An artist’s rendering of the proposed apartment building at 48th and Chester, which would be built on the site of a former dog park.

The West Philadelphia nursing home that is proposing to construct an 83-unit apartment building on a former dog park at 48th and Chester introduced its plan to an online community meeting last night.

Owners of the Renaissance Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center seek to combine several land parcels adjacent to the nursing home and are asking the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) for a blanket zoning designation that would allow them to erect the four-story building. That zoning change requires community input before it goes to the ZBA in a few months.  Continue Reading

Owners of the one-story building at 4200 Chester Avenue, The Millcreek Tavern site, have recently withdrawn their zoning application for a permit to build an apartment building on the site. The decision was made after a virtual meeting with the immediate neighbors that was held at the Spruce Hill Community Association’s (SHCA) request, according to SHCA Zoning Committee Chair Barry Grossbach.

The goal of the meeting, held over Zoom, was to survey views of the nearby residents. The developers said that the meeting “was not encouraging” for them to proceed with this project, according to Grossbach.  Continue Reading

Residents near a controversial proposed 30-unit apartment complex tucked down an alley of 51st Street near Spruce Street presented details on their opposition last night during an online meeting with developers, who committed to rethink the project.

A year in the making, the meeting between representatives of Callahan Ward and residents near 303 S. 51st Street, which housed an auto mechanics shop in the past, did not result in any specific concessions. But developers said they would modify the proposal to build 30 market rate apartments to include an unspecified amount or type of affordable housing and community space in addition to ground floor commercial.  Continue Reading

Callahan Ward, the developer behind the controversial luxury apartment building project planned in a back alley at 303 S. 51st Street, have agreed to meet online with community members more than a year after the project was first proposed. The firm’s decision comes after several public meetings and protests and the denial by the city of required permits.

The meeting will be on Thursday, Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. on Zoom. Project architects at Interface Studio Architects will also participate in the meeting.

The project would include 33 market-rate apartments and ground floor commercial space and can be built “by-right.” The building would be surrounded by the backyards of several adjacent properties, and the only access to the building would be through a narrow alley off 51st Street.  Continue Reading

Construction has begun on a new 8-story apartment building at the former parking lot on the southwest corner of 49th and Spruce. The building will include 150 residential units from the first through seventh floors and a roof deck on the eighth floor. The project also includes 41 parking spaces and 63 bicycle spaces on the ground floor.  Continue Reading

The development boom along the 4200 block of Chestnut Street will continue with a seven-story, 102-unit building that will likely begin construction early next year.

Developers presented the plan to the Spruce Hill zoning committee last night as part of the city’s Civic Design Review process required for buildings of a certain size and use. But neither the SHCA nor the city itself has much oversight over the “by right” project, the second major “by right” project on that block this year. A 278-unit building is underway nearby at the former site of the Christ Memorial Church at 43rd and Chestnut.  Continue Reading