A little over a week ago, we shared news about two large projects on the horizon for the east side of the 1200 block of N. 27th St., just around the corner from the improving Girard Avenue commercial corridor and across the street from the church-turned apartments North Abbey project. Soon after, we heard from Argo Property Group, the developers working on the smaller (but still significant) project on the block. Since reading permits issued by the City is an inexact science, we were grateful to get some clarity on the details of the project and because we love looking at pretty pictures we were glad they could direct us to some renderings.
Though an empty home at 1221 N. 27th St. was demoed this year, the rest of the east side of the block has been sitting vacant for many years. The folks at Argo have patiently bought up all the parcels they could get their mitts on over the last year, and they're now planning to build a duplex, a triplex, and a pair of six-unit buildings. Per their website, the units in the duplex at 1211 N. 27th St. will be listed for sale as condos and each unit will have 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and about 1,500 sqft of living space. The triplex and the apartment buildings will contain 2 bedroom rental units. We mistakenly predicted a total of 18 units here, but the project will actually entail 17 units. Our bad.
Two things immediately stand out to us about this project. First, These buildings represent a huge improvement over what we see on this block today. The west side of the street has seen some development in recent years, but it's still got a bunch of blight and vacancy. Some new buildings on the east side of the street will bring new life to the block and hopefully inspire PHA to either renovate or sell off their empty buildings on the block. The other thing that jumps out at us is that the project is chopped up by vacant lots. It should come as no surprise that two of the three lots in question are owned by City agencies. So it's possible that these lots could be sold and redeveloped in the coming year. Or maybe it'll happen in ten years. Given all the upcoming construction in the area though, let's all hope for the former, ok?