Going back at least a decade, the building at 1227 N. 7th St. was sitting vacant and blighted. Until a few years ago, this was par for the course on this block and many other nearby blocks in South Kensington, thanks to years of disinvestment. But as we’ve said time and time again, things are very different these days in this neighborhood, and as projects have appeared nearby and even on this very block, the blighted building began to stick out more and more.

Unsurprisingly, the property attracted attention from developers, trading in 2015, along with the vacant lots on either side. Soon after, we told you that the owners would tear down the blighted building and redraw the lot lines, with plans for a quartet of triplexes. The ZBA gave that the thumbs up, and the developers flipped the property for a tidy profit. The new owners decided to up the ante and went back to the ZBA last year with a plan to consolidate the lots together and build a single fifteen-unit building on the site. That plan was also approved and by the time last fall rolled around, the long blighted building at 1227 N. 7th St. was a pile of bricks. If you pass the site today, you’ll see a foundation is in place for the new building.

This project will join several others that have appeared on the block in recent years. In 2014, we saw four homes and small mixed-use building go up on the southwest corner of 7th & Thompson. The next year, developers built a row of six triplexes just to the south of that project. After that, a combination rehab/new construction project brought an eight unit residential building to the block, a little closer to Girard.

Of course, there’s still room for more change on this block, the most prominent being the large lot just south of the new foundation, a property which goes all the way to Marshall Street.

This property, 1218 N. Marshall St., is huge, stretching over 12K sqft street to street, and developers bought it at the end of last year, paying $1.16M. Given the multi-family zoning for the property, the current owners could opt for a couple of apartment buildings that would add a few dozen units to the area. We took a peek at public record and it appears they haven’t pulled any permits just yet, but given all the other activity in the area (and the hefty purchase price), it’s only a matter of time before something happens here.