As we detailed a few months ago, local developer Steve Rodriguez and local architect Jim Campbell of Campbell Thomas are working to construct a new four-story building at a currently vacant triangular lot at the intersection of Bainbridge St., 24th St., and Grays Ferry Ave.

Recent image

The building will include 23 residential units, 24 underground parking spaces, a green roof, and ground-floor retail. The new building would bring much-needed life to a surrounding area that has seen tremendous growth in recent years. With Naval Square around the corner, Toll Bros. (imperfect) 2400 South St. (probably) being built across the street, and several stores on Grays Ferry Ave. and South St., this seems like a no-brainer to neighborhood residents and outsiders alike.

View of the building from Grays Ferry Ave.

We…

A couple of days ago, the Mugshots in Manayunk closed its doors after five years. But fear not, coffee lovers! Out of the ashes of the Manayunk location, a new Mugshots will rise at a new location at 1520 Cecil C. Moore Ave., right in the middle of Temple main campus. As you can see, they still have plenty of work to do in the space. As soon as they’re done, it’ll be great news for Temple students and faculty.

Still work to be done

The new Mugshots will occupy a corner retail space in the new Beech International Village building, which just opened for tenants just last week. It’s intended for International students and faculty, but is open to anyone who wishes to live there. The building is a dramatic improvement over what occupied…

We wanted to see whether Manayunk was still under water, so we headed up to Main St. to survey the damage. What we found was utter normalcy. Great news! One thing we noticed while scampering about was a For Sale sign for 3900 Main St., and upon further investigation, we learned some interesting history.

Huge

Keeps going

The listing for the lot expired, but the asking price for the 1.25 acre lot was $3.4M. The only use that we could come up with for this parcel is a new condo building, like the newish Bridge Five building down the street, but we can’t imagine that anyone would build a project like that in this economy. What else could possibly go in this location? On the plus side, there is good access to the waterfront!

On

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Hard at work

If you’ve been to 30th Street Station lately, you may have noticed the serious construction activity taking place in the parking area on the southern side of the station. It’s been going on for months, and we didn’t have a clue what was going on there… until now. Turns out that a host of people and organizations are behind an effort to reclaim the southern parking lane for a new forty foot wide public space, with an eye toward improving walkability at this meeting of West Philadelphia and Center City. Stakeholders include City Council, the Planning Commission, the Streets Department, Amtrak, Brandywine Realty Trust, the Schuylkill River Development Corporation, University City District, and several other organizations. Yes, everyone and their mother…

A nice building

In 2008, the Please Touch Museum moved to beautiful new digs at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park after delighting children at their location at the corner of 21st and Race Sts. for twenty-five years. Since that time, the building has sat vacant, waiting for a new owner to take advantage of its fantastic location. In actuality, the Please Touch Museum not only operated out of the handsome former warehouse building in the picture above, but it also owns the sort of gross looking building on the corner and the row home to the north.

Large, but not so nice

Kind of a standard two story row

The buildings are for sale as a package  for $4.5M and are listed by Binswanger. The building on the corner…

Coming soon

Last week, we mentioned the good work that MM Partners is doing the corner of Taney St. and Girard Ave., rehabbing a former hardware store with plans to turn it into the nicest restaurant in Brewerytown. While we were up there, we checked in on their biggest project at the moment, the nearly fifteen-thousand sqft. North 28, which we originally reported on way back in March.

A view of the southern end of the development

The northern end of the development

As you can see, most foundations have been poured, with the rest on the verge. Once all the foundations are complete, the modular units will be delivered and assembled. After that, utilities will be connected and finishes will be completed. We’d estimate that the…