Last month, a group of concerned residents held a community action meeting to draw attention to a proposed development at 303 S. 51st Street. Developer Callahan Ward is planning to build three luxury apartment buildings with 33 units and three ground-floor commercial spaces on the site of a former mechanic’s shop, located in the backyard of many homes and only accessible by a narrow alley. The lot is zoned CMX2, which allows 33 units by right, but the neighbors are opposing the development due to many concerns, including environmental contamination, overcrowding, fire hazards, and more.  Continue Reading

Brandywine Realty Trust has unveiled the architectural designs of the first two high rises in Schuylkill Yards, the $3.5 billion 14-acre development project near 30th Street Station.

The two towers will be located at 3001 (East Tower) and 3025 (West Tower) John F. Kennedy Blvd. The 512 feet tall East Tower features a unique stacking design, 34 floors of office space, 7,000 square feet of retail, and a dedicated amenity level on the 14th floor.

The mixed-use West Tower will offer 9,000 square feet of retail, 219,000 square feet of residential, 200,000 square feet of office space and covered parking. Both towers will be sitting atop a foundation of fluted pedestals, forming a series of archways (see rendering below). Continue Reading

Artist’s rendering of the proposed seven-story apartment building at 40th and Market Streets.

The Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee got a first look at a project that will likely reshape the bustling 4000 block of Market Street.

A seven-story, 42-unit apartment building with ground floor commercial space is proposed for the southwest corner of 40th and Market, right on top of one of the busiest Market-Frankford El stops in West Philly. The project would require the demolition of two properties, currently occupied by a Crown Chicken and Royal Donuts.  Continue Reading

Healthcare center at 4237 Walnut Street where a marijuana dispensary may be coming.

A medical marijuana dispensary licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health is being proposed at 4237 Walnut Street. A current operation is in Plymouth Meeting and the health care facility (ILERA Health Care) is interested in a West Philadelphia location, according to Spruce Hill Zoning Committee Chair Barry Grossbach.

Residents are invited this upcoming Monday, Aug. 19 to the monthly Spruce Hill community zoning meeting to learn more about this proposal and others. An application for a zoning variance hasn’t been filed yet, according to Grossbach, and the meeting is informational only at this time. “The company has indicated an interest in maximum transparency on how such a facility operates given the newness of this operation,” Grossbach wrote in an email announcement. The site at 43rd and Walnut has served as a Rite Aid and as home to a variety of health related operators before.  Continue Reading

A couple dozen people – neighbors and members from groups “N.O.” (Neighbors Organized to Protect Our Communities) and West Philadelphians for Progressive Planning & Preservation – gathered on Sunday afternoon to protest the new residential developments at and around 43rd and Chestnut – the former site of the Christ Memorial Church demolished earlier this year, and at 12 S. 43rd Street.

The protesters held anti-gentrification signs and chanted “Say No to Gentrification! Say No! Say No! Say No! Philly Needs to Say No!” and marched along Chestnut Street between the two developments sites.  Continue Reading

One of the signs posted near the alley accessing 303 S. 51st Street (Photo by West Philly Local).

About 60 people packed into a meeting room at a church at 51st and Spruce on Monday for the first public meeting of Neighbors for Healthy Community Development (NHCD), a group of residents organizing to bring attention to a planned residential development on an oddly located piece of land near Malcolm X. Park.  Continue Reading