A hot area that we seem to come back to every week or so lies between 10th and Broad, Spring Garden and Fairmount. Some have coined this the “Spring Arts” area, while others are content to call it Poplar, and still others insist that it’s an extension of the Spring Garden neighborhood. Whatever you want to call it, it’s seen rampant development in the past couple of years, and today we bring you another example. 643 N. 11th St. sits on the northeast corner of 11th & Wallace, and broke ground a couple of months ago.

The building

Replacing a vacant lot, this structure will eventually be home to two apartment units, which we would guess will be offered for sale as condos. Looking back a couple of years, this corner was pretty bleak.

In the past

Unfortunately, it seems that none of the other surrounding vacant lots have been redeveloped in the intervening years, possibly making this project an anchor for future development in the immediate area. Unfortunately, the three vacant lots immediately to the north are owned by different city agencies, meaning we could be long gone before anything actually happens there. The lots to the east, however, are all privately owned.

Someone buy these!

And this gross old building too!

The two lots to the east were for sale last year, listed at $59K and $61K. They were taken off the market after about four months. An old bar at 1023 Wallace St. is currently being offered for sale at an extremely high price of $135K. The listing warns that the building is in very poor condition and will need to be torn down. So, there’s that.

The best news, of course, is that the according to the AVI Calculator, the lots described above have roughly the same value as lots in the middle of the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. Even better, the owners of these lots can expect lower tax bills in 2014, by about $200/lot. Seems fair, right?