We spotted a zoning notice a couple of weeks ago on a ho-hum building near the corner of 12th & Vine, but (as you might expect) were speeding by too fast to take a closer look. A few days later, we remembered to check the L&I Map and discovered that the owners of the property have plans to rehab it in the near future.

The white building

According to the zoning application, developers intend to construct a two story addition in the rear of the property, build out three apartments upstairs, and have a vacant commercial space on the first floor. Hopefully, the work will also include some work on the building’s facade, which could use a little love. It seems there are no concrete plans as of yet for the commercial space, though we wonder whether any sort of retail operation…

In the fall, we told you about 1221 Mount Vernon St., a large parcel on the western side of the “Spring Arts” neighborhood that was on the market for a mere $1.8M. At the time, we wondered whether a developer would step forward and possibly look toward an adaptive reuse for this property which has contained an auto body shop for the last three decades, noting all the development that’s taken place in the neighborhood in recent years.

The building. Looks rough.

According to Hidden City, the property in question is over a hundred years old and was constructed as a power substation for mass transit. The building immediately next door, in fact, still fills that purpose for Septa. Standing in front of the building it’s not immediately clear where the property lines lie, but realtor Lawrence…

Over a year ago, we first told you about plans for the renovation of 1107 S. 6th St., a double-wide husk of a building that sat directly to the south of a recently built dentist’s office and in between two large Asian shopping centers. Plans at the time were for a fourth-floor addition to the building with four apartments and a restaurant on the first floor. Despite these plans, the building sat untouched, and it remained a blighting influence on its surroundings.

In the past

Some time recently, the owners of the building began demolishing the building, seemingly rendering the previous zoning application (and approval) rather moot. Check it out:

Mostly gone

View from the south shows the mostly demoed building and the still newish building next door

A new…

As any Temple student or regular reader of this site is well aware, there’s been a tremendous amount of new development in the area surrounding Temple in the last several years. So when we spotted a ZBA notice for a new development at 1901 N. 19th St., we figured it was just more of the same.

The lot

Standing on this corner, one wouldn’t necessarily expect that one of the more satisfying student housing projects in the area is located just a block to the east. Despite that and all the other development in the area, this corner is particularly desolate, with a ton of vacant land to the north.

Looking east. Cool project at 18th & Berks in the distance.

Looking down the 1900 block of N

…

Now that attempts to transform a large vacant Spring Garden Street building into a single family home have petered out, a proposal is on the table for the site to become a daycare center. The other day, we spotted an orange zoning application in the window of 2225 Spring Garden St., a historic building despite that fact that it was built in 1958. The zoning notice indicated a ZBA hearing on March 20th for a ground floor daycare, an apartment above, and signage.

The building

“That’s it in a nutshell,” said Stephen Pollock, the attorney representing the interested party. A hand applied stick it note on the application listed Pollock’s number and said to call with any questions.

We imagine that this proposal will be supported at the ZBA, though we could fathom neighbor concerns about added traffic from a daycare. On…

On Wednesday, the ZBA approved a plan for outdoor seating in a garden area behind American Sardine Bar at 18th & Federal. Coming into the hearing, John Longacre, owner of the bar and garden, was concerned that this approval would not come before the summer months rolled around. Just one more delay, said Longacre, would have been enough to push the bulk of construction into July and August.

ZBA Hearing

This was not the first time that Longacre, who also owns the South Philly Tap Room, was concerned that a ZBA hearing would straight-jacket his attempt at using the lot for outdoor seating. He first applied last December but was delayed due to a continuance requested by nearby resident Sylvia Wilkins. Her reasoning was that there was not enough community input on…