Chain link fence is a very important part of our job. When we’re cruising around town looking for stuff to write about, the sight of chain link fence is often a cue that development is brewing. Often, without knowing anything whatsoever about a property, we’ll snap a couple of photos of a chain link fence with a plan to later look at the L&I Map to see whether a new project is on the horizon. When we realized that every corner of the 10th & Mount Vernon intersection boasted some chain link fence, we figured we’d have strong chance of discovering something new. And we were correct.

First, the old news. A couple months ago, we told you that the old warehouse on the southwest corner would be demolished and replaced with five duplexes. We first brought this building to your attention in 2013, noting that it seemed like an attractive development opportunity. Checking in today, you’ll note that the building still hasn’t been demolished. No doubt though, it’ll come down soon enough and construction will start on those duplexes.

Looking across the street to the north, we see a rather new foundation at 618 N. 10th St., just one property above the corner. This was a vacant lot for a long time, and now developers are building a triplex here. We were hopeful that the vacant lot next door would be the next to get developed, since it’s also behind the fence. Alas, it’s owned by a City agency and may sit fallow for many years into the future. Or it could get sold next week, who even knows anymore.

Now let’s look at the southeast corner, a vacant lot that has some lovely flowering bushes in front of it. The surrounding buildings are part of the Spring Arts Point project, and this lot is owned by the developer that built those homes. Looking at an old site plan for the project, it looks like this parcel and the northeast corner were both intended for mixed-use buildings at one point. But we don’t know that commercial makes any sense at this corner, especially with Spring Garden Street a couple blocks to the south. It appears now that the southeast corner won’t be mixed use, as new permits indicate plans for a duplex at the corner and two new homes to the south.

We couldn’t find any new permits for the northeast corner, but we’d think we’ll see a similar approach in the near future. First though, they’ll need to find a new home for that storage container.