Now that City crews have demolished a strip of buildings at the southwest corner of Farragut and Market Streets right near the 46th Street El Station to ostensibly make way for Enterprise Heights, we wonder how much of the initial plans for this stalled-for-a-decade $75M project are part of the present plans.

Demolition, from West Philly Local

Enterprise Heights will be developed by neighborhood good guys at The Enterprise Center (TEC). A spokesperson said it is too early to comment on the project. But director Greg Heller, who is leaving TEC at the end of year, said the demolition is in preparation for the Enterprise Heights development of a four- or five-story office building with ground-floor retail. Heller offered no further comments.

It may look something like this old rendering of the project, from City Paper.

But who knows. City Paper featured the project in its Dead Ass Proposal of the Week series in March. That article tells of a project first announced in 2002 as one that would change Walnut Hill forever. It called for a 500K sqft development that consisted of offices, retail, and residential units over multiple green buildings. Plans called for a four stage development. It called for Phase 1 to be high-tech. It was supposed to cost $13M. After its first stall, a second attempt placed the price of Phase 1 at $20M.

Farragut & Ludlow, pre-demolition

Current view

It took a decade before anything happened. A 2009 TEC annual report described the Plaza at Enterprise Heights as a $24.5 million strategically positioned transit-oriented, mixed-use facility under development by TEC. Located adjacent to the newly renovated 46th Street Market-Frankford Subway Elevated Line station, The Plaza leverages SEPTA’s $750 million investment along West Philadelphia’s Market-Frankford line. It also called for a Marketplace West component.

With the recent opening of the Center for Culinary Enterprises, TEC might now be in a better position to move ahead on Enterprise Heights. The demolition, if anything, is a positive indication of that. And with plans for the police to move their headquarters to the former Liberty Mutual building across the street, and a recent repainting of murals at the station, 46th seems poised for redevelopment.

–Lou Mancinelli