Permits Issued for 14-Unit Building at 2500 North Mascher Street in West Kensington

The ongoing urban revival continues in West Kensington with a permit issue for a four-story, 14-unit residential building at 2500 North Mascher Street. The development will replace a vacant lot at the northwest corner of North Mascher and West Cumberland streets, and will likely extend across the block to Mutter Street to the west. The building will span a 2,867-square-foot ground footprint and hold 14,337 square feet of interior space, which averages to just over 1,000 square feet per typical unit. The project will feature a cellar, full sprinkling, and roof decks, which promise sweeping skyline vistas due to the building’s prominence above the surroundings. Permits list Laurie Korbin and Erika D. Millman-White as owners, Nicholas Coluter of KCA Design Associates as the design professional, and LNHA New Homes LLC as the contractor. Construction costs are stated at $1.5 million.

Note that the permit lists the address as “2500 Mascher Street,” oddly omitting the street’s “North” indicator.

2500 North Mascher Street. Credit: Google Maps

West Kensington and adjacent North Philadelphia East were hit particularly hard by the postwar period of urban decline, which left ample vacant lots in its wake, often spanning nearly entire city blocks. As the city’s ongoing real estate boom continues unabated, these lots are providing fertile ground for the germination of numerous new low- and mid-rise residential developments, both of the rowhouse and larger apartment building varieties.

2500 North Mascher Street. Looking north. Credit: Google Maps

The latter is less common in West Kensington and North Philadelphia East, so the proposal at 2500 North Mascher Street is a sign of developers’ confidence in the future of the long-blighted area. The confidence is not misplaced, as the area offers undeniable urban attractions. The site at hand sits within a five-minute walk to the York-Dauphin Station on the Market-Frankford Line and the Episcopal Campus of the Temple University Hospital, a ten-minute walk of several parks and Fishtown’s dining and nightlife district, and a 30-minute walk, or a much quicker bike or car ride, to the Temple University campus, located to the southwest.

As such, we expect to see further development announcements in the immediate surrounding area in the near future.

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