Post Bros. co-founder Mike Pestronk during presentation of the proposed addition to the Garden Court Plaza at 47th and Pine at last night’s Garden Court zoning committee meeting.

A crowd of about 70 people gathered to hear about a proposed 243-unit addition to the Garden Court Plaza complex on the 4700 block of Pine Street voted overwhelmingly against the plan.

Proposed building rendering (view from Pine Street).

Post Bros., the current owners of Garden Court Plaza, want to erect an adjacent building that would bring the total number of residential units of the complex at the corner of 47th and Pine to 389. The plan requires the city to issue variances for both building height and density. Current zoning for the site allows for a building with a maximum height of 38 feet. The proposal would double the density maximum for the site, currently set at 170 units.  Continue Reading

Demolition of “Wash ‘n Lube” car wash has begun on the 4100 block of Chestnut Street to make room for a pre-fab 6-story 130-unit apartment building (see rendering below). The new construction is “by right”, which means it didn’t have to go through zoning or community approval. Nevertheless, the plan for the proposed building at 4125 Chestnut Street was presented at September’s Spruce Hill Community Association zoning meeting as a heads up for the community. Read more about it here.  Continue Reading

The next Spruce Hill Community Association Zoning Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 30. Residents are invited to learn more about two proposed constructions in the area – at 4125 Chestnut and 4000 Market Streets.

Rendering of one version of the proposed building at 4125 Chestnut Street.

A 130-unit, six-story residential building, which is a “by right” development, will replace the “Wash N Lube” car wash at 4125 Chestnut St. The project was presented to the Spruce Hill community last month at the previous zoning committee meeting. “By right” means that the project is not required to go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). However, it will go before the Committee on Design Review (CDR) at the Philadelphia Planning Commission. The CDR requires that the applicant meet with the designated convening RCO for the site – Spruce Hill Community Association.   Continue Reading

Demolition of the one-story building at the southeast corner of 46th and Spruce Streets, which began early last week, is nearly complete. The building, which served as a social services building, Transition To Independent Living Center, was gutted by a fire in 2011 and remained vacant since then.  Continue Reading

Rendering of one version of the proposed building at 4125 Chestnut Street.

A 130-unit, pre-fab modular building is coming to the 4100 block of Chestnut Street.

The planned building was presented to the Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee on Thursday and will replace the Wash ‘n Lube at 4125 Chestnut St. The presentation was mostly a heads up for the community as the project can be built “by right,” meaning it requires very little oversight and no community approval.

The committee considered a proposal earlier in the summer for a 17-story building on the site, but those plans were quickly scuttled, and the property was sold to another developer within the last few weeks.  Continue Reading

The one-story building on the southeast corner of 46th and Spruce, the former Transition to Independent Living Center, will be demolished soon, six years after it was gutted by a fire. A permit for the demolition of the building was issued on July 19, 2017.

The proposal for construction of a mixed-use apartment building in that location was approved by the Zoning Board of Adjustment in June 2016. The developers presented their plan to build a 21-unit, mostly two-bedroom apartment building at 4534-36 Spruce St. in a series of public meetings with the Spruce Hill Zoning Committee in early 2016. According to the proposal, which was approved by the ZBA, it will be a four-story building, with a roof deck and three ground-floor retail spaces. You can see the building rendering in this photo: