In Powelton Village, tucked amongst a row of older row homes, three new single-family homes are currently being constructed where once stood a vacant unkempt lot for many years at 42nd & Baring. The lots were owned for decades by Drexel University, which wisely decided to unload them in 2012.
The string of three lots back up to Drexel's Vidas Athletic Complex and was purchased in June 2012 for $148K by North 42nd St LLC along with another lot down the street. So far the three-story homes have been framed out and, notably feature third floor setbacks to "blend in" with the two story homes on the block. Though without front porches, they'll never really fit in with the surrounding housing stock.
Last summer we wrote about how the 4000 and 4100 block of Baring Street was transformed from a run of vacant lots and rundown homes to a hotbed of almost unabated development. Now it appears a little of that reinvestment has spilled onto 42nd Street. While the building of these three homes is a smaller project, it does represent a patch of reinvestment along a residential strip where exterior improvements could help a number of structures. Also interesting is that this project consists of single family homes where almost all the surrounding development has been of the multi-family variety. Unlike those other projects, perhaps these homes will be sold rather than rented out.
In addition to the 40th and 41st & Baring residential redevelopment, right down the street from these three new homes, 2.0 University Place became the city first's L.E.E.D. Platinum pre-certified building when it opened last fall. Couple that with the People's Emergency Center project around the corner at 4226-34 Powelton, where a group of blighted and abandoned faded stucco-like structures were razed years ago and are now being replaced by a new structure, and you can see how this area is slowing realizing some revitalization.