Permits Issued for Six-Unit Building at 623 North 52nd Street in Mill Creek, West Philadelphia

Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, six-unit apartment building at 623 North 52nd Street in Mill Creek, West Philadelphia. The structure will rise from a vacant lot situated on the east side of the block between Wyalusing and Girard avenues and will span a footprint of 1,839 square feet. The planned interior area of 6,835 square feet translates to a relatively generous average of just over 1,100 square feet per unit. The attached structure of type VB construction will feature a cellar and roof decks, which will likely offer sweeping skyline views due to the building’s future prominence. Permits list Nicholas Coulter of KCA Design Associates as the architect and a construction cost of $833,000.

623 and 625 North 52nd Street. Credit: Google

623 and 625 North 52nd Street. Looking north. Credit: Google

The permits show a notable revision of plans since YIMBY reported on the site last March. At the time, we reported that permits were issued for two adjacent multi-family buildings at 623 and 625 North 52nd Street, each spanning a footprint of 920 square feet and listing Billy Williams Jr. as the owner and Accrete LLC as the contractor for both projects.

By August, however, another permit was issued for a relocation of lot lines to create a single lot from both properties, addressed as 623 North 52nd Street. The latest permits effectively combine the originally planned footprint size for both structures into a footprint measuring 1,839 square feet. The listed owner has been updated to Mirac Project Corp. and the contractor to Backcourt Builders LLC, leading us to surmise that the site has been sold to a new developer, who decided to merge the adjacent proposals into a single building.

While the long and narrow lots present in the cities throughout America’s Northeast are ideal for rowhouses, they prove to be more problematic for larger buildings. As noted by author Richard Plunz in his 1990 book A History of Housing in New York City, the city’s standard 25 by 100-foot lots proved increasingly challenging as developers started building larger tenements and apartment buildings by late 19th century, prompting them to combine lots with increasing frequency.

As such, the updated plans for the apartment building at 623 North 52nd Street, which will now span the entire 623-25 North 52nd Street site, are sensible, since a larger footprint allows for greater flexibility in terms of unit layouts.

The site sits at the junction of several neighborhoods – Mill Creek to the southeast, Haddington to the southwest, Cathedral Park to the northeast, and Carroll Park to the northwest, and may arguably be described as part of either of these neighborhoods. The site is rather far removed from the subway, yet the nearby route 15 trolley, which runs on Girard Avenue at the north end of the block, offers a direct commute to Temple University and a transfer to the route 10 trolley along Lancaster Avenue, which takes the rider to University City and Center City.

We welcome this latest addition to the neighborhood, whichever of the four you may consider the site to be located in, although we are somewhat dismayed by the pending blocking of the memorial mural painted on the lot wall of the adjacent building at 627 North 52nd Street.

Memorial mural at 627 North 52nd Street, which will be obstructed by new construction. Credit: Google

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