Two months back, we brought it to your attention that the former check cashing place at 2200 Saint Albans St. was getting renovated after over a year of vacancy. We lamented the fact that the former commercial space would be lost in favor of an additional residential unit, but were cheered by the fact that this nuisance property was finally getting cleaned up.

The other day, we noticed a new addition to the building.

Rear in January

The other day

It’s wonderful that the new owners are maintaining the old brick facade, but we’re a little worried about how the building will eventually look with the meeting of brick and some other material in the rear and on the roof. Hopefully, it will be some kind of sheathing and not just a stucco job.

We shall see…

A reader tipped us off to a new zoning notice at 2400 W. Thompson St., on the border of Brewerytown and Sharswood. This blighted shell has been on and off the market for several years at an asking price of around $40K. Though public record doesn’t show a sale, we’re guessing that new owners are behind an effort to rehab the building and use it for four apartments.

In bad shape

As you can see, the building is in need of some significant TLC. This is not unexpected, considering the fact that numerous blighted buildings are prominent in the immediately surrounding area. Vacant land is also a problem.

Across the street

Immediately to the north is vacant land and blight

There’s no question that the Brewerytown neighborhood to the west has been…

For the 5100 block of Chester Ave. in West Philly, Farm 51 could represent an important marker in the rebuilding process for a block.

A few years ago, the northwestern side of the 5100 block of Chester featured run down homes and a few vacant lots. Before one of those lots turned into a farm, its owners rehabbed one of the blighted homes on the block, then eventually bought another and turned the vacant lot into a urban farm. We wrote about this last April.

Farm 51

Now we wonder, what might be the fate of the rest of the block over the next few years. It contains a number of vacant, dilapidated, unoccupied homes—four, at least—as well as a handful of vacant storefronts. As one continues along Chester from 51st Street, Victorian homes line the street, where there isn’t a church and medical…

We were heading through Francisville on 18th Street and spotted what looked like some new construction a couple blocks north of Girard. When we came in to get a closer look, it turned out to be an addition to an existing building rather than a completely new structure.

From the south

As you can see, the rear of 1800 Master St. looked terrible just a couple of years ago.

In the past

Turns out the front didn’t look much better. In fact, the front pretty much looks just as bad now as it did back then.

A few years back.

This week

Xm Investments purchased this property back in 2010, and owns several other properties in the immediate vicinity. After leaving many of their properties in lousy…

The other day, we told you about a new home that’s currently under construction on Norris St. by developers BMK Properties. Today, we can tell you about two other homes nearby that this developer is working on at the moment.

These two right here

The home on the corner, 2216 E. Thompson St., is clearly a new construction home. When finished, it will have 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and 2,200 sqft of living space. It’s listed for under $350K. Like the other BMK home we told you about, this property is also designed by KJO Architects, a firm that’s doing plenty of work in the area. Check out this rendering and these floor plans for a better idea of what the property will eventually look like, inside and out.

Coming soon

While we were out taking photos along Woodland Avenue, and of a charming, and locked, pocket park in West Philly, at 48th and Chester, we came upon these blighted units in a strip of homes located just south of Chester Avenue on 47th Street.

Yuck

According to October 2009 Google Earth images, the vacant shells fare about as well today as they did three years ago, the difference being fresher looking boards in the first- and second-story windows and some minor clean-up. As for the strip of homes, some of the former graffiti has been removed. Across the street at the southwest corner of 47th and Chester is a corner store style deli that also sells beer.

It’s a shame to see these potentially charming structures offering blight to the neighborhood in lieu of potential ground-floor retail.

Looking

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