It’s been a minute since our last visit to the 700 block of Carpenter Street, as it last caught our attention toward the end of 2016 when an older two-story home at 729 Carpenter St. got torn down. At the time, we didn’t know what was going on with this property, though we suspected that the demolition activity hinted at redevelopment on the horizon. Checking back on the property today, we see nothing has happened just yet, though the owners did go through a subdivision a couple month ago, suggesting we could see some action soon. As the properties are zoned for single-family use, we predict a pair of new homes. But there are multi-family buildings on the block, so maybe the owners will go for a variance for duplexes.

As we told you previously, the same family that owned the home at 729 Carpenter St. also owned 739-41 Carpenter St., a double-wide vacant lot. Near neighbors know this property as the one that’s used for parking from time to time and also has some signs that threateningly discourage allowing dogs to relieve themselves on the property. Interestingly, this property has been listed for sale for much of this year at an asking price of $700K, but it’s currently temporarily off the market. We think the asking price is too high, but if the owners are willing to come down some, we could see the parcel change hands and some more construction on the block. As is the case down the street, a couple of new homes would be doable here, by right.

Finally, we can’t forget the building next door, on the northeast corner of 8th & Carpenter. This building was home to a corner store back in the day, and for many years the first floor contained the remnants of said corner store, while the windows on the upper floors were covered in plywood. We wondered about the building way back in 2011 and were excited a few years back to see the building get renovated and learn about a new restaurant planned for the first floor.

The building has improved by leaps and bounds, but you can see that nothing has opened as of yet on the first floor. Is the restaurant just delayed, or 86-ed? Does anyone in the neighborhood have any insight into what’s happening there?