A little less than a year ago, we first told you about plans for the construction of seven new homes at 114-22 Ellsworth St., a vacant lot in Pennsport. Since then, foundations have been poured, framing has taken place, interior work has been done, and the homes look like they’re coming down the home stretch.

In the past

Current view

From further back

From what we can tell, the homes are not listed on the market as of yet, but we’re expecting pricing in the high $400K range. With two dozen additional new homes coming to the neighborhood in the year to come, we’d have to think that these developers are pleased with their timing, getting a little separation from the competition.

Rendering of the homes from Harman Deutsch

Pretty soon, it seems, there won’t be any vacant land left in Pennsport.

Last week, we briefly mentioned progress on the Stable Flats project, across the street from a garage that will soon turn into a salon. We first mentioned this project last spring, and and in that time it’s progressed from foundations to the assembly of three modular units, and the name of the project has changed to simply The Stables.

View from One Shot Cafe

View from Bodine and George

From the outside, these three homes, listed at just below $700K, appear to be nearly complete, though we’d imagine that there’s still some interior work to be done. We’re guessing that once a couple of these are sold, we’ll see more get built next door. A few years from now, we expect to see twenty-seven (!) of these homes.

That's a lot of modular

Certainly something to keep an eye on.

We were on the 1800 block of Frankford Ave. last week and spotted some new construction that we hadn’t previously heard about. So clearly, we decided to do some sniffing around to see what we could learn.

From the north

1849 Frankford Ave. was purchased by M2cr2 LLC in September, apparently from the City. We’ve never heard of this particular developer, but we’re pretty sure at least one of the principals is involved in BMK Properties, a developer we’ve covered a couple of times for projects in the general area. According to permit information we found on the L&I website, this property is on its way to becoming a single family home, and KJO Architecture has done the design work.

In the past

In the future

The home is…

Back in April, we told you about two new homes that were getting built on Hope Street in Northern Liberties, just south of Girard Avenue. At the time, the Residences at H3 were under heavy construction and we wondered about the desirability of living across the street from a couple of severely blighted warehouses. In the intervening months, the H3 project has been finished, and the warehouses caught fire. So now, instead of a construction site and a blighted building, these homes, which are now finished, sit next to a parking lot and across the street from a more secured empty warehouse and a vacant lot.

Finished homes

Looking up the block. New homes on the left.

Since the first two homes apparently worked so nicely, the same developers are coming back for more. Yesterday, at…

Back in September, developers presented a plan for 14-22 W. Thompson St., a vacant lot just a stone’s throw from the El, to an unimpressed Fishtown Neighbors Association. According to a thread on Fishtown.us, some attitude from the developer may have turned the crowd against him, resulting in a vote against the project, with near neighbors opposing it by a vote of 21-2.

The lot

The El nearby

At an October ZBA hearing, the project was continued. Now, after a few months, the project is coming back to the ZBA tomorrow, with no additional public meetings that we’ve heard about. The application appears unchanged from a few months ago, with a proposal to build two four-unit buildings and two two-unit buildings, with a total of six parking spaces. Considering the

Any regular reader of this site knows that we love fiberglass awnings just about as much as we love the Dallas Cowboys. For those unfamiliar, these awnings took South Philly (and other parts of the city as well) by storm several decades ago, and many homes have retained them after all these years. And they look utterly horrible.

An example

Zipping down Federal Street the other day, we spotted a new construction property on the southwest corner of 5th & Federal. And while its shiny new awnings aren’t the same crime against humanity as their older counterparts, we’re still not fans. Are you?

Still not doing anything for us

Better than the alternative, though