Naked Philly

Adobe Cafe Getting a New Neighbor on Mitchell Street

Mr. Fox — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:08:17 +0000

Replacing an old home and garages

Mr. Fox

Every couple months or so, we find our way up to Manayunk and/or Roxborough and just drive around the neighborhoods aimlessly, looking for projects under construction. That's how we discovered the five homes getting built on Lyceum Avenue which we covered about a week ago. On that same trip, we spotted some fresh construction on Mitchell Street, across from Adobe Cafe. Developers purchased 4539 Mitchell St. back in 2015 for $250K, not because they were interested in the home and the garages next door, but because the property covers almost 7,000 sqft.

In the past

Because of the property's size and its CMX-2 zoning designation, the developers are able to build a mixed-use project by right at this location with a 2,000 sqft retail space on the first floor and a dozen apartments above. The property, like so many in this part of town, sits on a pretty severe incline, which is all more evident as the construction process has gotten moving.

Current view

Looking at the Zoning Archive, we can see an elevations drawing of the building that's to come. We don't quite understand why the developers are opting for a gabled roof at the fourth floor, but what do we know, we aren't architects.

Elevations drawing of the upcoming building

This address is just a block away from a particularly commercial stretch of Ridge Avenue, so we find ourselves wondering whether a business would rush to rent space on Mitchell Street instead of opting for a location that's actually on the corridor. Then again, Adobe Cafe has made it on this block for a long time, so there's certainly retail precedent on Mitchell Street which should provide hope to a potential commercial tenant. That being said, if the developers are unable to find a tenant in relatively short order, we can imagine a scenario where they would look to convert the retail space into additional residential, like we've seen in other projects. It might be a bit premature for that though, and looking at the architecture of the building we believe that the developers are going to make every effort to get a retailer in this space. What do you think would be a good business here?

Provident Mutual Building is for Sale

Mr. Fox — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 19:16:38 +0000

City will try to claw back some of the millions it invested

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The Philadelphia Police Department has made its home at 8th & Race, in the Modernist building known as the Roundhouse, since 1963. The building has been showing its age for some time now, and the department has outgrown the building, so there have been talks for many years about moving the Police HQ to a new location. In 2013, Mayor Nutter announced a plan to renovate the former Provident Mutual building at 4601 Market St. and relocate the Department of Public Health, the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Morgue, and the Police Department to this location. We were incredibly enthused about this plan, as we knew it would mean the thoughtful renovation of a long vacant gem of a building.

View of the building from 2013

And so the City set out to renovate the property, a huge undertaking to be sure. According to a story from Philly.com, the City has spent roughly $50M (!!!!!) on this effort so far, with expenses including the $4M purchase price, $11M on the roof and the facade, $13M for demolition, remediation, and electrical work, $4M for miscellaneous expenses, and $18M in design work. That's not a misprint. Somehow, the City found a way to spend eighteen million dollars on design work for this property. On the one hand, the parcel measures a little over 15 acres and the building has roughly 325K sqft of interior space, so that's a lot of space to design. On the other hand, a site plan from the project's CDR packet shows huge chunks of the property set aside as parking. And even if there were buildings planned for those locations, we still don't know how design professionals could have billed $18M for their services. We are honestly baffled.

Site plan for the site from CDR

With all of that money spent, we believe the building is now in vanilla box condition, ready to get renovated into hundreds of thousands of square feet of municipal office space. The only problem is that, a few months ago, the City decided to tear up their plans for the Provident Mutual building and instead move the police headquarters to the former Inquirer Building on North Broad Street. Now the City is stuck with a huge parcel that's bursting with potential, but there's nothing to do with it. The best solution, of course, is to offer it up for sale. And that's exactly what's happening- earlier today, we received an email announcing an RFQ for the property from PIDC.

Current view of the building

View from 48th Street

Obviously, the City is hoping to get far more than the $4M paid for the property, but we don't see a world in which a developer will be willing to pony up anywhere near the $50M that it would take to get the City back to sea level. According to the RFQ, the City won't necessarily choose the developer that offers the highest price, but decision makers at PIDC will also take into account each proposal's plan for the site. For example, the City might accept a lower bid from a developer looking to build affordable housing and/or create long term jobs for members of the community than from a developer looking to build a thousand units of student housing. Price will also (obviously) be a consideration, along with financial wherewithal, experience with similarly sized projects, and experience in maximizing the participation of minority, women, and disabled owned businesses in projects.

