Ah, the heady days of 2011. The iPhone 4 was state of the art. The Phillies were still good at baseball. And MM Partners were renovating two buildings on the corner of Taney & Girard. The project was called 'The Braverman Building,' named after a hardware store and bakery that once occupied the property. There were plans for two businesses run by chef Mike Stollenwerk- a sit-down BYOB and a take-out prepared foods market. Six apartments were on the agenda for the upper floors.
For the last couple of years, though, the project seemed stalled, with the buildings basically looking like they do in the photo above. Last week, we passed by this corner and to our surprise the buildings were gone.
Disappointed to see these handsome buildings demolished, we reached out to MM Partners to get the scoop. We learned that the change of plans stemmed from structural problems with the buildings that were discovered as they were doing interior demolition in preparation for a renovation. In addition, Stollenwerk is no longer attached to this project. Now, the developers have plans for a new five-story mixed-use building which will look something like this:
This building will have sixteen apartments, and a commercial space with a yet unknown tenant. No parking is included from what we can tell. While we're definitely a little disappointed that the attractive buildings that were here before have come down, we're very pleased to see that a taller building will be replacing it. Added density on Girard Avenue will only mean good things for the businesses that continue to crop up on this burgeoning corridor. Likewise, it should be helpful for whatever business opens up on the first floor of the building.