Last November, Philadelphia YIMBY reported that permits were issued for a six-story mixed-use building with ground-level retail and 107 residential units at 23 West Girard Avenue in Olde Kensington. Our recent site visit discovered no signs of demolition nor construction at the property, with the 7-11 convenience store currently sited at the property still apparently in operation. 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 a construction cost of $21.5 million.
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).
The development will make a contribution to the rapidly growing commercial corridor via a sizable space facing Girard Avenue and wrapping around to Leopard Street.
Rendering of 23 West Girard Avenue. Credit: JKRP Architects.
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
23 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
Rendering of 23 West Girard Avenue. Credit: JKRP Architects.
Rendering of 23 West Girard Avenue. Credit: JKRP Architects.
Aerial view of the 23 West Girard Avenue site. Credit: JKRP Architects
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This is Fishtown, at least as far as RCO borders and who votes on the project. The border is Front Street here. I don’t think this is a spot that’s up for debate on borders.