Scott (left) and Guy Orens talk to the Spruce Hill Zoning Committee on Wednesday about very rough plans for a residential building on the 4400 block of Chestnut. (Photo by Mike Lyons / West Philly Local)

A local developer gave the Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee a sneak peak of their plan for a residential complex that would dramatically change the 4400 block of Chestnut Street.

Scott and Guy Orens, owners of Orens Brothers Real Estate, presented a project that was very early in the planning stages to build a five-story, 150-unit on the north side of the 4400 block of Chestnut that require the demolition of some vacant and owner-occupied homes and a warehouse along Ludlow Street.

The two brothers, whose firm has built or renovated several large residential buildings in the city including the once-abandoned Croydon building at 49th and Locust, were not yet seeking any approval for their plan from the committee.

They have already purchased many of the properties that would be required to build the complex, which would be one- and two-bedroom rentals, but public discussions about things like building design, materials and facade appearance have not yet begun.

“We are willing to participate in creating something that you will like,” Scott Orens told the committee.  Continue Reading

Here’s a short roundup of some recent news from around West Philadelphia.

Christina Regusters.

• A West Philadelphia woman, Christina Regusters, was found guilty on Friday of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl in January, 2013. The verdict was reached by the jury of seven women and five men after several days of testimony, which included some harrowing details. The victim, now 7, also testified at the trial and is credited by the team of investigators for leading them to her kidnapper. The little girl required a surgery after being sexually assaulted. Regusters, 21, faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.

• University City Science Center opened a 13-story, 330,000-square-foot, $100 million, office building at 3737 Market Street on Friday. Eight floors of the building are occupied by University of Pennsylvania’s Health System patient care. Other tenants include: Spark Therapeutics (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia gene therapy spinoff), Good Shepherd Penn Partners, and Corner Bakery on the ground floor (opens in winter). Technical.ly has some more details here.

• The building at 40th and Ludlow, which until recently housed a pet store, is for sale, Naked Philly reports. The 3-story, approximately 4,300 sq. foot commercial-type property at 27-29 S. 40th St is currently listed for sale for $879K. The pet store that the building housed, Tradewinds Aquarium and Pet Center, closed in the Spring after decades of operation.

The Spruce Hill Zoning Committee will be meeting this Thursday (June 5) at 6:30 p.m. and both Spruce Hill and Walnut Hill residents are invited to discuss a couple of properties within the two neighborhoods. The meeting will be held at the SHCA center at 257 S. 45th Street.

Here’s the meeting’s agenda, according to an announcement by Spruce Hill Zoning chair Barry Grossbach:

1. Expansion of the number of children enrolled in The Little Green School House, a small home based day care and after school program, from the current six allowed to the number 12 requested. West Philly Local wrote about The Little Green School House last summer when it was preparing to open.

“This operation at 219 S. Melville was given a trial run for a year by agreement of neighbors and the zoning committee when it came before us last Spring. Neighbors wanted to determine the impact of the school on traffic, congestion, and quality of life issues on the block. The applicants have met with immediate neighbors recently, and this is now before the zoning committee with all parties invited to attend and share their views,” the announcement reads.

2. The second item on tomorrow’s meeting’s agenda is the construction of a single family house on the lot at 223 S. 46th Street (between Walnut and Locust). Neighbors in the area have been alerted and all are welcome to attend and share their thoughts, according to Grossbach.

Lot at 223 S. 46th Street. (Source: Google Maps).

Hawthorne Hall (Photo from grayareaphilly.org)

Down every street, and around every corner, we see Philadelphia’s history chronicled in the old brick roads, the abandoned trolley tracks, and every lot overrun by foliage.

Most of all, we see the city’s history in the timeworn foundations of its older buildings. Be it the imposing Provident Mutual Life Insurance building or the grandiose Divine Lorraine Hotel, Philadelphia’s antiquity is forever sealed in their unique brickwork and beguiling design.

