A reader recently shot us an email, wondering about the large surface parking lot on the northeast corner of Broad & Spring Garden, catty corner to the recently opened Tower Place. This parking lot is next door to an attractive old school building, and has a really eye-catching mural on its eastern side.

The lot

View of the mural

According to Plan Philly, the Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice was built in 1926, and turned into an administration building in the mid-1970s. In 2005, the property was sold to a firm called Synterra, which has not done much with the building or the lot next door in nearly a decade of ownership.

A year ago, developer Eric Blumenfeld had the building and the parking lot under contract, with plans to use middle floors of the building for residential units and lower and upper floors for “art-based commercial uses.” Blumenfeld, you may recall, is also the man behind 600 N. Broad, 640 N. Broad, and the latest plan to redevelop the Divine Lorraine just up the street. So while it’s clear that Blumenfeld has a serious stake in the future development of North Broad Street, we can only wonder how the man is able to keep so many balls in the air.

View of the building from the east

As for the parking lot, it will likely see new construction development at some point in the future if Blumenfeld has his way, though that project could be some years off. It’s been over a year since Plan Philly first brought this news to light, with no apparent progress on the ground. That doesn’t mean that we won’t see anything come of these plans, as there are oh so many ducks to line up in a row to make a project like this come together. We’ll keep an eye on this corner, and let you know if we hear anything new through the grapevine.