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Tue
Jul 17
2012

Tremendous Commercial Development Coming to Italian Market, But Could It Be Better?

A couple of weeks ago, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported on a proposed retail project for the southeast corner of 9th & Washington, a mostly vacant lot that formerly contained a warehouse structure for the American Ice Company. Part of this warehouse was torn down years ago and replaced by a building that currently contains Anastasi Seafood. The rest of the building remained until its demolition in 2008. For more information about the building and what went on inside, click here or here.

In 1915

In 2007. Photo credit Ghost Sign Project.

The warehouse spent its final days as a blighted hulk, weighing down the southern end of the Italian Market. For years we saw this building as a key factor in the underdevelopment of 9th Street, south of Washington Avenue. Since its demolition, its lot has been fenced in, with a plywood fence occasionally featuring some murals. And prospects have improved some for businesses on this stretch.

Looking north on 9th St.

Plywood fence, with some murals. Anastasi's in the background

View of the corner

Now, Midwood Investments & Development have come up with a plan to redevelop this corner. The concept, entitled The Italian Marketplace, involved a one story commercial development with about 30,000 sqft of retail space, along with an underground parking lot with spaces for 70 cars. Take a look at the preliminary site plan and rendering, which we imagine are very much subject to change.

Three retail spaces

Reminds us of Xfinity Live!

The current proposal would strike Anastasi’s and replace it with the new construction building pictured above. Three retail spaces are planned, with a 12K sqft space on the corner, a 6K sqft space in the middle of the building going south, and another 12K sqft space on the southern end of the building. Entrance to the parking garage would be on Washington Avenue.

We have little doubt that this concept, if executed correctly, will succeed. Provided the rent numbers are within reason, the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood in addition to the tourist business in the Italian Market would provide retailers with plenty of customers. We can see this development further spurring the entirety of the Italian Market, and even perhaps encouraging the Esposito family to build something on their unfortunate vacant lot on the 1000 block.

But… is this really, truly, honestly the very best use for this corner? We remember, when the Ice House building was still standing, dreaming of adaptive reuse, with three floors of apartments on top of retail storefronts. Plenty of Italian Market stores have apartments above, why not these? Wouldn’t the retailers appreciate the additional customers that upstairs neighbors would provide? C’mon, it’s a city, let’s get some density here!

While this is a decent proposal and certainly better than a vacant lot, it just seems like a missed opportunity. What do you think? Is single-story commercial appropriate here? Or would adding a couple of stories of apartments be the way to go?

23
COMMENTS
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Posted in Passyunk Square | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments
  • cinquecento

    I agree with your take. I feel that anything new in the area has to be done right — the charm of the Italian market is that it does not feel “corporate”. Even having the sign on top saying Italian market is a step in that direction.

    The other obvious thing is that we are talking about Washington Avenue, a major street that is still starved for some high density compared to comparable avenues.

  • Anonymous

    I actually disagree with you guys on the density issue. I think adding residential greatly impacts the improving nightlife in that stretch ( Connie’s & Terry’s comes to mind).  The Italian Market is a bit of sound chamber.  From dawn to dusk it is a pretty noisy area already.  All you would be doing is adding future NIMBys.

  • phillyhicks

    Pathetic!  Totally suburban strip mall and cheap looking!  At least today, Anastasi’s has charm and a look of timelessness, it could have been there for 15 years or 50.  It seams to be a wasted opportunity to build a dozen or so apartments on a couple of floors.  I really hope  the owners can be convinced to make some upgrades.  If they intend this property to be an anchor for the neighborhood, they have to do better than that.

  • http://planphilly.com/eyesonthestreet/2012/07/17/chinatown-community-center-symbolism-think-bigger-at-9th-and-washington-debating-pop-up-urbanism-new-office-of-grants-225k-grant-supports-city-harvest/ Chinatown Community Center symbolism | think bigger at 9th and Washington | debating pop-up urbanism | new Office of Grants | $225k grant supports City Harvest

    [...] Midwood Investments & Development is proposing a single-story retail building and underground ga… and Naked Philly rightly wonders if this is the best they can do? It’s a major intersection and it feels like a “missed opportunity” to create residential or office space above the large ground-floor retail spaces. [...]

  • Wharf Rat

    Would be a great place to open a Vietnamese noodle house.

  • JoEv

    Yes!  The Italian Market as a lifestyle center.  Now we just need to demolish a few blocks around it for the parking.

