Construction is well underway at 901 Leland Street in Francisville, North Philadelphia, where structural steel has risen one story high at since we last checked in at the site in July. Developed by Hightop Real Estate and Development, the building will rise six stories tall and will hold 50 residential units. The 46,792-square-foot program includes commercial space at the ground floor. Permits list Jerry Roller as the design professional and Ferraro Construction as the contractor. Construction costs are specified at $5 million.
901 Leland Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
The building first appeared on Philly YIMBY’s radar in September of last year, when we reported on the filing of demolition permits for a low-rise, prewar warehouse-style structure that previously stood at the site. Construction permits were issued by April. By July, the warehouse had been torn down and excavation had begun.
901 Leland Street. Looking north. Credit: Google
YIMBY’s recent site visit reveals notable progress at the site. Groundwork appears essentially complete, with the ground floor slab assembly underway. The first floor has been framed out with steel beams, anchored onto CMU block walls along either lot wall. The distinctive “ghost wall” imprint of the former warehouse, prominently noticeable with its former roof gable seemingly imprinted onto a newly-constructed residential mid-rise next door, is now mostly obscured from view by the rising superstructure.
July view of 901 Leland Street. Credit: Hightop Real Estate.
901 Leland Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
901 Leland Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
Francisville, notable for its diagonal, off-kilter street grid and eclectic mix of rowhouses and prewar industrial stock, has witnessed a sea change over the past decade. Numerous mid-rise apartment buildings have risen along Ridge Avenue, the district’s primary thoroughfare, and in the vicinity. Seven years ago, the warehouse at 901 Leland Street shared the northern corner of the oblique intersection of Leland and Poplar streets with a similarly-scaled, long-vacant warehouse next door to the east.
At the time, the pair loomed over their immediate surroundings. By the time of the demolition at 901 Leland Avenue, however, the adjacent warehouse has long since been demolished and replaced with a mid-rise residential building. The once-imposing remaining structure now seemed puny amid a phalanx of much larger neighbors on all sides. The austere yet stylish apartment building now under construction at the site is a much better fit for the urbane, dense neighborhood that Francisville has since become.
Former view of 901 Leland Street. Credit: Google Street View
901 Leland Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
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