A recent site visit by Philadelphia YIMBY has observed that demolition work has been completed and a site has been cleared for construction of a six-story mixed-use development with ground-level retail and 107 residential units at 23 West Girard Avenue in Olde Kensington. Designed by JKRP Architects and developed by Girard Real Estate LLC, the project will span 104,160 square feet and will feature parking for 28 cars and 47 bicycles, full sprinkling, and a roof deck, which, given the building’s future prominence over the surroundings, will likely offer panoramic views of the Center City skyline. Permits list Benchmark Construction Group Inc. as the contractor and specify a construction cost of $21.5 million.
Since our last visit at the end of last year, the Speedy Mart convenience store has been leveled and the lot appears ready for excavation. Project renderings adorn the construction fencing that surrounds the site.
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller
The building will rise from a 20,703-square-foot lot bound by Girard Avenue to the south, Leopard Street to the east, and Stiles Street to the north. The site is situated at the meeting point of three neighborhoods: Olde Kensington, which stretches to the northwest, Fishtown to the east, and Northern Liberties to the south. As such, depending on definition, the building may be described as being located in either of these locales.
The development’s boundary-straddling situation may suggest a peripheral location. Instead, the development sits at a focal point of some of the city’s most rapidly growing neighborhoods, where thousands of new residential units and dozens of new retail facilities are rapidly transforming the blocks surrounding the Girard Avenue Station of the Market-Frankford Line (which sits half a block away from the proposal at 23 West Girard Avenue).
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. July 2023
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. July 2023
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. July 2023
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. July 2023
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. July 2023
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