    This should be the development priority in my view:

    1. Renovate a perfectly fine older building, preserving the city’s history and “placeness” while also pushing new development onto the glut of open lots that already exist.

    2. If the building is no longer structurally sound, then demolish it and replace it with something worthwhile–i.e., a well-designed building that adequately addresses its urban context.

    This, of course, fits into neither of those categories.

    Will the new zoning help in this regard?  I guess that it’s possible to make things harder to tear down (historic designations, etc.), though as we’ve seen, developers will just sit on a property until it either falls or burns down.

    Then there’s the problem of legislating “good design.”  You don’t want committees picking apart cohesive designs, but you also don’t want developer schlock (Toll Brothers anyone?) to pass through unchecked.

    The system we have hasn’t given us a good solution to this so far.

  • veggie

    1 story? waste of space.

    i’m not saying plop a high rise over here, but c’mon, at least add 2-3 more levels. 

  • JoEv

    I should add that this building isn’t the worst that I’ve seen.  It does meet the sidewalk and push parking underground.  My main point is that there’s nothing here that distinguishes it from a generic suburban lifestyle centers that only pretend to be unique places.  This proposal is certainly not better than keeping and renovating the old warehouse.  It lacks density (as noted above) and sustainable elements, among other things.

    Someone has to save us from the proliferation of Xfinity Live!/Lifestyle center architecture.

  • JoEv

    Density doesn’t necessarily mean residential use.  That old warehouse could have been a great space for offices.

  • http://twitter.com/ambiguator ambiguator

    density issues aside, there really aren’t too many large retail lots in this area. I wager these will be snatched up immediately.

  • MSBRE

    5 bucks says Trader Joes takes the whole thing. 30K sq/ft and 70 parking spaces is there MO

  • http://hiddencityphila.org/2012/07/unearthing-the-delaware-waterfront-that-william-penn-knew/ Unearthing The Delaware Waterfront That William Penn Knew | Hidden City Philadelphia

    [...] Investments & Development is planning “The Italian Marketplace,” a commercial development of 30,000 square feet at the now mostly vaca…Naked Philly is confident that the project would prove successful, but wonders if a denser, [...]

  • http://www.facebook.com/bobbydombroski Bobby Dombroski

    That’s fucking ugly. Smack the shit out of the designer and tell them to add more floors. This is the city for fuck sake.

  • http://twitter.com/F1rstCitizen First Citizen

    A 1 story development would be tremendously short-sighted.  

  • http://www.city-data.com/forum/philadelphia/1304227-philadelphia-2035-a-47.html#post25209741 Philadelphia 2035 – Page 47 – City-Data Forum

    [...] Thansk to Summer again View of the corner Now, Midwood Investments & Development have come up with a plan to redevelop this corner. The concept, entitled The Italian Marketplace, involved a one story commercial development with about 30,000 sqft of retail space, along with an underground parking lot with spaces for 70 cars. Take a look at the preliminary site plan and rendering, which we imagine are very much subject to change. Three retail spaces Reminds us of Xfinity Live! Tremendous Commercial Development Coming to Italian Market, But Could It Be Better? | NakedPhilly [...]

  • CW Mote

    At least the wall with the murals makes the empty lot possible to ignore…I really can’t understand why landowners (esp. the City itself) don’t do more to cover up vacant land; do they have a 99-year contract with Northeast Fencing or something?

  • http://twitter.com/ambiguator ambiguator

    Looks like this was not on the calendar for the most recent PSCA zoning meeting. http://www.passyunksquare.org/category/zoning/

    Any idea if this is slated for September?This is technically PSCA’s jurisdiction right?

    They suggest opening is feasible by “the first half of 2014″, but I remain highly skeptical.

  • http://www.facebook.com/robert.young.750 Robert Young

    Needs residential above, but otherwise it seems like a great idea.

    The demolition of the ice and coal warehouse was a sad loss.  The demolition of the fish market and its worriesome smell  would come as a welcome relief to the corner.

  • JoEv

    You can insert windows into thick walls.  It’s pretty absurd to claim that a building’s not salvageable because it’s too structurally sound. 

  • Myles Goodman

    One story design could be a plus if modified to become “open air.” I’m imagining something like Frankford Hall in N.L. Plus this would stay true to the open air nature of the Italian Market itself.

  • Guest

     Huh?  The “open air nature” of the Italian market is on the street–in front of 3 story buildings.

  • Dirk Pitt

    Too much housing as it is. The city needs housing that will pull in families. Not starving artists and drunk interns.

  • benji
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