The Spring Garden corridor that unofficially designates the end of Center City is one that transitions drastically as it moves from river to river. Towards the west, the historic architecture and trees give a quieter feel to the stretch. To the east, huge projects are planned from the Delaware all the way up to 5th Street, which will soon dot the landscape. The center section, however, can still be a bit of a barren stretch, with superblocks of blood banks and parking courts making for a mostly unwelcoming streetscape. Thankfully, the plans for 741 Spring Garden St. should shake things up a bit, as this former parking lot we told you about back in 2020 is getting an upgrade.

What’s heading our way is a seven-story, mixed-use building which will bring 146 units across studio, 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, along with 29 car parking spaces accessed from Green St. to the north. Arts + Crafts Holdings has teamed with JKRP Architects on this industrial-modern project, which will also have ground floor commercial space fronting Spring Garden. We have been keeping our eye on progress here for a while, and we are happy to say that steel is now two floors out of the ground, already making quite the impact compared to the former surface parking lot. Let’s check out where we are now and what’s coming our way.

This project will absolutely add to the energy in this area which sometimes feels like a bit of lost spot. With the convergence of neighborhoods from all sides, but with no specific identify tied to any of them, we hope that this reinvention of Spring Garden Street will help create an area that is more than just a pass-through. When this project finishes up along with a few others in the works, this should become more of a locus of activity, instead of just the place you walk through to get to Union Transfer.