The other day, we spotted some earth being moved, a hole being dug, and what looked to the untrained eye like a sandcastle in progress on Ginnodo St. in Francisville. From the looks of it, we guessed that two houses would soon be rising on these lots, surrounded on both sides by vacant land. Our first guess was not a great one, as it turns out.

What we saw

Figuring that these were a couple of lots on the 1800 block of Ginnodo St., we set upon looking up who owned these lots and whether they had requested any zoning variances for this construction. We quickly realized that the little construction site that we noticed is actually part of very large project on a very large lot with a little history.

View of this lot from Ridge Ave. in 1968. Obviously not a lot back then.

Yes, the Ridge Avenue Farmers Market sat on this half-acre lot for over one-hundred years. Since its demolition in the 1990′s (?), this land has sat vacant, like many other parcels on Ridge Ave.

Looking down Ginnodo St.

According to a zoning application for 1802 Ginnodo St. (or 1810 Ridge Ave., whatever), developer XXIV LLC has plans to construct ten homes on this 92′ x 261′ lot. The homes will be on the tall side, going up 44′. They will also have roof decks and rear access garages.

What we don’t know at this time is the developer’s plan for the lot’s Ridge Ave. frontage. Will it simply be an entrance to the easement that allows access to the garages? Or will the homes stop short of Ridge Ave., with another mixed-use building with ground-floor commercial going up on the corner?

We’ll try to get a few more details about this project and perhaps a rendering, and will pass along an update soon.