On the south side of the 4100 block of Chestnut St. is a warehouse building that has been occupied by Graphics Arts Inc. for decades. With the family-owned printing company’s recent merger with Smith-Edwards-Dunlap Company, they’ve moved their manufacturing facility to Port Richmond and sold their West Philly building to Campus Apartments (we were also surprised it wasn’t Penn). The sale went through in June, and was for a sum of over $5M.

Looking west on Chestnut St., in the rain

Right near the corner of 41st St.

Included in the purchase was the 35K sqft. building pictured above and the sizable parking lot in the rear. The lot can accommodate about 55 cars but doesn’t look as cool as the building since it’s, you know, an empty lot.

Shapes of building and huge parking lot

Campus Apartments is currently looking to lease the space out, and is using Michael Salove Co. as the broker. What do people think would be the best use of this neat looking warehouse building? Our best idea so far is for a concert/performance venue- the arts scene in West Philly is so rich and more performance space could be a huge plus for the community. Anyone have a different/better idea?

And in case you’re wondering, the crane in the distance in the picture above is the future Homewood Suites hotel that we wrote about a couple of weeks ago, which is also a Campus Apartments property. Those guys sure are keeping busy.