A mandatory site tour will take place at the end of next month, and the submission deadline for the RFQ is November 1st. As was the case with the RFQ for Health Center No 1, an RFP process will follow the RFQ process, which means the selection of a buyer won't take place until sometime next year. It's really unfortunate that we won't be privy to the different proposals that come forward for this property, as it would be fascinating to see the varying visions for this massive property from different large scale developers.

As for what will eventually happen here, we won't even begin to speculate. But it's safe to say that the future development of the immediate area will greatly hinge on whichever developer the City ultimately chooses. So pick wisely, PIDC and City of Philadelphia. Lots of people are counting on you to pick a winner.

Wharton School Getting a Shiny New Building on Penn Campus

Mr. Fox — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 12:41:00 +0000

Will fill in an underused space at 37th & Spruce

Mr. Fox

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With students now moving back to college, it seems like a good time to remind ourselves that Penn's campus is a beautiful mix of green space and (generally) wonderful architecture. This probably isn't the week for it, but if you've never walked around Penn we recommend it as a nice way to spend an afternoon. While the campus is really nice, it still has its dead spots, like the fantastically located but oddly underutilized space at the northeast corner of 37th & Spruce. This area, squeezed between Steinberg Dietrich Hall and the Wistar Institute, contains a little bit of green space, a weird little parking lot, some dumpsters, and utilities.

Current view (from CDR submission, we admit)

But not for long! Next month, Penn is going to Civic Design Review with a plan to build a new structure, the blandly named Wharton Academic Research Building. The WARB, as we'll call it, will have space for academic programs on the lower floors, with research and administrative space on the upper floors. According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Wharton suffers from an acute shortage of space, a seemingly amazing feat for a school that already has several buildings on campus. That being the case, this location seems like a very reasonable spot for improvement, and the building, designed by MGA Partners Architects, would be just that.

Massing of the new building

Project rendering

Rendering from the west

The project goes to CDR on September 5th, and we would think that the project will move through the process and construction will get started within the next half year. We look forward to seeing this contemporary addition rise on Penn's campus, and consider its design to be a major step up from Wharton's most recent construction effort, Huntsman Hall.

Huntsman Hall

Hey, Death Star chic was all the rage in the late 1990s, didn't you know?

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Exceptional Foods Getting Out of Fishtown

Mr. Fox — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 20:13:48 +0000

Residential development will take its place

Mr. Fox

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If you've eaten in a restaurant lately in Philadelphia, you've probably consumed a food product provided by Exceptional Foods, a local purveyor that's probably best known for its selection of meats. For many years, Exceptional has made its home at 201 E. Allen St., in a large and ugly warehouse just a few steps off of Delaware Avenue. According to a story from Philly Mag though, Exceptional's run in Philadelphia has come to an end, as they've sold their property and are moving their operations to Jersey.

View from the north

Better view of the building

The buyer in this case is Streamline Solutions, a company that has built numerous residential projects around town over the last few years, often in Point Breeze. They paid $2.2M for the property on Allen Street, and it's not entirely clear what they plan to do with the site. It's zoned for multi-family use, and based on the fact that the parcel measures over 17K sqft, the developers could build 48 units here by right. It's also possible they'll opt for town homes or a mix of single-family and multi-family. Anything is possible, really, and nearby projects provide examples of different possibilities.

Residence at Fillmore project, to the west

Edward Corner building, to the south

Across the street, you may remember that River Wards Group similarly bought an old sauerkraut factory and built a residential project in its place. That project, the Residence at Fillmore, called for 18 new homes, with almost all of the homes including parking. In a little over a year, the developers have sold almost every home in the development at prices in the high $400Ks into the low $500Ks. Not too shabby. Across the street, meanwhile, is the Edward Corner building, a handsome reminder of the industrial history of the area. As we told you before, this building will be renovated as part of a project that will mean the construction of an apartment building next to and above the Edward Corner building. Work hasn't yet begun, but we wonder whether the plans for taller buildings fronting Delaware Avenue will make units on Allen Street less desirable.

Sugarhouse views!

Speaking of things making the Allen Street property less desirable (for most buyers, at least), you'll note that Sugarhouse is located a couple hundred yards away. This didn't prove to be such an issue for the Residence at Fillmore project, at least in terms of attracting buyers, but it's still something to bear in mind as this project moves along. Hey, maybe this should be considered a marketing opportunity, and Streamline can target people who love new construction and casinos. Might be worth a try, at least.

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Vegan Pizza Joint Planned at 22nd & Christian

Mr. Fox — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 12:43:15 +0000

Would take over first floor of new building across from Sidecar

Mr. Fox

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Last winter, we discovered a Loopnet listing advertising retail space for rent in building on the northeast corner of 22nd & Christian, and we were encouraged to see a rendering that indicated plans for a new four-story building here. For as long as we can remember, there's been a one story laundromat at this address, and while the business definitely filled a need for the neighborhood, a one-story building is never the highest and best use for a property.

