We have another Front Street project to bring to your attention, just up the block from the unexpected outdoor seating area associated with Five Sisters Ice Cream Parlor. We actually snapped a photo of 2017 N. Front St. a couple weeks ago, but when we realized that the property extended back to Amber Street, we figured we'd wait on the story until we could get a good photo of the rear of the property. Now we've got pictures of both sides, so here we go:
It's a good thing we waited- the building actually has more frontage on Amber than it does on Front, despite the Front Street address. Also, seeing the rear of the building we get a much better feeling for what's going to happen here. First of all, the building is massive, with almost 19K sqft of interior space, per an old listing. Developers purchased the property back in 2014 for $649K and are working to convert the former auto shop into eighteen apartments on the second floor and a vacant commercial space on the first floor. It seems a little odd that they're keeping the first floor space open for retail, though we wouldn't be shocked if they converted it into a parking area once the upstairs construction is finished.
But that's not all for this block! Immediately to the north, there's a bunch of vacant lots which will also get converted to residential use. We're not sure about the number of units, but given the amount of space we'd anticipate at least a couple dozen apartments. Unlike the first project we mentioned, this one has no commercial aspect planned as far as we can tell. But if apartments keep popping up on Front Street and nearby in East Kensington, this corridor might actually start getting more interesting for possible commercial tenants. We're already seeing this happen on the blocks closer to Girard Avenue, it's possible it could happen up here as well.