The developers of the proposed residential building at 4224 Baltimore Avenue are seeking residents’ input on the project through a series of community engagement meetings, with the first one scheduled on Monday, May 20, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at International House of Philadelphia (South America Room, 3701 Chestnut St). The goal of the meetings is to come up with alternative design plans for the proposed apartment complex to be built on the large vacant lot at the corner of 43rd and Baltimore.

Vacant lot at 43rd and Baltimore where the new apartment complex is proposed.

Clarkmore Group LLC, the property owner, has obtained a conditional zoning permit for the 92 residential unit building, six parking spaces and 36 bicycle parking spaces. The proposed plan had received mixed reviews from the community, including comments by West Philly Local readers after our first article on this subject.

Clarkmore Group LLC is working with the Spruce Hill Community Association, which will coordinate the community engagement process that will include three meetings in total (we’ll post more details about the other two meetings when this information is available). At the meetings, community members can learn more about the project, meet the project team and work with it on a number of focus areas, including the building design, transportation and retail mix.

More details on this project and its stakeholders are available here.

Neighbors, community leaders and experts are getting together this afternoon (at 4 p.m.) to discuss the future of University City High School that is slated for closure at the end of the 2013 school year along with 22 other Philadelphia schools. The school opened in 1973.

Strategies for the use of the building after the closure will also be discussed at the forum that will take place at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 3500 Baring St. The panelists include:

Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell

Algernong Allen, Baltimore Avenue Business Association

DeWayne Drummond, Mantua Civic Association

George Poulin, Powelton Village Civic Association

Emily Dowdall, Pew Charitable Trusts

Allan Domb, President Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors

The discussion will be moderated by Solomon Jones of AxisPhilly and filmed by NBC 10.

To register please go to uchigh.eventbrite.com/ (registration closes at 3 p.m.)

Mayor Michael Nutter and Seeds Gallery owner Saba Tedla speak about Cedar Park on Monday.

Michael Nutter chats with a local business owner outside the Seeds Gallery on Monday.

Mayor Michael Nutter dropped in at the Seeds Gallery near 50th and Baltimore as part of a multi-neighborhood tour of the city designed to publicize the launch of the Philadelphia Neighborhoods marketing campaign.

The campaign highlights neighborhoods as “visitor-ready” destinations surrounding Center City. One person traveling with Nutter called it “intra-city” tourism that would appeal to people already living in Philadelphia.

Seeds Gallery owner Saba Tedla, who also owns Aksum on Baltimore Avenue, joined Nutter at the gallery.

Nutter, a West Philly native who grew up about 10 blocks from the gallery, called the Cedar Park area an “amazing melting pot” that features what he called the “3 Rs” needed for vibrant neighborhoods – restaurants, retail and residential housing. He also visited East Passyunk and Bella Vista.

The Sedgley Apartments, located at 400-3 S. 45th Street.

The Sedgley Apartments building, which has stood on the corner of S. 45^th and Pine Streets for more than 100 years and has been gutted in recent weeks, will be renovated to house “luxury” apartments, according to its new owners.

The Sedgley’s new owner, 400 S. 45^th Street LLC, which bought the property in February, plans a complete overhaul of the Romanesque-style building’s interior (the exterior will stay intact, save landscaping and window updates.) Work on the Sedgley, which was built circa 1900 when developers were looking for corner lots for high-density housing, has been left vacant for the last few years. Renovation should be finished by the fall.

The specs of the new apartments will sound familiar – hardwood floors, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, central air, washer and dryers, and custom tile. The majority of the market-rate units will be two- and three-bedroom apartments, each with two baths, with some one bed/one bath options available.

“It’s a unique opportunity to convert a beautiful greystone building in a premier area and we want to make the most of it,” said 400 S. 45^th Street LLC principal Noah Ostroff.

– Annamarya Scaccia

The firm behind the proposed residential housing project at 43rd and Baltimore will soon begin to seek community input, including the launch of a forum-like website, according to a letter from the chair of the Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee.

We first reported on the 92-unit residential complex proposed for the vacant lot at the corner of 43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue, across from Clark Park, a month ago. Since publishing the story, a lively discussion on what this development would mean for West Philly took off, with a number of residents emailing concerns to Barry Grossbach, chair of the Spruce Hill Zoning Committee. Grossbach recently addressed those questions in a statement released by the Spruce Hill Community Association.

“Here is what we know. The property owners sought, and were given, a ‘conditional’ zoning permit subject to design committee approval by City Planning,” writes Grossbach. “The site, currently zoned Rm1 under the new code, does not require any parking as part of any multifamily development. This is particularly important to understand given the emails insisting that Spruce Hill not allow this lack of parking to stand. The plans submitted by the owners meet the requirements of the code under Rm1 zoning, and lamenting the lack of parking will not address those concerns in a meaningful way. A ‘conditional’ permit is good for one year, and the clock does not start ticking on any time schedule until the owners seek to change ‘conditional’ to ‘permanent.’”

According to Grossbach’s statement, before seeking that change, the property owner, Clarkmore LP, controlled by Thylan Associates, has enlisted the help of U3 Ventures, a local real estate advisory and development firm, to engage the community in fostering alternative design plans. The process, writes Grossbach, will include a series of insightful roundtables with residents, and the creation of 4224Baltimore.com (which is not yet up and running), a website dedicated to the project news and information. The plan is for the website to feature an online discussion forum moderated by “Spruce Hill community members” where residents can express qualms about issues ranging from “building size to parking concerns,” according to Grossbach’s letter. The development team will not edit the forum’s content, but will participate in the discussion.

The development group will also have a table at the Spruce Hill Community Association May Fair on May 11.

“Many of us in Spruce Hill have looked at 43rd and Baltimore with a mixture of apprehension and hope over these ‘vacant’ years—expecting that something would surface as a development scheme and praying silently that we would not only survive it but applaud it,” writes Grossbach. “We have a unique opportunity here…We have the chance to think big and bold and, hopefully, find that sweet spot in shaping development for a site that both community members and property owners applaud without reservation.”

– Annamarya Scaccia

In late 2011, we reported the West Philly-based real estate developers, the Orens Brothers, plan to revitalize the infamous Croydon Building into a seemingly-affordable 127-unit apartment complex. Work on the extensive project is now underway.

The air surrounding the looming 25,875 square-foot structure on 49th Street between Locust and Spruce Streets was heavy with raucous construction clatter when we visited the location Thursday afternoon. According to one worker on site, renovations of the Croydon began four months ago and should last two years, with the two wings hopefully completed by the fall. Representatives from the Orens Brothers could not be reached for comment.

The Orens Brothers bought the Croydon Building in 2011 for $1.75 million, with renovations budgeted at about $10 million. The once homogenous development, built in the early 20^th century, became known by squatters as “Paradise City” after it was abandoned in the late 1990s. It was also the site of 2007 murder that resulted from a fight between two squatters. The building had been a focus of community concern for many years.

– Annamarya Scaccia