Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, 43-unit mixed-use building at 912-22 Locust Avenue in East Germantown, Northwest Philadelphia, just north of LaSalle University. The structure will stand on a 21,272-square-foot lot on the southeast side of the block between Boyer and Devon streets, rising from a 10,800-square-foot footprint and holding 32,235 square feet of interior space. The development will include two commercial spaces, a cellar, and accessory storage space (to which the permits allocate a whopping 10,745 square feet). Permits list Bobby and Joyce M. Spears as the owners, RSG Management, LLC as the contractor, and a construction cost of $1.5 million.
912-22 Locust Avenue. Credit: Google
912-22 Locust Avenue via Weichert
912-22 Locust Avenue via Weichert
912-22 Locust Avenue via Weichert
A still-active Weichert listing describes the lot as for sale for $929,000 and features elevation drawings showing a plain, modern building with cantilevered projections clad in vertical siding, a common style for new buildings constructed throughout the city in recent years. The building’s detached condition means that it will have no lot walls and every elevation would feature ample windows. However, the structure’s considerable width creates deep residential units where, according to posted floor plans, it appears that, in most units, the combined living-dining space will not have windows that face directly outside.
912-22 Locust Avenue via Weichert
The listing states that the property would be “delivered with construction permits and the full 10-year tax abatement.” Indeed, the permit was issued on December 30, 2021, the day before the full abatement expired at the stroke of midnight. As such, the permit is among the long back-log of the end-of-year development frenzy when builders rushed to receive permit issues before full abatement expiration.
The building will rise one block west of Wister Street, the traditional eastern boundary of Germantown, where the neighborhood’s angled street grid makes way for North Philadelphia’s north-south grid, which is an extension of the city’s original plan as laid out by governor William Penn and surveyor Thomas Holme in 1682. The site sits within a ten-minute walk of the LaSalle University campus and a 20-plus-minute walk to the Olney Transportation Center on the Broad Street Line and the Wister Station on the regional rail.
The development will replace two dilapidated buildings which have sat abandoned for around ten years, replacing urban blight with construction on a scale that the surrounding blocks have not seen in years. Given the remaining abundance of vacant land on the block, we can expect to see further development announcements nearby, and are intrigued how prospective developers would address the large city block with a deep, undeveloped interior.
912-22 Locust Avenue. Looking southeast. June 2019, Credit: Google
912-22 Locust Avenue. Looking east. Credit: Google
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Sadly, Germantown which has character, is getting a plethora of development, that has no character. Rise up, ye citizens of NW Philadelphia!!
Nobody builds character anymore!