Residents are invited Thursday, Sept. 7th to the Spruce Hill Community Association Office at 257 S. 45th St to hear about new development projects in the area. Three items will be on the agenda, including a proposed “by-right” construction of a 6-story residential building at 4125 Chestnut St. “By right” means that the property’s zoning allows the construction of the building without any additional permission.

The new building would replace the “Wash N Lube” car wash on the 4100 block of Chestnut. The initial plans for this location were revealed earlier this year and included construction of a 17-story residential tower with commercial space and an underground parking lot, but were later modified.  Continue Reading

Aerial map of the Chestnut Street Bridges project area (courtesy PennDOT).

The Chestnut Street Bridges rehabilitation project began today and street closings near 30th Street Station will affect vehicular and pedestrian traffic for many months.

Northbound Schuylkill Avenue between Walnut and Chestnut Streets closed at 7 a.m. on Monday for approximately two years, according to an announcement by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

The closure of northbound Schuylkill Avenue will prohibit right turns by motorists and cyclists heading into West Philadelphia using the Walnut Street bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Motorists using Walnut Street and heading to 30th Street Station or the ramp to westbound I-76 or the ramp to eastbound I-676 will be detoured west to 30th Street, then right on 30th Street to Market Street, and right on Market Street to Schuylkill Avenue.  Continue Reading

The city is now officially seeking a developer for the Provident Mutual Life Insurance complex at 4601 Market St., several months after the Kenney administration scuttled plans to move the police administration to the site.

The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation issued a “Request for Qualifications and Expressions of Interest” today that seeks potential developers for the 15-acre property adjacent to the Market-Frankford Line’s 46th Street stop. The city hopes to assemble a short list of interested developers this fall and then open a competitive bidding process. Proposals for the first phase are due Nov. 1.

The property is zoned CMX-3, which allows a wide variety of uses – from a community garden to an apartment building to a hospital. The complex includes a 325,000-square-foot administration building and a 11,200-square-foot utility plant.  Continue Reading

Former Provident Mutual Life Insurance building at 4601 Market St (archived photo).

Three West Philly neighborhood organizations have written to Mayor Jim Kenney to express their disappointment with the decision to pull the plan to move police headquarters to the old Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building at 4601 Market St, calling the decision “stunning.”

In May, the city canceled plans devised during the Nutter administration to relocate the police headquarters. Instead, it will reportedly move to the former Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad St. The city has spent about $50 million to purchase and renovate the 90-year-old Provident building.

The community associations of Garden Court, Spruce Hill and Walnut Hill neighborhoods also asked that the city continue to renovate the building and include the community in decisions about its future use.  Continue Reading

The old two-story brick building at the corner of 41st and Chestnut may soon become home to an Amazon warehouse, according to a recent report by Naked Philly. The approximately 35,000 square feet building with a large parking space was purchased in 2011 by Campus Apartments, but has been sitting vacant since then. Before the purchase, the building had been occupied by Graphic Arts Inc. for decades.

No more information is currently available, like what type of warehouse it will be (general storage or Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service) and when it might open. We’ll keep you posted when we have more details.

Just a reminder that Amazon also opened a pickup store on Penn’s campus last year.

The one-story building on the southeast corner of 46th and Spruce, the former Transition to Independent Living Center, will be demolished soon, six years after it was gutted by a fire. A permit for the demolition of the building was issued on July 19, 2017.

The proposal for construction of a mixed-use apartment building in that location was approved by the Zoning Board of Adjustment in June 2016. The developers presented their plan to build a 21-unit, mostly two-bedroom apartment building at 4534-36 Spruce St. in a series of public meetings with the Spruce Hill Zoning Committee in early 2016. According to the proposal, which was approved by the ZBA, it will be a four-story building, with a roof deck and three ground-floor retail spaces. You can see the building rendering in this photo: