Last summer, we mentioned rumors that the extremely popular and often overcrowded Trader Joe’s at 22nd & Market would be undergoing renovations and an expansion. And when we stopped by to pick up some essentials the other day, we discovered that the much-anticipated renovations have been completed. A new front flower display was unveiled five days ago, and just yesterday TJ’s revealed the first big changes to the store since it opened in 2003.

New entryway

Flowers and prepared foods on the right

All seems the same from the usually-jammed parking lot, but as you enter into what used to be an enclosed foyer of mixed bouquets and cinnamon brooms you now face doors for cart traffic in and out, and an open expanse of the bright store. The flower market leads you in and to the right, which is…

Today, a reader reached out and gave us some of the more surprising news we’ve heard in recent months. The Forum, that old movie palace at 2208 Market St. that’s somehow still been showing nudie films for the last however many years, that venue that attempted to expand its building and its services until being denied by a judge last year, that business that nearby residents at the Murano have hoped would just disappear since the day they moved in, has closed its doors.

Yup

The building

Three men were working on the site, but a language barrier precluded any of them from sharing with us exactly why the business closed or what was in store for the building moving forward. We don’t even know when the theater closed, but we did find a…

Across the street from Trader Joe’s, a vacant retail location is available for rent on the not-so-commercially- thriving-yet-still-enticing 2100 block of Market Street.

Vacant space

Hoagie City has gone the way of see-ya at 2136-38 Market. It goes without saying that they were no Sarcone’s, but what will come next in this 4200 sqft space currently listed for $6,500/month? More sandwiches? Crepes? Another adult video store?

Porn shops still exist?

Perhaps it was the location- bordered by a Salvation Army Thrift Store on its west-end and Le’s Gal’s and Book Bin II, two adult stores on its east-end- that led to its demise. The question: what entrepreneur has the cojones to try to make something happen here?

Zoning on that side of Market Street, the south side, is handled by the 

For a vacant lot in the middle of our central business district, 1919 Market St. has a fascinating history over the past few decades. The last building on this lot, the Penn Center Inn, was torn down over twenty years ago in anticipation of a twin to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Building. According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, a second development plan was held up for over a decade by numerous lawsuits after the original developer went bust. Finally, after years of litigation, Opus East purchased the lot in 2005 and planned a 38-story mixed use building and then a 14-story residential building before going bankrupt in 2009. At the beginning of this year, Brandywine Realty Trust purchased the lucky lot for $9.3M.

Most recently, the lot contained a pop-up garden, thanks to the Pennsylvania Horticultural…

Black lacquered furniture, glass tables and red accents would be right at home in Gordon Gekko’s Bridgehampton beach house, next to a fabulously late-1980s Daryl Hannah. (‘You spent $400K on that Georgia O’Keeffe? You could get a beach house for that.’ ‘Yea, maybe in Wildwood, N.J.’) This expanded 1,634-square-foot two-bedroom (plus den) three-bath residence at The Murano (2101 Market Street) is going for $1,297,000. The upgrades to the condo include Lutron QED motorized shades, custom closets and designer lighting. Floor-to-ceiling windows, hardwood floors, chrome fixtures, spa bathrooms with frameless glass showers, a 60-foot indoor pool, garage parking, private storage and landscaped sun deck would all be perfect for some day trading. —Caitlin Connors