It may not be as exciting as the four-story mixed-use development currently being built a block away at 19th & Fairmount, but a six-unit residential project is set to go up in short order at the corner of 18th & Olive in Francisville. A couple of weeks ago, the ZBA gave its approval to this project, which will be four stories tall, and include five-car parking and solar panels. It will replace a long-vacant lot that’s been used informally for parking over the years.

Development site

This land has been owned for decades by the Redevelopment Authority, which put out an RFP for this lot and several others on the block at the end of last year. A developer called Equinox Property Group II was awarded the lots, with plans to ultimately build twenty-nine new residential units on or near Folsom Street. It doesn’t seem that any of the other phases of the project have been presented to the community as of yet, but we’d have to imagine it’s only a matter of time before this entire block looks entirely different.

Which, of course, begs the question, when will the corner of 18th & Fairmount start to look different? We’ve already seen change at one embarrassing Fairmount corner in the last six months, let’s hope for change here in the near future.

Can someone build something here already?

C’mon, it’s begging for a nice new building, right?