Biking up 11th Street the other day, a glimmer on Spring Street caught our eye. Doubling back around the block, we discovered a that a six-story building has been framed from steel at 1031 Spring St., replacing a surface parking lot. Clearly, this project has been happening for several months but it never came onto our radar until this week.
Developers purchased this property back in 2008, and got zoning approval for 18 units back in 2009. For whatever reason, they didn't build the project at that time and were content to maintain the surface parking lot for several years. Last year though, they went for an administrative review to add roof decks for the project, suggesting that the thing might actually get built. And get built the thing has.
After groundbreaking, the project got a mention on Skyscraperpage.com, and someone snapped a photo of a rendering on the site which we somehow missed when we passed by earlier this week.
The design here isn't setting anybody's world on fire, but the building will look pretty nice once construction wraps up, likely early next year. It's our general opinion that just about anything is preferred to a surface parking lot, and this project actually provides a bit of height and density in an area that can certainly handle it. Don't forget, Vine Street is just half a block away. Also, only two blocks away there are plans for a tall new hotel on the site of the historic former Big Brothers Big Sisters Headquarters. So perhaps even a little more height wouldn't have been such a bad idea.
Once this building finishes up, assuming the units rent out quickly, it makes us wonder whether the surface lot next door will eventually get a similar treatment. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.