Drexel University has purchased a long, thin 3.6 acre lot along JFK Boulevard west of 30th Street Station that will become the “gateway” for its main campus and could include a mix of uses, including retail.

Drexel paid $21.8 million for the land, which is currently a parking lot sandwiched between JFK Blvd. and train tracks to the north (see the map below).

“The prime location of this site will significantly enhance Drexel’s capacity to be a powerful engine for regional economic growth,” said Drexel President John Fry in a written statement. “It provides various options not only for the development of the space for classrooms, research and other academic facilities, but also for sources of revenue for Drexel through potential residential and retail opportunities.”

Fry, who oversaw community development projects while a vice president at the University of Pennsylvania, has said that extending Drexel’s reach into its surrounding West Philadelphia community is a priority.

 

View Drexel land purchase in a larger map

The second in a series of forums to discuss development along 40th Street is tonight at 7 p.m. at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.).

Conversations at the forums will help determine development along 40th Street, particularly the character of transportation along the 40th Street corridor (from Baltimore Avenue to Lancaster Avenue and extending to 41st and 39th Streets). The planning agencies, which include the University City District, Penn’s Project for Civic Engagement, Penn Praxis and Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) West, say they are looking for input about what makes for a successful mixed-used, residential/commercial corridor.

The forums continue this Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. at Christ Community Church (4017 Chestnut St.) and Monday, June 27 at 6 p.m. at the Greater Faith Baptist Church (4031 Baring St.)

A prominent West Philly-based developer is in the process of buying the ominous Croydon apartment building at 49th and Locust, which has become a haven for squatters and was the site of a rooftop murder in 2007.

Orens Brothers Real Estate Inc., whose main office is on the 4400 block of Chestnut, is expected to finalize the purchase of the building soon and begin work to rehabilitate the building by early next month, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell said by phone yesterday. The firm’s officials told community members during a meeting on Monday that it plans to keep the complex’s original eight-story center structure and four-story wings intact and renovate its 127 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment units.

A Sheriff’s Office official confirmed that building had been sold last week for $1.75 million. The building was put up for sheriff’s sale in January because the previous owners owed more than $200,000 in back taxes.

Orens Brothers has restored and rented several buildings in Philadelphia, including the luxury apartments at 2200 Arch St. In West Philly, the firm owns the apartment building on the southside of the 4400 block of Walnut (4404-4418 Walnut St.).

A boarded up eyesore rising above the West Philadelphia High School athletic field, the Croydon is known to squatters as “Paradise City.” The building was known across the city for a few days in June 2007 when a squatter, 28-year-old Tim Bradly of Philadelphia, was found dead on the building’s roof. Another squatter confessed to beating Bradly and dropping a cinder block on his head.

The Croydon building plays a large role in the documentary Squatter Days by James C. Fattu.

The first in a series of public forums on the development of 40th Street is Wednesday. Community members are invited to share their ideas on the design and character of development along the street, which has become a key commercial corridor between residential neighborhoods to the west and academic campuses to the east.

One of the event organizers, the “Friends of 40th Street,” was formed in 2004 to bring the members of neighborhood communities, businesses, and anchor institutions together for a discussion on the planning principles of the 40th Street corridor. One key idea that will be discussed is transportation along 40th street.

That conversation started seven years ago continues this month with the forums. Here’s the full schedule:

Wed, June 15 – 7:30 a.m. – 3901 Market Street
Mon, June 20 – 7:00 p.m. – Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Wed, June 22 – 7:30 a.m. – Christ Community Church, 4017 Chestnut Street
Mon, June 27 – 6:00 p.m. – Greater Faith Baptist Church, 4031 Baring Street

For more information visit: www.40thst.org.

Community members are invited to attend a meeting on the future development of Baltimore Avenue tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the People’s Baptist Church (5039 Baltimore Ave.).

The meeting is the next step in the “Baltimore Avenue Conversation,” a series of workshops and meetings on development topics ranging from senior/affordable housing and building facade improvements to business interests and landscaping. The meeting will include a brief review of the final recommendations of the Community Design Collaborative, a collection of design professionals who do pro bono work for non-profits.

Other scheduled presenters include:

• A representative from Friends Rehabilitation, who will talk about the process involved in building senior/affordable housing with examples from projects they have built around Philadelphia.

• Joe McNulty, Cedar Park resident and Baltimore Avenue commercial corridor coordinator for the University City District, will talk about commercial facade improvements.

• Leah Pillsbury from Mariposa Food Co-op will present information about the co-op’s expansion plans.

• Stephanie Chiorean from the Philadelphia Water Department will be speaking on greening plans for the City of Philadelphia.

• Danielle Denk will present a new proposal to bring a Garden Center to some of the empty lots at 51st and Baltimore.

Penn’s Institute of Urban Research has released a report that confirms what everyone who has been house shopping in West Philadelphia already knows –  home prices in the Penn Alexander School catchment area have quadrupled since 1998.

The average home sale price in the catchment, which roughly runs from 40th Street to 47th and Sansom Street to Chester Avenue and parts of Woodland Avenue, has risen to about $430,000, a 211 percent increase since 1998. Home prices in the PAS catchment far outpace prices in the rest of the city. Home prices during the same period elsewhere in West Philadelphia and in University City have roughly doubled. Prices in Center City have risen 87 percent.

Average home prices in the Penn Alexander catchment are now roughly on par with properties in Center City.

Home prices have outpaced rent increases as well, which “suggests that the households in University City has shifted in composition from renters to owners,” according to the report.

The report credits the creation of the University City District, Penn’s mortgage program for employees and the Penn Alexander School with the rise in home prices.