A reader gave us the heads up the other day that a new foundation has appeared at 1827 S. 20th St., a long-vacant lot. It's true that development has crept further and further south in Point Breeze over the years, but we were legitimately surprised to hear about a project at this location.
Considering the types of projects we commonly see around this neighborhood, we assumed that this would be two or three single-family homes, but we were way off base. Instead the owner is building a six-unit building which we'd wager will contain rental units. Developer Reuven Mosheyev is the one behind this project, and this isn't his first rodeo in Point Breeze. Some years ago, he built a row of rental homes on the 2000 block of Annin Street. A little more recently, he built seven homes with parking at 21st & Federal which have all sold.
The property at 1827 S. 20th St. is zoned for commercial use but the developer got a variance to go with a purely residential property. Though there are other businesses nearby, we'd posit that commercial isn't the way to go here and that all retail attention in this neighborhood should be focused on the Point Breeze Avenue corridor. Once that fills in more substantially, perhaps it'll make more sense for additional businesses to open up in the neighborhood off the corridor. We're not generally in the prognosticating business, so we'll say that could occur anywhere between five and fifty years from now.