Construction is well underway at a three-story single-family rowhouse at 1512 North 25th Street in Brewerytown, North Philadelphia. The project replaces a vacant lot on the west side of the block between Jefferson Street and West Oxford Street. Designed by Plato Studio (led by Plato Marinakos, Jr.), the structure will span 3,943 square feet and feature a basement, a roof deck, and full sprinkling. Permits list V2 Properties as both the owner and the contractor.
Permits indicate a total construction cost of $243,500, with $210,000 allocated toward general construction, $17,500 for plumbing work, $8,500 for electrical work, and $7,500 for mechanical work.
1512 North 25th Street. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia
1512 North 25th Street (vacant lot prior to construction). Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia
1512 North 25th Street (vacant lot prior to construction). Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia
1512 North 25th Street (vacant lot prior to construction). Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia
The building measures 18 feet wide and 45 feet deep, leaving space for a spacious, 43-foot-long yard in the rear. The yard takes up 48 percent of the lot, well above the 25-percent zoning minimum, while the 33-and-a-half-foot height to the main roof is also well below the 38-foot minimum (the total building height measures 43 feet to the top of the pilot house). We wonder if the owner of the underbuilt structure plans to sell unused development rights to be used at a nearby property.
1512 North 25th Street. Site plan. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia
1512 North 25th Street. Zoning table. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia
The building boasts an unusually high base rising five and-a-half feet, which potentially allows for direct street-facing windows in the basement. Ceiling heights measure eight feet on all levels except the ground floor, where they rise nine feet.
The wood-framed structure rises from a reinforced concrete footing foundation. At the moment, the main structure appears generally complete, though the curtain wall has not yet been assembled.
The building rises just feet away from the Dairy Lofts, a four-story, 17-unit apartment building underway to the south at 1502-08 North 25th Street. The two buildings are a part of a dramatic transformation of a long-blighted block, which was lined with vacant land and abandoned rowhouses until recent years. By now, most of the blighted rowhouses at the block have been demolished or renovated (including one next door at 1514 North 25th Street), and at least one residential building has been completed in the meantime.
While vacant lots remain pervasive along the block, we anticipate further development at the block as well as throughout the remaining development-ready properties throughout Brewerytown and the adjacent Sharswood to the east (which, depending on definition, the project at 1512 North 25th Street may be considered a part of). We look forward to news of further development, which would help restore the long-distressed neighborhood to its prewar levels of vibrancy and density.
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Imagine living next door to “an abandoned slum”.
This house will never get built for that price in this market.
The owner should expect a “mountain of change orders” IF this project progresses; says this ex-brewery-town resident.
1) The block was dreary and largely abandoned as recently as a few years ago yet by now most of the abandoned rowhouses have either been renovated and demolished, and at least one new building has already been completed on the block.
2) “IF this project progresses” – this project has already progressed pretty far along and is currently awaiting facade installation.
Maybe the owners low-balled the price on the permit, in an attempt to lower their city taxes as most Philadelphians do?