A couple of readers emailed us this week, giving us the heads up that developers have purchased the property at 1300 S. Front St., a 35K sqft parcel that had been home to the Freda Meats for as long as we can remember. The property is massive, taking up over 90% of the block bounded by Front, Howard, Wharton, and Reed Streets, and it's all warehouse space, from what we can tell. As you might imagine, the property is zoned for industrial use, though looking at historical maps it appears that this block was actually residential and commercial a hundred years ago and the warehouses only date back to the middle of the 20th century. Who knew. The developers that bought the property earlier this year (at a surprisingly low price of $1.3M) have a very different use in mind which, in a way, hearkens back to the block's past.
Next week, the developers will be presenting plans to the community for a mixed-use project here, with 30K sqft of retail space, 48 apartments, and 4 townhomes. We know that the commercial space will be at the north side of the property and that the project will include some on site parking, but that's pretty much all the info we have at this time. As we said, the property is zoned for industrial use and as such, the developers will need to get a variance from the ZBA to proceed with the project. It'll be much easier to get this variance with the support of the community, which we'd guess will grow or shrink depending on the height of the proposed project, the anticipated commercial use, and most importantly, the number of included parking spots.
We don't live in this neighborhood and haven't been to many community meetings in Pennsport, so we have no idea how this meeting is gonna go. Would any neighbors care to speculate? Or is it impossible to make a prediction without some more information on the project?
If it's more info you seek, we'd suggest attending the community meeting, scheduled for December 20th at 7pm at 138 Moore St., at EOM. See you there?