We’ve been at this blogging thing for the last dozen or so years, and have happily seen several white elephants disappear during that time. The Chocolate Factory at 2101 Washington Ave., got demoed a few years ago and a mixed-use project is now under construction in its place. Then there’s the long vacant lot on the 1900 block of Walnut Street, which was replaced by the Laurel. But several white elephants remain. There’s the Disney hole at 8th & Market. The vacant lot on Frankford Avenue that might someday be a hotel is another fine example. And let’s not forget the former Gretz Brewery in South Kensington.

We first wrote about the Gretz Brewery way back in early 2012. At that time, we wondered whether the unique collection of buildings at 1524 Germantown Ave. might be doomed, as the industrial complex had not been in use since the Kennedy administration. Over the years, we checked in on this property from time to time, with varying levels of hope that the property might be redeveloped.

In 2019, the Rufo Company brought the property to Civic Design Review, with plans for a partial adaptive reuse with 220 units, 7 commercial spaces, and 48 parking spots. In 2022, permits were extended, the design was tweaked, and the unit count was reduced to 200. We were hopeful that this meant that we’d see action at this property at last. Alas, here are a couple shots of the property from earlier this week. You can see, the site has not been redeveloped just yet.

But there is room for hope here! Next month, the project will make a return appearance at a CDR meeting, as the developers will present a slightly modified version of their redevelopment plan. The unit count remains 200, there will now be 6 retail spaces, and the plans call for 42 parking spots between the first floor and the basement. The renderings look pretty close to how they looked in the past, but they’ve definitely been tweaked in the latest iteration.

The CDR process is time consuming and costly, so we don’t believe that the developers are going down this path just for fun; the fact that the owners are coming back to CDR tells us that they are expecting to finally move forward with this project. The renderings look great, and it will be terrific to see this project finally get started, saving the historic buildings on the site and bringing a couple hundred new units to an already booming area. We will be even more excited once the hammers start swinging and another property finally drops off the white elephant roster in this town.