Over the past few months, we’ve told you a couple of times about the the conversion of the former Calvary Church at 16th & Fairmount to ten condo units by Loonstyn Bros. LLC. This impressive adaptive reuse of an old church gives us hope that some other endangered church buildings might be saved, preserving architectural diversity in our fair town.

Good stuff

Unfortunately, the new residents at this address have had a view of a blighted garage across the street, owned by Spring Garden CDC .

Ugh

Last week, a couple of readers tipped us off that this unfortunate building is finally coming down! Wonderful news for everyone in the neighborhood!

Yes indeed

No idea about what will replace it or when, but we’ll keep our ears open…

Last month, we stood around and witnessed the delivery and installation of the modular pieces for North 28, an important Brewerytown residential development. When we were over there, some of the components had already been assembled, and some were still sitting on trucks. What a difference a month makes.

In January

A couple of days ago

From the south

Obviously, it will be a little while before everything is complete, and it looks like this:

From JKR Partners

But it won’t be long now. We hear that you’ll be able to take a peek at some of the units in the next couple of weeks. Good stuff.

Keep up the good work, MM Partners!

Last summer, we wondered what business would someday replace the closed down Savoy Market on the northern side of 1801 Spruce St., and our attention was again drawn to this building a couple of weeks ago when we noticed some ongoing facade work.

Current photo

A PNC ATM and the creatively named Cleaners have been a part of this building for as long as we can remember, while the Savoy space has remained vacant for about a year. The extent of the exterior work was the removal of some fairly ugly wooden siding from the facade, but the building definitely still looks like a work in progress at the moment.

The other day, we got a hold of this month’s CCRA zoning agenda, and lo and behold, this property is on there. The application is for a…

Our coverage of Francisville has dropped off somewhat in the past few months (give us a break, winter’s kind of slow!), but things are still moving along in this up-and-coming neighborhood. Three projects are ongoing on the 800 block of 15th St., vastly improving a block that clearly needed (and still needs) some help.

First, an update about 812-14 N. 15th St., a project we first told you about back in October.

In October

Today, looking from the north

This six unit apartment building has clearly made plenty of progress in the past few months, and should be ready to go before we know it.

Meanwhile, right across the street, the interiors of 809 & 811 N 15th St. have been gutted. The buildings were purchased a couple of months ago by Churchill…

One way to get out of a failing business is to slip out in the middle of the night without telling the landlord.

That is how the tenant who planned to open a bicycle repair shop in the tiny space at 25th and Aspen Sts., across from toddler Lemon Hill in Fairmount, left his two-year lease behind before the shop ever opened, according to Roland Reed, the owner of the property at 2441 Aspen St.

Tiny corner shop

Now, The Fairmount Consignment Shop, a project from former 25-year Rembrandt’s owner Jan Zarkin, who bowed out of Rembrandt’s in 2009, is set to open in early March at that corner retail location.

“We will sell whatever we can get our hands on,” says Zarkin. (Cool. We’re looking for a hovercraft, my good merchant.) He added he plans for the shop…

Half a dozen readers have frantically emailed us this week, asking about the brand new “For Rent” signs adorning the building on the northwest corner of 21st and South Sts., long promised to be the home of a second location for the wildly successful brunch spot, Honey’s Sit ‘n Eat.

Uh oh

Well, we’re here to start your Friday off with a dose of good news: Honey’s is still coming. Yaaaay!

We called Honey’s to confirm, and they assured us that everything is copacetic. They’re a few months awayy yet, but they’re on track to open in this space in the months to come.

Those ill placed, panic inducing signs you see on the corner are for the building’s new residential leasing agents from Prudential, trying to move the rental apartment units…