Minor cleanup work has started inside the former Croydon Apartments located at 49th and Locust, according to Matt Barrabee of Orens Brothers. Orens Brothers is the developer poised to renovate the long vacant building once known as a squatter’s paradise into 127 one, two, and three-bedroom apartments.

The building

Rendering from February

Readers have noted in our comments section that work began inside the building. A crossing guard posted across the street from the site said workers had been in and out since early fall. When we reported on the development before Valentine’s Day last winter, Barrabee said construction could begin within 90 days. He also said tenants might occupy apartments by September 2013.

Strong new chain

“It took longer to get financing than expected,” said Barrabee this week. He…

Now that a bidder on the old West Philadelphia High School has hosted a community meeting and revealed plans to renovate the 1912 building into mixed use studio and loft apartments, we wonder what the future will bring for the vacant lot across the street on the southwest corner of 48th & Walnut.

Vacant lot

In January, 2011, fire ravaged through the Windmere Court Apartments. The structure was demolished months later. The story of the fire sparked the Philadelphia Weekly to investigate the situation.

Windmere before the fire

In two months, two years will have passed since the fire. The lot remains vacant and textured by overgrown grass. Strong Place Partners (SPP), the New York-based firm likely to win the bid for the old school, have indicated the lot could be incorporated in…

The apple, it seems, was tempting, but not tempting enough. Now, the building is for sale, and the apple could end up falling very far from the tree.

Apple storage

After receiving strong community support, as well as some opposition (perhaps a one-man show style opposition, according to this City Paper story), developers from Iron-Stone got zoning approval back in April. But to this point, they’ve been unable to secure the necessary financing that would enable them to embark on the ambitious Apple Lofts development just

Over the past fifteen or so years, the Baltimore Avenue commercial corridor and the surrounding neighborhoods have changed quite a bit.

This Philadelphia Speaks thread references a 1996 conversation between two West Philly friends. One considered the area to be “gentrification proof,” an idea that intrigued the man. The posts indicate that 49th & Baltimore was once an outdoor drug market and Baltimore Avenue contained a string of abandoned commercial buildings. Today, 49th and Baltimore is just a few doors down from the Mariposa Food Coop. It’s gone from narcotics to organic kale just fifteen years!

Image from Philly Mag

As such, we wonder just how far the West Philly rebuild has come and will go. Perhaps it will stretch beyond 52nd Street? If the Apple Lofts project just south of 51st and Baltimore manifests, it could provide some help. And…

As Philadelphia continues its transition into the 21st century, its Phila2035 initiative is taking shape in neighborhoods throughout the city. There have been meetings to generate community input, which will be used to inform eighteen different District Plans. Some of those visions have been adopted, like Lower South and West Park, or are underway, like in the Lower Northeast and Central districts.

Slated to kick off in the fall, the University/Southwest District Plan will seek to address the major planning issues in the neighborhoods captured in that district. To do their part, members of Cedar Park Neighbors announced a survey designed to collect input from local residents about the area that stretches north to Larchwood Avenue south to Kingsessing Ave., east to 46th Street, and west to 52nd Street.

Welcome

CPN has designated Baltimore Avenue between 49th and 52nd Streets as…

While the days of the Half Lord of the Fishes pose are over at 4916 Baltimore Ave. in West Philly, another neighborhood store will soon occupy the former Wake Up Yoga location.

Employees announced their intentions to leave the site this spring due to a decrease in students. Perhaps the existence of two Yoga studios within four blocks of one another oversaturated the area with atman, as Studio 34 is located at 4522 Baltimore Ave.

Baltimore Ave

Replacing Wake Up Yoga? The Marvelous, the record and music store now located on Penn’s campus at 208 S. 40th St. in an