Last week, we had a great opportunity to get an insider's look of a current preservation-minded redevelopment project in Manayunk: Shurs Lane Mills at 410 Shurs Lane. This property is a two-building complex that was built to house a textile mill in 1876 by T. Kentworthy and (his) Brother. According to a survey taken in 1885, the duo of buildings were producing carpet yarns and employing about 139 people, the majority of which seem to have been children or teenagers.
One of the buildings was rehabbed into condos a little less than a decade ago. After sitting derelict for years, apparently caught in some kind of tangled litigation process, the second building is finally being resuscitated by Dempsey Development and Brokerage into 37 apartment units, most of which will be studios and one bedrooms starting at $1105 per month. Take a look at some of the pictures we captured of this project:
The renters on the bottom floor, known as the Garden Level of the building, will have direct access to the neighboring parking lot through individual doors. The 81 spaces there and in a parking lot on the other side of the building will be reserved for residents of the complex.
On the opposite side of the building from the lower parking lot, there is a sunken outdoor section that is set to become a common courtyard-like area for the residents.
Each of the apartments will have a unique layout. Some will even incorporate exposed steel and wooden trusses that keep the building together.
We can mark this as a win for historic preservation in Manayunk, and a few more residents for this ever-popular neighborhood. Assuming this development goes smoothly, these apartments will be filling up in the spring of 2016. And hopefully Dempsey will take up similar projects in other neighborhoods around the city.