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Mon
May 7
2012

Commercial Shutters at Vacant Commercial Space a Sign of Things to Come?

A reader checked in, asking about new commercial shutters at a vacant commercial space on the northwest corner of 20th and Carpenter Sts., across the street from Southside Pizza. This piqued our interest, as this space has been vacant for a few years, having previously been a Chinese takeout establishment. Owner Lynette Gueits purchased the property in 2008 and cleaned it up dramatically, but has been unable to find a tenant up until now.

New security

According to this thread on Philadelphia Speaks, a new corner store is in store for this storefront. The little grocery will apparently carry necessities for the neighborhood, as well as prepared hot food items. We’re certain that they will have to go through zoning, so we imagine we’ll get more information when that process takes place. While neighbors will surely be excited about the prospect of this new amenity in the neighborhood, the execution will be critical in terms of whether this new store will be embraced. Lacking any information on that front at the moment, we will hope for the best.

Looking up 20th St.

Looking up the block, there’s a surprising amount going on in this neck of the woods. At the corner of Montrose St., a large hole recently appeared, indicating the end of the road for a long vacant lot. Over the past several months, another vacant lot succumbed to the inexorable might of development, and a single-family home has risen in its place. You can still spot the in-progress home with the still-plywood bay window in the middle of the block.

Perhaps most interestingly (or we could say least interestingly), the former bodega that we told you would be turning into a pho place back in September has been all kinds of quiet for the past six months. Has anybody heard anything/noticed any work going on recently? Inquiring minds want to know.

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COMMENTS
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Posted in Graduate Hospital | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments
  • guest

    We’ve gotten so dumbed down by bad architecture in this neighborhood that your site doesn’t even question the ugliness of this property.  This woman cheaped out and stuccoed everything but  the cornice.  And now she’s putting roll-down gates to make it look like the ghetto again.  I hope this comes before SOSNA so it can be shot down. 

  • Guest

    I believe in property rights so within the legal zoning you can’t dictate how someone develops.  I also believe in speech so I want to tell the owner this looks terrible and I will walk out of my way to buy from a place that tries to make the neighborhood look nicer.

  • Veillantif

    Yeah, I’ll do that too. Hopefully enough people will that they’ll go out of business, and the corner looks even worse than it already does. That’ll show them!

  • http://nakedphilly.com/bella-vista/thoughts-on-a-curious-shed-in-hawthorne/ Thoughts on a Curious Shed in Hawthorne | NakedPhilly

    [...] reader asked us about an odd, brown shed on the 1200 block of Fitzwater St., a building we’ve thought about ourselves from time to time over the years. It sits on the [...]

  • Anonymous

    Those two photos have more ugly stuccoed bay windows than you can shake a stick at.  

  • http://nakedphilly.com/graduate-hospital/paging-li-illegal-and-horrifically-ugly-signage-announces-potentially-illegal-corner-store/ Paging L&I: Illegal and Horrifically Ugly Signage Announces Potentially Illegal Corner Store | NakedPhilly

    [...] month, we told you about new commercial shutters at 924 S. 20th St., a signal that a corner store was coming to this property, which had been vacant [...]

  • http://nakedphilly.com/graduate-hospital/update-20th-and-carpenter-sadwiches-gone-for-now/ Update: 20th and Carpenter ‘Sadwiches’ Gone For Now | NakedPhilly

    [...] we predicted a couple of months ago, this will surely be coming before the ZBA sometime soon. It will be interesting to see whether [...]

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=677783370 Loretta Lupo Tague

    Regarding the place next door – the owner came back to SOSNA Zoning last month with some revisions, and according to http://southofsouth.org/initiatives/zba-hearings the project’s now scheduled to go before ZBA on 7/31 – “7/31/2012, 9:30 AM. 922 South 20th Street, Cal # 17174. Erection of additions and decks to existing three-family dwelling with eat-in/take-out restaurant.”

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