A reader gave us the heads up that at Tuesday’s Bella Vista Town Watch meeting, there would be a presentation for a ridiculous new building at 712-14 S. 8th St., currently a rental parking lot. According to the meeting announcement, developers are planning a seventy-foot-tall six-story building for this 3,500 sqft lot with ten apartments and two parking spots.

The lot

Closer look

To try to gain an understanding of exactly how ridiculous the proposal was going to be and because we can’t get enough of community meetings, we decided to attend last night. At the meeting were several dozen neighbors, irate at the idea of what they believed to be an overuse at this location and a building that wouldn’t fit in with the surrounding neighborhood.

The strange thing about the presentation was that the representative…

Last week, we told you about the new Turkish restaurant, Divan, located in the former Shouk space at 622 S 6th St., in Bella Vista. At the time, we also mentioned the upcoming Bainbridge Street Barrel House, on the northeast corner of 6th and Bainbridge Sts., which is currently under heavy construction. Perusing Philadelphia Speaks the other day as we so often do, we learned about another interesting project in the immediate area that bears mentioning.

6th St., looking north

In February, we told you that 531-33 Bainbridge St., a former storage facility for Fleishman’s Fabrics, had been sold. We wondered at that time whether the new owner, a Center City dentist, would open a huge dental facility, tear down the buildings and replace it with new homes, or open up a laser…

We were in the neighborhood yesterday picking up some cheese and noticed a zoning notice at 837 Montrose St., the former Fante-Leone swimming pool.

The pool

We love this building. Well, the facade on Montrose St., at least. We wrote a post about it last year, detailing some of its history and wondering when the building would eventually sell. At the time, it was listed for $477,500 and had been on the market for a couple of years.

Let Brotherly Love Continue

When we first spied the zoning notice, we were jazzed to see the orange sign and hopeful that the developer would redevelop the site and reuse the existing facade in some creative way. Upon closer examination, this doesn’t appear to be what’s going to happen. According to the zoning notice, the developer intends…