We have mixed emotions about the 800 block of Kimball Street. On the positive side of the ledger, it’s located right off the Italian Market and anyone that lives there has easy access to inexpensive produce and tasty meats and cheeses. The other end of the block however, always feels a little choked, probably because 8th Street is a bus route and traffic tends to back up from Washington Avenue. The rarely used triple-wide surface parking lot on the southwest corner of 8th & Kimball, the smaller surface lot on the northwest corner, and the PPA parking lot across the street also contribute to this vibe. Needless to say, the PPA lot isn’t going anywhere. But the same can’t be said for the lot on the southwest corner.

Yeah, that’s a big hole in the ground. Streamline Philly purchased this property sometime last year, and as you might expect with a triple-wide lot, they’re now building three structures on the property. The parcel is zoned for multi-family use, so they’re building a trio of four-story duplexes. Units are already listed for sale, with one lower unit already under agreement at a list price of $400K. Prices are on the rise, as a lower unit is now listed for $425K and an upper is listed for $460K. Those feel a little on the high side, but new construction homes in this neighborhood are few and far between and these units will be quite spacious for condos so they’ll offer pretty good value by comparison. Helpfully, the listings also include a rendering from Harman Deutsch.

Whether you like the duplexes here or would have preferred an apartment building, we’re just pleased to see the surface parking lot disappear. Looking at Google Maps Time Machine, it appears that the lot typically housed only a handful of cars during daytime hours, making the redevelopment even more appropriate as it means that only a few cars are ending up on the street instead of in the lot. Maybe someone that lives nearby can comment on whether more cars typically parked there at night? We see that the owners of Villa Di Roma (who also live on the block) previously owned the lot- perhaps it was used by the restaurant?