About a year ago, we first gave you a little insight into the interesting history of the 1600 block of Sansom Street. To briefly review, Wayne Spilove, then head of the Historical Commission, purchased the non-high-rise buildings on the north side of the block from Sam Rappaport, and proceeded to demolish them all. His plans for a twelve-story parking garage fell through, and an embarrassing surface lot persisted for many years after. Finally, Pearl Apartments stepped forward last year with plans for The Sansom, which would finally fill in this lot in the heart of Center City. And construction is progressing nicely.

A year ago

In October

Recent shot

The last time we checked in on this site was on the day that Federal Donuts opened across the…

The other night, after a tasty adult beverage at the Industry, we noticed a construction site nearby. The next day, we zoomed back to Pennsport to take a closer look. What we discovered at 1327 E. Moyamensing Ave. is a new single family homes that’s been framed out in recent months.

The new home

Developer Dottie Properties, builders of two homes we covered in Francisville several months ago, purchased this lot for under $100K a few months ago. Now, they’re well on their way to completing a three bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom home with three car parking and over 4,000 sqft of living space. From what we can tell, two of the parking spaces will be in front of the house with the third in the garage. Check out the rendering and floor plan we pulled from Trend:…

Back in May, we told you with great excitement and a small amount of concern for our health that Federal Donuts would be opening a second location on the 1600 block of Sansom Street. Though we’ve been hearing that this new establishment would be opening its doors for the first time on Wednesday, we happened to be in the area today and were shocked and awed when… <gasp> there were customers inside.

Open for biz

Seems that the good folks at Federal Donuts II were going with a soft opening today, offering a lucky few the chance to enjoy some tasty tasty chicken before the official opening date. We were able to get our dirty mitts on a couple of hot donuts, which barely made it out the door before they were joyously consumed. Needless to say,…

A reader sent us this listing from Loopnet, which indicates that the 2,000 sqft space that’s been home to Krispy Kreme for a little more than a year is available for sublease. When a small, local business like Ramen Boy folds after a short time, it’s not really such a surprise. But when a store that’s part of a giant corporation can’t make a go of it in just a year, it’s fairly unexpected, ya know?

The space

The corner

Krispy Kreme is located at 41 S. 16th St., just a tad north of the corner of 16th & Chestnut. While Liberty Place is across the street, and the corner gets all kinds of pedestrian traffic, the Krispy Kreme is very easy to miss for people walking past on Chestnut…

A few months ago, we told you about the upcoming arrival of Shake Shack, a New York chain specializing in burgers and shakes (‘natch) at the corner of 20th & Sansom. More recently, we brought this construction site to your attention again, noting the excellent and unexpected addition of greenery to an otherwise uninteresting plywood wall. Last week, the plywood wall came down, and on Tuesday, Shake Shack officially opened for business. And people, like, totally freaked out.

The line on the first day wrapped around the building. Foobooz did a four-hour live blogging of the opening. Today, there were again people climbing over each other to get in the door.

Well after the lunch rush

The mob inside

Not since Federal Donuts do…

In the past, when discussing a couple of Pennsport projects, we’ve made reference to Federal Donuts, a donut, fried chicken, and coffee spot that opened less than a year ago at 2nd and Manton Sts., and has quickly built a zealot-like following of customers dedicated to deep-fried perfection. We (clearly) love this place, but have often found ourselves wishing that they had another location on the other side of town. Our wish is apparently coming true.

Current spot.

At last night’s CCRA zoning meeting, representatives from this deliciously successful establishment presented plans to the community for a second location on the 1600 block of Sansom St., in a space last occupied by a video store. Is this the best news that we’ve heard all month? Quite probably.

Future

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