Philly YIMBY’s recent site visit has revealed that construction has entered the facade assembly stage at a three-story, 44-unit multi-family building at 720-30 West Berks Street in North Philadelphia East near Temple University. The development, situated at the southwest cornet of West Berks and North Franklin streets, will span 41,302 square feet upon completion, and will feature full sprinkling. Permits list T N Ward Company as the contractor and a construction cost of $5.9 million.
Aerial view of 720-30 West Berks Street. Credit: Google.
720-30 West Berks Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. October 2022
720-30 West Berks Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. October 2022
720-30 West Berks Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. October 2022
By the time YIMBY last visited the site in June, the building frame had been assembled and sheeting was being applied to the wooden skeleton. As of this time, half a year later, the structure of the building envelope has been completed, windows have been installed, and gray paneling is currently being mounted onto the structure.
The working-class neighborhood to the east of Temple University (its campus is situated within a five-minute walk to the west of 720-30 West Berks Street) has been hard-hit in the postwar period by depopulation and subsequent demolitions. Around the turn of the millennium, the blocks to the north of the site were redeveloped with detached houses. While the houses provide ample residential space for the local community, their low-density form and suburban-styled, siding-clad design, surrounded by sizable lawns, are contrary to the neighborhood’s long history of rowhouse construction.
Buildings such as 720-30 West Berks Street represent not only a return to urbane form for the neighborhood, but actually increase its density above the its prewar levels and represent a resurgent faith from developers that local land, once deemed nearly worthless, is finally once again suitable for dense, multi-family construction. The density is further justified by the site’s transit proximity, as the the Temple University regional rail station, which offers an eight-minute commute to Center City and a 20-minute commute to University City, sits within a three-minute walk to the west.
At the current pace of construction, we expect 720-30 West Berks Street to be completed early next year.
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