We’ve covered a couple of different changes to the 1300 block of South St. in recent months, including a planned six-story building from Dranoff Properties, and a new mixed-use building with curvy bay windows.

Casa Verde

Recent photo

With such exciting development taking place and coming soon, the case of 1323-25 South St. seems very strange.

Blight

This building, with an impressive 32’x70′ footprint, has almost 4500 sqft of interior space over two floors. It was purchased by Donald Turner for $35K in 1997. Mr. Turner owns a few other properties in the neighborhood, including 1309-11 South St., a medical office, and 115 South St., a building that has a Check Cashing tenant. From what we can gather, Turner is one of the physicians practicing out of the 1311 South St., so he’s probably walking by this blighted building almost every day.

There’s been a For Lease sign on the building for years, but no one appears to be interested in a property that was in need of TLC fifteen years ago. Is it time for the building to come down and be replaced with town homes? Hope not. Should the building be turned into a unique-looking bar/restaurant? That would be ok. In the meantime, is there anything the owner can do to at least give the building a better street presence? Or maybe… sell the thing?