The corner where E. York Street hits Jasper Street has been vacant for decades. Until quite recently though, this felt quite natural, as the surrounding blocks were chock full of vacant lots, some of them measuring well over an acre in size. Slowly but surely though, development from Fishtown has tracked its was through East Kensington, moving from Amber to Coral to Emerald, and finally to Jasper Street, the last block before Kensington Avenue. We’ve seen several sizable projects appear right near here in the last few years, with a few more, including a large apartment building stretching from Jasper to Front Street, yet to come. So it should come as no surprise when we tell you to expect even more construction here in the near future.

Just a couple months back, developers pulled permits to build four duplexes at 1900-1906 E. York St., taking a simple by-right approach. Certainly, this will be a less impressive project than aforementioned Front Street building or the renovation of the former white elephant building across the street, but it will still add to the mix in an area that continues to see positive development momentum. We imagine that these units will be offered as condos, but rentals could also be in play- frankly either approach sounds great to us.

We should add, there’s potential for quite a bit more development around here. A triplex went up at 912 E. York St. last year, but that building is surrounded by vacant lots which are zoned for multi-family use. Seven other lots on this block are vacant and owned by a private developer, so it’s possible that the duplexes planned at the corner will have some company in the near future. Not for nothing, but the triplex that’s standing there now is looking a wee bit lonely.

It’s even more likely we’ll see some construction soon on Jasper Street. The same developer working on the duplexes at the corner owns the first two properties off the corner on Jasper, where they recently tore down an old three-story home and a little one-story building. So figure those will also get redeveloped sometime soon and add to the collection of new buildings on the block.

Unlike many large vacant lots in this part of town, these properties aren’t former industrial sites so they’re quite small and easy to bite off in discrete projects, rather than necessitating large and expensive apartment buildings. These properties were originally used for small, low density residential purposes and it’s nice to see them coming back to that same use after so many years of vacancy. Not that we’d object to apartment buildings either, but we appreciate the diverse offerings in this little pocket of East Kensington and will enjoy watching in the next couple years as things change dramatically while several projects move from conception to construction to completion.