At 1305 N. 27th St. there was once an industrial building which contained a leather business back in the early 1900s, according to a historic map. More recently though, as Brewerytown went through some incredibly difficult years, the sizable property was sitting vacant and unused, like so many other properties in the neighborhood. Even more recently, as the neighborhood has seen a wave of redevelopment, this property surely caught the eyes of numerous developers, eventually selling a few years back. At the end of 2017, we noticed that construction had gotten started at this location, and we tipped you off that a six-home development was on the way. At the time, we noted that the project would take a somewhat unique site approach, with three homes in the rear, two homes in the front, and a carriage house floating above a drive aisle which provided parking to the entire development. With more than a year passing since then, there’s predictably been considerable progress at the site, and now we also know that the developers have named the project Hammer & String Mews. Maybe there was a piano factory here too, at some point?

Considering the momentum in Brewerytown, we weren’t terribly surprised to learn that most of the homes are already either sold or under agreement. At this point, the homes in the rear have all sold, at prices exceeding $500K. One of the homes in the front is under agreement at a $600K list price, and the carriage house is under agreement at $400K. Only one home is left at this point, listed for $570K. The homes have all the bells and whistles you’d expect with new construction these days, and the fact that they also offer parking explains both the price points and the fact that the homes have sold so quickly. The unique facades may also play a role.

StarCreek Construction built this project, and we have covered one of their projects before. The previous project was a renovation and addition for a home on the 2600 block of Master Street which we learned is actually the personal home of the builders. This home includes building cladding that resembles fish scales which especially pop because the builders painted the panels on the home’s western side, in order to complement the existing mural on the first two stories of the home. Though they didn’t paint the panels for the current project, these panels still present a very unique look that might seem more intuitive in Fishtown than Brewerytown. In a business where builders tend to steal ideas from other builders, figure these panels will pop up in Fishtown soon enough.