Last summer, we wondered about the stretch of vacant storefronts on 40th Street, north of Chestnut, across from the Hub building. It seemed curious that so many vacancies would be there, across from a fancy newish building and on the edge of Penn’s campus. After we did some digging, we realized that Penn owned much of the corner, and the commercial spaces were being kept vacant on purpose, with the thought that a second phase of the Hub would eventually rise at this location.

The Hub

So you can imagine our surprise, when today, after an utterly unsuccessful sheriff’s sale, we spotted a new business in the northernmost previously unoccupied property, 34 N 40th St.

The new store

This new business, Locust Moon Comics, takes up a…

We recently got an email from a reader asking about the weird vacancy on the corner of 40th and Chestnut Sts., across the street from Distrito.

Thar she blows

For those of you unfamiliar with that corner, the Hub is the prominent building anyone would notice right away. It was constructed almost five years ago on the northeast corner, replacing some low-rise commercial buildings with a ten-story mixed-use building with market-rate apartment rentals and high-end retail tenants like Distrito and Jean Madeline/Aveda Institute. The building was designed by Piatt Associates and probably splits the critics in the architectural community with its unique post-modern design. It was built by Teres Holdings LLC, through a long-term land lease with Penn- similar deals were struck with the Hanover Company, which…