Current view

Project rendering

Last week, developer Max Glass presented this project to SOSNA in an information-only meeting, sharing details about the project we didn't know previously. When we covered the property several months ago, we assumed that the project called for retail on the ground floor and apartments above, but we were mistaken. Instead, the plans call for commercial space on the 2nd and 3rd floors, with a single apartment on the top floor. Possible uses on the 2nd and 3rd floor include office, yoga studio, and various other services, excepting massage. As for the retail space, the intended tenant is a vegan pizza place from New York called Double Zero. This place specializes in wood fired plant based pizza, while also offering a number of small plates. No question, it would be a fine addition to the growing vegan scene in this town.

Pizza from Double Zero

Speaking of fine additions, this project would be just that on the evolving 22nd Street corridor. The same developer built the excellent Ultimo building on the northeast corner of 22nd & Catharine and has approvals to build a mixed-use building on the southeast corner of the same intersection, a project that would replace the Bernie building. The developer will come back to the community in the next month or two, after ironing out some near neighbor concerns and finalizing the last details of the project at 22nd & Christian, and we expect the project will find favor in the eyes of the neighborhood. After that, it'll be onto the ZBA and hopefully, posthaste, onto groundbreaking. And before you know it, vegan pizza for all!

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Second Phase of Edison Square Will Restore an Old School Building

Mr. Fox — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 20:13:10 +0000

Better than the fate of its neighbor

Mr. Fox

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The north side of the 700 block of Lehigh Avenue is home to a suburban style shopping center with a Save-a-Lot, a Family Dollar, a Kicks USA, and a Burger King. Generally, we wouldn't care for such a shopping center, as we prefer smaller businesses that are integrated into the urban fabric that don't include a sea of parking. From what we understand though, people who live nearby deeply appreciate the existence of this shopping center, not only because it adds amenities to the neighborhood, but because of what it replaced when it was constructed a couple years ago.

Current view from Lehigh Avenue

View from a few years ago on Lehigh Avenue

It was back in 2013 that we first covered this property, also providing the history of the site. Briefly, a gorgeous school was constructed here back in 1903 in the Collegiate Gothic Revival style, and this school eventually evolved into Northeast High School. As the condition of the school began to deteriorate and the neighborhood became more diverse, Northeast High moved to a location in the Northeast in 1957, taking along the school's history and most of its white students. The racially motivated nature of this move was not lost on the families that remained at the school, which was renamed Edison High.

As we said, the condition of the school was declining and with the continued passage of time this situation only got worse. After pushing for a new home for years, Edison finally moved to a new location in 1988, with a middle school taking over the building until 2002. At that point, and probably years before, the building was unusable as a school, but the school district maintained ownership of the vacant and poorly secured property. For a decade, the school building was a terrible nuisance for the surrounding community, as it attracted vandals, squatters, and criminals. A four-alarm fire in 2011 left the building in the condition you see in the image above, seemingly past the point of feasible renovation. Ironically, it was just a month before the fire that a partnership between Orens Brothers and Mosaic Development Partners entered into an agreement to purchase the property from the School District. When we wrote about the property, we had just learned that the first phase of the project, the demolition of most of the school and the construction of the shopping center, would indeed move forward as planned. That has clearly happened.

You'll note in the image of the shopping center, there's a vacant building in the background, with frontage on Somerset Street. That's the Edison High School Annex, built as an addition to the original school. When we last covered the property, we told you that this Art Deco building could eventually get converted into low-income housing for seniors. And as the shopping center project materialized, we can now tell you that the low-income housing conversion is also set to move forward. The plan has changed a little, with @genbrewerytown sharing that the 66 units will specifically target homeless veterans, and that the plans include a social services office on the first floor. The project will be called Edison 64, after the 64 Edison graduates who lost their lives in Vietnam.

View at 7th & Somerset

Better view of the building

Looking up

Here's a rendering, with credit to the Orens Brothers website.

Project rendering

It's a shame indeed that the entire building that once stood here could not be repurposed, but we're grateful to see that at least part of the former school will live on. Further, the conversion of the building will help a population in dire need of housing and additional services, makes the project even more important.

