Down on the much overlooked Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, some new development is making a mark on a slowly revitalizing corridor. Two lots are of interest today, and they are linked to each other because both were developed simultaneously by the same developer, HOW Properties. We last checked in on these projects back in March. At that time, 4619 Woodland Ave. and 1241-45 S. 47th St. were both under construction. Visiting the site a few days ago, construction is now complete and tenants appear to be on-site. Check out the (mostly) finished product below:
4619 Woodland Ave has 16 apartments including studios and anywhere from 2 – 5 bedroom apartments. That building also includes a retail/commercial section on the bottom floor which is a nice addition to Woodland Ave, but is still vacant for now. Since this property is so close to Penn and University of the Sciences and to the a couple of trolley lines, maybe the building could have stood to have one or two more floors on top of it? But alas, the zoning would not have allowed it.
The end products here are obviously meant to take full advantage of the parcels they're built on. You may be wondering then, why there's a lot in between these duplexes that would seem otherwise develop-able into a fourth building. It turns out that the low density zoning for these properties requires side yards and this walkway, which serves as an entrance to two of the buildings, fulfills that obligation. The walkway also serves as an access aisle to the parking lot which has 20 spots for residents of both properties.
This setup is a unique way of both fulfilling zoning requirements and assumed resident desires (parking). It would be interesting to see how much interest there is in those private parking spots, or how many residents would rather not pay extra and park on the streets instead (or forgo the car completely). That said, there are still plenty of vacant and underutilized parcels near this intersection that should be receiving more attention from prospective developers now that this project is finished.
