Pre-manufactured apartment building at 46th and Sansom. (Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

Last spring we wrote about a new residential building, “Sansom Street Flats,” planned on the vacant lot at 46th and Sansom Streets. There wasn’t too much development going on on the site since then, until just a few weeks ago when we saw that the building’s foundation had been laid. Suddenly, a building has appeared.

Last week a three-story building went up really fast, according to West Philly Local reader reports. One reader reported that “a crane arrived and dropped in some what look like prefab 2- or 3-story houses.” A quick search of the city’s Licenses and Inspections database confirmed that the owner of the lot, which encompasses 128-138 S. 46th Street, received a permit in December 2014 for the “erection of a foundation system and the installation of a three-story pre-manufactured structure with cellar for use as a three-family dwelling.”

It became known last week that another apartment building is planned just across the street from this building – at 46th and Walnut.

Sansom Street Flats is a project by Sansom Street Development LP. It was reported earlier that the units in the building were planned for rental purposes. The project is expected to be completed in August 2015.

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

Here’s a roundup of some development projects going on in West Philly neighborhoods.

West Philadelphia Earthship

The Earthship is being built from recycled materials. (Photo from West Philadelphia Earthship IndieGoGo page).

A vacant lot at 675 N. 41st Street will soon become the location for the first ever urban Earthship, a completely sustainable building built from recycled materials, Generocity.org reports. The idea of an urban Earthship was proposed by Rashida Ali-Campbell, founder of Yeadon-based nonprofit Love, Loving, Love, Inc., and the lot owner, Thomas L. Miller, liked it so much that he donated the lot to the cause.

The West Philadelphia Earthship will house a Philadelphia branch of Love, Loving, Love, Inc., which specializes in holistic health education. The organization is planning to offer healthy-living workshops and other free community activities in their new Earthship office, according to Generocity.org.

The foundation of the Earthship has already been laid, and the main construction is planned to start in February. It will take about six weeks to complete, but it depends on how successful the fundraising campaign for the project is. To support the West Philadelphia Earthship, go to this IndieGoGo page. For more information about this project, read Generosity.org’s article here.  Continue Reading

245 S. 45th Street earlier this week. (Photos by West Philly Local)

We’re catching up on the news of an old house being demolished on 45th Street between Spruce and Locust. Naked Philly reported last week that demolition work had begun on an old home in Spruce Hill at 245 S. 45th St. Well, the building, which is a 3780 sq. foot condo home built in 1935, was demolished earlier this week to make way for an eight-unit apartment building, according to the licence. The building was sold in June for $275,000 to Dvora Properties.

The property has been vacant for years. It was in deteriorating condition and had multiple code violations. It’s zoned RM1, which allows construction of multi-unit housing.

Dvora Properties is reportedly associated with Glasberg Properties, a developer who’s linked to student housing near Temple University, which “looks like the standard no-frills new construction you see around town,” according to Naked Philly.

By the way, speaking of the 200 block of 45th Street, some of you may have noticed that the Watusi II was undergoing some renovation. The restaurant has a new owner – Ethiopian American Temsgen Wolegzi. He purchased the property in July and reportedly has plans for a more formal restaurant to go along with the bar. Wolegzi presented plans for the restaurant, which has been renamed New Tavern (pictured left), to neighbors and the Spruce Hill Community Association over the summer, even presenting a proposed menu.

The city shut down the bar, which then was under different ownership, for several weeks last fall for failure to pay back taxes.

In an effort to keep the West Philly community up-to-date on happenings in the area, West Philly Local followed up on some projects we have followed over the last year. Here’s what we found so far:

First, for the most important update, Taco Angeleno is open for business! The outdoor taco joint, located at 5019 Baltimore Avenue, officially opened on Thursday, May 8 after months of delays and red tape. The grand opening party is this Friday (May 23), from 5 – 9 p.m. If Taco Angeleno’s Facebook page is any indication, it seems business is so far going well for owner Vanessa Jerolmack—even selling out of food her first weekend open. To satisfy those taco cravings, stop by Taco Angeleno from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

In other local food related news, the guys from Pitruco Pizza, the popular wood fired pizza truck often seen on the Drexel campus, who are also serving their signature fare as Enjay’s Pizza at Smokey Joe’s on 40th St, recently started a delivery service out to 50th Street for a $2 charge. “A real nice service for the neighborhood,” writes West Philly Local reader and Pitruco/Enjay’s fan Louis Tannen.

Gush Gallery co-founders Sarah Thielke and Stephanie Slate (Photo courtesy of Thielke and Slate).

This summer, Taco Angeleno will have a new neighbor, Gush Gallery. The art gallery space, which West Philly Local profiled in January, will open Friday, Aug 1 at 5015 Baltimore Avenue, which is currently home to a local barber shop (owners Sarah Thielke and Stephanie Slate get the keys to the space on July 1). On opening day, which is also a First Friday event, the duo will premiere their first group exhibit, “Embark,” which will feature local artists. There’s a chance they may open a week earlier than the exhibit’s launch date, but don’t hold them to it.

In real estate news, it seems construction of the Sedgley Apartments (pictured right) will finally be finished by next week and available to rent in June, Noah Ostroff, principal at 400 S. 45th Street, LLC., told West Philly Local. This is different than what he told us in September; when asked about the six month difference, Ostroff said there weren’t any delays, but “construction took longer than expected.”  Continue Reading

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