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Wed
Apr 11
2012

A Hilarious Joke or a Cause for Hope at 16th and Mount Vernon?

Today, a reader tipped us off about a new sign at 1601 Mount Vernon St., the historic Robert Purvis House. You may remember, we told you about this blighted, deteriorating building a few months back, lamenting its continuing spiral toward probable collapse. Here’s a shot of the building from that post:

Yuck

As we told you back then, the owner of this property has proposed redevelopment several times over the last ten years or so, with a presentation less than a year ago to the Historical Commission. And now, according to a recently affixed sign on the building, the owner of the property appears ready to move forward here.

Wait, what's that little sign?

Whoa! How bout that?

According to the sign, the owner of the property will rehab this property and split it into three condo units, each with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, parking, balconies, and a deck. Sounds pretty good.

Clearly, the redevelopment of this building would be a huge boost for this area, and an encouraging sign for people who have been staring at the blighted structure for years. With the owner’s track record, however, of repeatedly proposing but not executing development plans, we’re going to need to see some actual construction taking place before we get all worked up.

Here’s hoping…

7
COMMENTS
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Posted in Spring Garden | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments
  • MountVernonNeighbor

    I spoke with the owner. (I called the number on the sign.  I’m a curious neighbor that lives a block away)  He is using Loonstyn to do the work.  He plans to start in the next 6 weeks or so.  The owner is planning to live on site in a unit of his own, which he hopes is completed first, and then oversee the rest of the work while it is done.  It will be nice to have the eyesore gone from the corner.

  • tom

    I walk by this building almost every day. It is very depressing to see. I hope redevelopment will go forward.  It is hard to believe that someone would sit on a building like this and let it fall into further disappear. That should be a crime.

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

    This is a case of a historical property that probably isn’t worth saving.  I can’t imagine there is anything salvageable inside, and there is nothing architecturally significant about the outside. The cornice is gone, brickmold is undoubtedly rotted away, and the brick is all damaged and spalling from years of water infiltration and freeze/thaw stress.  Maybe they can patch or consolidate it, but why bother? 

  • Clank

    Loonstyn is not good and unfortunately too popular.  They are an old-school Fairmount-based “developer” who started their business as roofers.  Now they buy houses from ailing seniors in the neighborhood and “renovate” them to resell.  There are two brothers – one is better than the other.  The better one tends to gut less and preserve more.  The other tears everything out and replaces it with ubiquitous Home Depot crap.  They actually developed the new mixed-use building at Fairmount and Uber, which isn’t half bad.  Maybe they should stick with that for now on.

  • Chocho

    The remarkable thing about Loonstyn is that people spend alot of money ($400,000- $500,000) for his crappy renovations. I used to think it was just empty nestors from NJ who want to continue to live their McMansion dreams (in terms of shiny cheap finishes) in hip Fairmount but now I see it is more and more people from within Fairmount who I guess think they are buying “up.” 

  • http://blog.philadelphiarealestate.com/flipping-the-past-philadelphia-abolitionist-robert-purvis-spring-garden-home/ Flipping the past: Philadelphia abolitionist Robert Purvis’ Spring Garden home | Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

    [...] certain other Philly real estate blog had posted an item in early April stating there was supposed to be some activity starting within six weeks. It is now August and [...]

  • http://nakedphilly.com/spring-garden/update-demolition-ongoing-at-purvis-house/ Update: “Demolition” Ongoing at Purvis House | NakedPhilly

    [...] without proper permits or the walls simply crumbled of their own accord. What this means for the rumored plans of three new condos with parking at the property, we couldn’t tell you, but we’re hoping that the property owners step in sooner rather [...]

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