The 1400 block of N. Myrtlewood Street has had a pretty tough run in recent years. According to public record, there are 56 properties on the block and as far as we can tell, nearly half of those properties have been sitting vacant for a number of years. Along with the copious vacant land, many of the homes that have managed to survive are blighted, in need of total rehab or demolition and replacement. As we were doing a little research, we were entirely unsurprised to discover that various City agencies own 19 parcels on the block.

But times are changing on Myrtlewood Street, as they are on so many Brewerytown blocks these days. V2 Properties, a developer we’ve covered numerous times in the past in neighborhoods across town, has acquired a dozen parcels on this block and is developing them all at once. They’re calling the project Breweryworks, and despite the fact that some of the homes in the project are still just foundations, they’ve already sold one of the homes at a price of $335K. We have to assume that price was pre-construction, as the next home in the project is listed for $389K. Each home will have three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and like most V2 projects, this one is being done by-right.

As we mentioned, the homes in the project are in various states of construction. Check out the progress, heading from Jefferson Street down to Master Street.

It’s rare that we encounter a block that’s fallen so far and suffers from such pervasive vacancy. The good news is that every time we cover a block like this, it’s in the context of a significant recovery. The 2000 block of Annin Street in Point Breeze and the 2100 block of Carpenter Street in Graduate Hospital were similarly depressed, and both of those blocks have experienced total transformations over the last decade or so. The 1400 block of Myrtlewood has the benefit of a single developer taking on a huge chunk of the vacancy, and eventually, when the City sells its parcels, a different developer (or maybe V2 again) will knock out another significant portion of the vacancy on the block. Put another way, this block is already seriously on the upswing, and it’ll be almost unrecognizable in the very near future.