Just east of 5th & Poplar in Northern Liberties, near the former WineO location that is now transitioning into another business, developers from Callahan Ward are looking to build on the northeast corner of St. John Neumann Way & Leithgow.

The lot

But their initial proposal for eight single-family homes with garages at 405-45 St. John Neumann Way will likely not pass through the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association zoning committee the way it’s currently designed. The land is currently is vacant and has been for some time.

According to Larry Freedman, NLNA zoning-chair, the NLNA stopped short of asking developers to reduce the number of units, but they did ask them to reappear before the committee with a more organized design, one that made better use of driveways. In order to accomplish that design, according to Freedman, developers might have to sacrifice a unit.

View from the east

Developers sacrificing units and reappearing before the NLNA has been the tale of redevelopment in Northern Liberties we have seen again and again. The NLNA is playing its part as a strong civic association striving to guide developers toward a product the neighborhood will support. We imagine developers here will work the NLNA, as Callahan Ward has developed a number of homes in the area already. And there has been plenty of development on both sides of 5th & Poplar lately.

This spring a former warehouse was razed on the northwest corner to make way for 21 units. That project appeared before the NLNA a few times before it was approved. Four homes were recently built just north of 5th Street. And at 6th & Poplar, there are eight homes that were built in the past two years and on the market for more than $600K. And when and if the St. John Neumann project flies, it will mean seven or eight more new homes right near that intersection as well. Yeah, things don’t seem to be slowing down in this neighborhood even a little bit.

–Lou Mancinelli