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Tue
May 22
2012

Update: New Homes Progressing on 20th and Oxford Sts.

In December, we told you about five homes replacing empty lots at 2001-09 W. Oxford St., a few blocks north of the Girard College campus. At the time, the developers had just gone to zoning. Now, these buildings have been framed out and are getting facades.

In the past

Yesterday

At the time, we wondered whether, as the zoning applications stated, the homes would all be different, with one of the structures rising 53′ high. As we can now see, the five homes all look the same on the outside, though there are likely some interior differences between the units. The location tells us that this is more student housing for Temple students, which should be ready just in time for the beginning of the fall semester.

View on 20th St.

We do wish that the developers would have made a different choice both in terms of design and materials for the frontage on 20th Street. In a more perfect world, there would be more windows, larger windows, and something other than vinyl on this wall. Sure, we get it that these are rentals, but did they really have to announce it like that?

11
COMMENTS
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Posted in Temple | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments
  • Anonymous

    Why are the doors so low?

  • phillyboy

    Exactly.  For crying out loud, can’t the developers spend a few thousand bucks more for the sake of quality and aesthetics?  I mean if they’re spending tens of thousands of dollars already, what’s a few grand more?

  • guest

    is it really possible to rent this out?

    pretty ballsy move by the developer

  • http://www.facebook.com/bobbydombroski Bobby Dombroski

    If you have been to this area around Temple lately, It should be quite easy for the developer to get these rented in no time. Even as ugly looking as they are. ha

  • Vieux Pays

    Sorry but there is a reason no one else is building on 20th St.
    No one wants to live that far out.  Many people have gone broke
    believing “If I develop it, they will come.”

  • guest

    i’m a temple student, just don’t see how new construction at 20th is realistic. i know some students that live there but that’s because they pay ridiculously low rents (2-300). that won’t be possible with new construction. 

    we’ll see, i hope they are successful and we see more development that far out.

  • Fecteau03

    20th and Oxford really isn’t that far out. Five blocks from TU is an easy walk.  And this neighborhood is filling in.  If it were north of Oxford, I could see why someone would question, but the neighborhood around St Joe Prep is fine.  No, the design isn’t great, but how many homes developed in that area are really anything to write home about? 

  • http://twitter.com/F1rstCitizen First Citizen

    A lot of people have also gotten filthy rich believing that.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/bobbydombroski Bobby Dombroski

    The fact that you have decided to live in that area in the first place and not travel into school from a more desirable neighborhood is proof that with enough time 20th will be “realistic”. This website the other day had a story on a heap of new construction on 18-19th streets. Is it really that crazy to think that by next year this area will not be slightly populated with college students? And vieux, why is no one else building on 20th st? I wouldn’t want to live on 17th st either, it is really, truly no better, but low and behold. There has been over a dozen new buildings put up within the last two years between Berks and Montgomery. Give it time, they WILL come

  • Vieux Pays

    It’s easy to say “what’s the big deal about an extra block” when you’re not the one paying the mortgage on a vacant building.  Look around the margins of the Temple area and you will find examples of rehabbed or even new construction properties that are sitting vacant or have reverted to Section 8.  

    Also, that “five block walk” only takes you to the corner of 15th & Oxford.  Most of the academic buildings where classes are held are closer to 13th & Berks or even 12th & Berks.  If you have multiple classes at different times of day, is it really practical to make that walk back and forth more than one time?

  • Rwb

    Meh.  Temple Students come from all over already.  Back when I was still at Temple we lived at 5th and Jefferson and biked to campus. Back then, 5th and Jeff wasn’t much better off than 20th and Oxford, and was about the same distance to the edge of campus.

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