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Wilde Yarns Lofts Project Finally Making Good Progress

Mr. Fox — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 13:50:42 +0000

50 apartments coming soon on the edge of Manayunk

Mr. Fox

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Across the street from the Main Street UA 6 sits a collection of old industrial buildings that, until relatively recently, looked like they had been sitting abandoned for years. Workshop of the World tells us that this property, 3737 Main St., was home to the Wilde Yarn Mill, with the first building constructed back in 1884. Remarkably, the mill was still in operation, though in a limited capacity, until 2008. As we said, from looking at the property, you would not have expected this to be the case.

In the past

Over four years ago, we told you that a developer had designs on redeveloping the property to residential use, with plans for 45 apartments and 45 parking spots. Then it was radio silence on the property for quite some time. Sure enough, a new developer stepped in after a couple of years, purchasing the property from the previous group. The new owner, Barzilay Development, has plenty of experience in the adaptive reuse business, having converted the former Saint Matt's on Grays Ferry Avenue to the Sanctuary Lofts, among other projects. It was at some point within the last year that work got moving on the property, and the effort shows, especially with a staggering number of new windows.

View of the project

Closer look

Looking at the permits, it appears that the unit count has gone up from 45 to 50, though we don't know whether the number of parking spaces will grow by a corresponding factor. We don't see why it would matter if it does, as the property sits next door to the Wissahickon train station. Needless to say, the developers have much work to do to build apartments here, as parts of the interior were totally raw space.

A peek inside, a couple years ago

Once the work is done, look for the Wilde Yarn Lofts to look like this, at least at night or during an eclipse:

Project rendering

We love this project, as it preserves a part of the industrial history of the area and represents a huge step up from the architecture of every new construction project of a similar scale in the neighborhood. We're looking forward to seeing the project wrap up soon, and will try to get a tour once the units are ready. As much as the image above would suggest that the answer is no, we wonder whether there were any original details to save in there. Even if not, we'll call it a win to keep the outside of the building intact.

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Condo Building in the Works at Broad & Pine

Mr. Fox — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 18:08:07 +0000

Dranoff properties making another mark on South Broad

Mr. Fox

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Dranoff Properties has played a significant role in redeveloping South Broad Street over the last decade, with Symphony House, 777 South Broad, and Southstar Lofts all adding height and density to Philadelphia's most famous thoroughfare. Tonight, near neighbors will learn about another proposed Dranoff project, this time at the corner of Broad & Pine. The low rise building that's currently at the corner functions mostly as a parking garage, and has a Starbucks on the first floor. The building has been there for many years and has served a similar purpose over a long period, as these photos would indicate:

Back in the 1920s

Better view of the property from the 1920s

Remarkably, the building is still intact and looks pretty similar to the way it looked almost a century ago.

Current view

At a Washington Square West Civic Association zoning meeting Tuesday night, we've learned that representatives from Dranoff Properties will be presenting a plan to build a 28 story condo building with 56 units, underground parking, and retail on the first floor at this corner. We assume that this will mean the demolition of the existing building, not that the developer will be building a new structure while keeping the facade of the existing building, but we honestly aren't sure at this point. As was the case with the similar One Riverside project, completed recently on the banks of the Schuylkill, Cecil Baker + Partners will be doing the design work. And... that's all the info we have for right now.

SLS site up the block

A couple years back, we told you about another planned Dranoff project for South Broad, the SLS International Hotel & Residences. The former home of Philadelphia International Records was demolished in preparation for this project, but the site hasn't been active in a long time and is currently sitting vacant, as you see in the photo above. We have no idea if and when the SLS project will start moving forward, but we're encouraged that the planned condo building being presented tonight is a much simpler concept with a model for success with One Riverside. It wouldn't surprise us at all if the condo building went up before the SLS project. Don't forget though, this developer has a significant track record, so it's also possible that we could see two projects under construction on the same block at the same time from the same developer.

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Mural Missing From Hahnemann Hospital

Mr. Fox — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 12:54:21 +0000

No clue whether it will make a comeback

Mr. Fox

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Thanks to roughly three decades of work from Mural Arts, Philadelphia possesses an embarrassment of riches in terms of public visual art. We're no fans of vacant lots or surface parking lots, but when they're adorned by a mural, we tend to find them much more acceptable (it's just when people argue against development in favor of keeping a mural that we get aggravated). Such is the case with the surface parking lot at the northwest corner of Broad & Race, which probably gets most of its use from the Convention Center across the street and Hahnemann University Hospital next door. The wall to the north of the parking lot measures roughly 12K sqft and constitutes one of the walls of Hahnemann's Feinstein building. Between 2006 and 2008, artist Donald Gensler held workshops to paint the Independence Starts Here mural.

