Over the last few years, we’ve seen several underused properties in Chinatown fill in with mid-rise residential development. Back in 2015, we brought your attention to a former surface parking lot at 1031 Spring St., where a steel structure had risen seven stories, in preparation for a new building with 18 units. Remember, this project was initially permitted in 2008 but didn’t get moving until several years later. As you might imagine, the building is complete and has been for quite some time.

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Newer building at 1031 Spring Street
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As seen from the west

While the former parking lot at 1031 Spring St. has been gone for all these years, another surface lot next door has remained in use. 1027-29 Spring St. is on the small side, a little shy of 3500 sqft in size. So it can’t even fit so many cars! Now, developers are looking to close the parking lot and build an apartment building in its place. A plan for a 20-unit building looks like it came to the ZBA back in 2022 but got denied. Not to be deterred, developers are coming back and again trying for 20 units. The project goes to the ZBA next month, we shall see whether it gets the green light this time around. Sure seems like an appropriate use, especially in the context of the building next door!

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Vacant lot at 1027 Spring St.

Around the corner is a slightly newer residential addition, which further supports the proposal on Spring Street. 222 N. 11st St. was previously home to restaurant Vietnam Palace, which was located in a two-story building. The restaurant closed in 2020 and its building got torn down. The new seven-story building has ground-floor retail and 18 units and sits on a lot that’s only a bit more than 2,000 sqft. While the new building is certainly an upgrade over the two-story building that sat here before, the surface lot surrounding the building has remained. Alas.

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Newer building nearby on 11th Street

Even so, these new buildings make all kinds of sense, adding additional density in an area that needs more housing. Especially impressive is the fact that these buildings all sit on rather small lots, where we wouldn’t generally expect to see buildings of this size. We give credit to the developers of the two buildings that have already been built, and hope that a third building in this pocket will rise soon on Spring Street. We shall have to wait and see what the ZBA has to say on the subject.