But how we preserve the architecture of that history has become uninspired, if not non-existent. Instead, Philly’s historic buildings are bulldozed to make way for shopping centers and luxurious townhouses. Or they’re left abandoned—nothing more than waning icons relegated to the pronoun of “I wonder what that used to be.”

That’s where GRAY AREA comes in. Supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, GRAY AREA is an experimental project launched by the University of the Arts and DesignPhiladelphia of the Center for Architecture that looks at “historic preservation in the modern city.” Currently in its third phase, GRAY AREA aims to engage both design and development experts and the public at large in envisaging creative ways to maintain and repurpose the city’s older buildings so they’re moments of revitalization in their communities.

As part of its third phase, known as GRAY AREA 3, a multi-disciplinary cohort of experts and community partners spent most of last year studying two historic buildings: Hawthorne Hall (3849 Lancaster Avenue) in Powelton Village/Mantua, and the Max Levy building (212-220 Roberts Avenue) in Germantown. Armed with a series of questions raised during GRAY AREA’s first two phases—a panel discussion and a facilitated conversation, respectively—the team researched the buildings’ history and their cultural significance in an effort to cultivate ideas for “eventual interpretation, reuse and design.”

This Wed, May 28, the GRAY AREA 3 team will gather at the Catalyst for Change Church (3727 Baring Street) to share their findings on Hawthorne Hall with the West Philly community. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., will serve as the third phase’s final community meeting in which they will test a preservation toolkit developed for “encouraging meaningful dialogue, making unexpected and new connections, and generating ideas,” GRAY AREA Project Director Elise Vider told West Philly Local.
Continue Reading

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

Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local

Earlier this month, a reader reached out to West Philly Local inquiring about the vacant lot on 46th and Sansom Streets. According to the reader, it seems a sprinkler-type system has been installed and dampening one of the lot’s holes, which were excavated earlier this year. “What is the story on that lot?” the reader asked us.

So we stopped by the fenced-in lot to find out exactly what’s happening on the site. Unlike our reader, we didn’t notice a sprinkler-type system on the grounds, but did see that the land is clearly undergoing redevelopment work. And our research confirmed this—according to a March Naked Philly post, the lot’s owner, Sansom Street Development LP, is in the process of constructing several rental units in the area.

In 2002, several run-down buildings on the parcel, encompassing 128-138 South 46^th Street, were demolished as part of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission’s 45th and Sansom Redevelopment Plan established that year. According to the plan, 128-38 South 46th Street, along with 4611-21 Sansom Street and 4610-20 Sansom Street, were to be torn down to make way for new or “interim open space and possible future residential development.” Over the last decade, Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections has issued a number of violations for the vacant 128-138 parcel, mostly for the lack of lot maintenance (in spite of the plan’s intention, which stated the open space should be “well maintained, preferably under the stewardship of a local community-based organization”).

Minutes from a May 8, 2012 Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority meeting revealed that the PRA Board approved a resolution authorizing Sansom Street Development as the redeveloper of 128-138 S. 46th Street, in addition to other properties along the 4500 block of Sansom Street — all located in the 45th and Sansom Street Urban Renewal Area. As noted by Naked City, the minutes show Sansom Street Development plans to build on the 46th Street lot six units containing four two-bedroom, market rate rental apartments. They will be known as the Sansom Street Flats, according to the redeveloper’s economic opportunity plan, West Philly Local has found.

According to public records, Sansom Street Development current property licenses for the 128-138 S. 46^th Street site expire at the end of February 2015.

In 2011, Sansom Street also completed construction of a multi-family home at 4534 Sansom Street under the business name Sansom Street Development SSD1, LP. It was one of two plots conveyed to the company by The Partnership CDC, done so without PRA’s consent (PRA approved a redevelopment agreement with the Partnership for 4530 and 4534 Sansom Streets in 2004). During a August 14, 2013 meeting, the PRA approved Sansom Street Development 1 as assignee of the redevelopment agreement for those properties.

–Annamarya Scaccia