Photos West Philly Local

Editor’s Note: After this story was printed, Spruce Hill Community Association’s zoning chair Barry Grossbach said that they “begged the owners of 243 [S. 45th St.] not to take the building down. My impression is that they are building a multi-unit structure.”

Developers continue to buy properties and land around Penn and Drexel and turn them into apartments buildings mostly aimed at students. The photo above is from a new project at 41st and Ludlow. Ludlow Brothers LLC purchased a single family home at that location in 2014 and demolished it to make room for a four-story apartment building.

Another Spruce Hill development project, luxury apartments on S. 45th Street between Spruce and Locust, has been completed. As was reported earlier, an old West Philly row home at 245 S. 45th St. was demolished to make room for the new four-story 15-unit building. However, we recently noticed that another old row home, right next door to the new apartment building was also being torn down:

It’s not clear yet what is coming in its place. The 5-bedroom home at 243 S. 45th St. was sold last summer for $399,000 to developer South Fortyfive 243 LLC, according to property records.

Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell was at a building site at the corner of Farragut and Sansom this morning as a modular apartment building was being dropped into place.

Another pre-fab, modular apartment building is going up along Sansom Street. This one is behind the Sunoco at Sansom and Farragut.

Even Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell was on hand when they started dropping the pieces in place on Tuesday morning.

The building’s units were dropped in one by one by a crane parked along Farragut Street.  Continue Reading

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.”  Continue Reading

A zoning meeting for a potentially highly-valuable piece of property on the 5000 block of Hazel Avenue is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 17. Residents are invited to hear the proposal to build a three-story single-family home on a vacant lot at 5023 Hazel Avenue, between two other three-story homes. The meeting is organized by Garden Court Community Association’s Zoning Committee and will be held at Ahimsa House, 5007 Cedar Ave., starting at 7:30 p.m. Everyone who has questions or concerns about this proposal is welcome to attend the meeting.

The 2,200 square foot lot was purchased for $60,000 in July 2015 by Elkins Park based company HSSK LLC, which is planning to build a semi-detached structure with a roof deck and a pilot house for access to the roof deck, according to the information posted on the City’s Office of Licences and Inspections website. The cleaning of the lot ahead of the construction has already begun (pictured).

Real estate developer Post Brothers announced recently that it bought the Garden Court Plaza (4701 Pine St.) and is planning upgrades and renovations that has current residents wondering if they will be priced out of their apartments.

Built in the 1920s, the 13-story apartment building, which includes 146 units, was purchased for an undisclosed price as part of Post Brothers $250 million University City acquisition strategy, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal and other news outlets.

A founder of Post Brothers told the Philadelphia Business Journal that there is a shortage of housing geared toward “young professionals” in the area, which he compared to Cambridge, Mass., and that the firm’s strategy is to “upgrade and reposition” properties.

Post Brothers will do substantial renovations to Garden Court Plaza’s interior and exterior and add upscale amenities, according to a press release.

Some current residents who have contacted West Philly Local and asked not be named say they are bracing for big changes, including a substantial rent increase. They said that the new management company has begun asking for tax and pet vaccination information from residents.

36th and Lancaster

The city’s Historical Commission today added a strip of Lancaster Avenue commercial and residential buildings dating to the 1870s to the Registry of Historic Places.

The designation of the south side of the 3600 block of Lancaster Avenue requires Historical Commission approval of building or renovation plans.

An attorney for the property’s owner, AP Construction, vowed to appeal the decision.

The Powelton Village Civic Association began to pursue the designation last spring when it learned of AP Construction’s plans to demolish the block and reportedly sell it for student housing. With street-level storefronts and apartments on upper floors, the block anchors the main commercial strip in the neighborhood.

About 25 residents of Powelton Village were on hand at the meeting and nearly all raised their hands when asked if they agreed with the historic designation proposal.  Continue Reading