenced off lot. Last week a crane arrived and dropped in some what look like prefab 2 or 3 story houses. I can’t complain about abandoned space being replaced by not-abandoned space. I hope it improves the retail in the area. There are still a lot of vacant lots in the adjoining blocks for many other things.
March 16th, 2015 at 2:59 pm
@LW, No they don’t have to get PA plates. As long as you keep the tags up in whatever state, you can have out-of-state plates indefinitely. Though if the tags are expired, you will get tickets from the PPA. And if you want a parking permit for a zone, you do have to have PA plates.
March 16th, 2015 at 8:14 pm
A building is better than a vacant lot for sure, especially in that area between Walnut and Market with so many of them. So if it has to be cheap student housing, let’s just hope that (1) if there is parking it’s out back, not fronting on Walnut and (2) at least a little bit of retail.
Not that I’m optimistic on either front, given the developer, but we can hope!
March 18th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
Just something else to move blacks out the area. gentrification is in full effect. I wish other blacks will realize what’s going on, and know who the real enemy is
April 10th, 2015 at 12:04 am
@46:
As a black homeowner who lives in a black neighborhood, I’m tired of hearing the gentrification argument. More of us need to invest in our neighborhoods by owning property and starting our own businesses. I would love to see a black owned coffee shop or cafe, restaurant, art galleries, etc. We need to bring a new dynamic to our own communities.
Renters have little say in any neighborhood development. Owners can.