The view from last year

Clearer image of the mural

According to the artist's website, the mural displayed images of various Philadelphians with disabilities that had a presence in their respective communities at the time of the mural's creation. Working with the School for the Deaf, Gensler spelled out the word "independence" in ASL in another section of the mural. We cannot think of another mural in Philadelphia so dedicated to the disabled, and have to think that it was an enormous source of pride for that community.

You'll notice though, we're referring to the mural in the past tense. That's because it no longer exists.

Current view

Back in January, heavy winds blew a large section of the mural off the wall and onto two cars in the parking lot. Like roughly 2,000 murals in Philadelphia, this mural was painted on a material called parachute cloth, but this was the first time that this material experienced a failure like this. Over the last several months, we've noticed that Hahnemann was repairing their wall, and it was only when we passed by last week that we noticed a clean wall with no mural on it, probably not made out of parachute clote. We wouldn't rule out the possibility of a new mural appearing here, but given what happened in January we wouldn't be surprised if the hospital insisted on keeping the wall blank moving forward. It would certainly be a shame, to permanently lose such a beautiful and meaningful mural. As bad as a surface parking lot is in a vacuum, having a giant blank wall next to it makes it even worse. Here's to hoping that Hahnemann either restores the old mural or works with Mural Arts to come up with something new.

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A House on Madison Square is Giving You a Thumbs Up

Mr. Fox — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:21:30 +0000

What's up with this place?

Mr. Fox

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The Graduate Hospital neighborhood is home to three garden blocks, the 2300 block of Saint Albans Place, and the 2200 and 2300 blocks of Madison Square. If you live in the area, you're probably aware of these blocks simply from walking around the neighborhood, and if you don't live nearby it's possible you remember seeing the 2300 block of Saint Albans as Cole's house in the Sixth Sense. These blocks are unlike any others in the city, trading pavers for sidewalks and fenced-in garden space for street. The combination of the streetscape and the uniform architecture of the homes landed these blocks on the Historic Register back in 1969 (Saint Albans) and 1971 (Madison Square).

Looking east on the 2300 block of Madison Sq.

The homes on these blocks date back to around 1870 and are collectively the work of developer Charles M.S. Leslie, according to Evergreens: A Neighborhood History. In creating the garden blocks, Leslie, who also built Woodland Terrace in West Philly, created a trust that allowed him control of the gardens and the alleys behind the homes, and he charged residents for maintenance of the shared space. Within a couple years of the construction of the garden blocks, Leslie disappeared in an effort to get away from his creditors, resulting in the City becoming trustee for the garden blocks. As a result, the residents of the 2200 block of Saint Albans were able to get their garden eliminated in favor of a paved street. Yes folks, the 2200 block of Saint Albans was once a garden block as well! What a loss, indeed.

You may be wondering why we're bringing these blocks to your attention today, and it's true that we've buried the lede. A reader reached out several months ago, wondering about 2321 and 2323 Madison Sq., a pair of homes with an unusual condition on the garden block. As we suggested in the title of the post, it looks like 2323 Madison Sq. is giving a thumbs up to anyone that happens to be walking past the home.

Closer look

The residents of Pacific Ocean City would be so offended

There are actually two different things going on here that are of note. First and most obvious, there's an awful pilot house that goes right up to the front of the property line for 2323 Madison Sq., disrupting the flow of the block and sticking out like a, uh, sore thumb. The other detail that you might have noticed is that the 2321 Madison Sq. is a three-story home that seems to have an overrun onto the roof of 2323 Madison Sq. that extends several feet. In fact, the extension of the third floor runs the entire length of the pilot house and we frankly couldn't figure out what was going on.

In trying to get some answers, we reached out to a former owner of 2323 Madison Sq., who shared what he learned when he bought the property over a decade ago. The extension of the third floor of 2321 Madison Sq. dates back to the 1890s, when two brothers lived in the adjacent homes. For some reason, the brother that owned 2323 Madison Sq. gave the other brother a permanent easement to build a small addition onto his roof and that easement has remained in place for all of these years. Not so many years later, either the same owner or someone else built the pilot house in order to access a rooftop chicken coop. And there it has remained for all of these years, pretty much the only regrettable architectural element on the whole block.

It sure would be great of the owner of 2321 Madison Sq. took down that pilot house, especially because there's no roof deck on top of the home. We aren't positive, but we're pretty sure that they would need to go before the Historical Commission to move forward with such a plan, as the pilot house was present when the block was designated 45 years ago. While it would be a nice improvement to the block, we're not sure why the property owner would willingly go through the process and spend the money necessary to make this happen, so we'd expect that the status quo will remain for the foreseeable future. At least everything else about this block is totally awesome.

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