Just about anyone who’s walked around Philadelphia for a day would agree that we live in a city of murals. Whether they’re sprucing up blank walls downtown or serving as placeholders until vacant land can be developed, these works of public art make our city more vibrant, more interesting, and more cultured. In addition, the Mural Arts Program has impacted the lives of thousands of kids over the years, working both as an educational institution and as a community service program for juvenile delinquents.

Winter: Crystal Snowscape in Bella Vista

We mostly find ourselves reporting on murals being covered up by new development, like “Autumn,” once located two blocks away from the mural pictured above, or the Noam Chomsky mural now covered on Fairmount Avenue. So it brings us special pleasure to take the opposite approach today and tell…

Heading through South Philly the other day, our attention was grabbed by four different projects over a mere three blocks on 17th Street in Point Breeze. All are residential developments, with one that makes an aesthetic statement that really catches the eye.

First, an update on three homes at 17th & Latona that we first told you about back in February. When we last checked in here two months ago, developer Turloque Hart had the homes pretty much framed out. Now, facades are finished and interior work is progressing. According to the listings, the homes will be finished in the middle of next month. They’re listed just shy of $340K, fyi.

Moving fast

Across the street, a hole recently appeared at 1244 S. 17th St., where AGA Developers LLC will be building a single family home. Next to…

We got an enthusiastic email the other day from a reader who noticed two homes getting rehabbed on her block. We made our way over to 1407-09 S. 21st St. and found that this is indeed the case.

In the past

View today

Looking at public record, we see that the two homes were purchased by Raza Enterprises just a few weeks ago, each for $26.5K. According to their Facebook page, these guys have done several projects in the neighborhood in the last few years, all as rentals. For this particular project, the long-blighted properties were listed for sale, with the listing stating that the “buyer is on notice that this is an as-is sale, no guarantee that the property will be “broomswept” or cleaned out, no improvements or seller repairs will be made.”…

Every few weeks, it seems that there’s another residential development to tell you about in Point Breeze. But to this point, relatively few new businesses have sprung up in the area to take advantage of the swelling ranks of folks looking for a bite to eat or a tasty beverage in the neighborhood.

Sure, American Sardine Bar has been a hit. OCF Coffee House and Breezy’s Cafe are making their presences felt. And Kermit’s Bake Shop is apparently about a month away. But one thing that we keep hearing people would really love to see is another watering hole or two emerge south of Washington. In the coming years, it seems likely that this is exactly what will happen at Burg’s Lounge at 21st & Federal and Munson Manor at 20th & Federal. But one…

As the development activity continues in the Point Breeze neighborhood, it’s continuing to spread to the south and to the west. We came upon two projects on the 2300 block of Federal Street the other day, around the corner from six homes that were built in the last couple of years on 24th Street.

Heidy Kelly purchased 2302 Federal St. in 2012 for $70K, as a three-unit shell. The property has been blighted for years and has been on and off the market a couple of times, but in the coming months it will be transformed into a rehabbed single-family home. We’ll be interested to see what they do with the facade, which currently looks awful.

2302 Federal

Just down the street, Aga Developers LLC is building a new single family home at 2329 Federal St., a lot they…

A year ago, we told you about plans to build a duplex on the vacant corner of 18th & Reed. At the time, we noted that most development going on in the area was taking place north of Wharton Street, but speculated that this could be a sign that more construction is on the way for blocks further south.

New duplex at 18th and Reed

A year later, we’ve definitely seen some one-off market rate projects a block or two below Wharton as well as a few affordable housing developments. And today we have two adjacent projects to bring to your attention, this time at the corner of 17th & Reed. A reader checked in last week, with the heads up that some digging was taking place off the corner. And they were right.

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