The neighborhood around 600 Moore St. is pretty standard South Philly, a bunch of row homes with some first floor storefronts mixed in, and the occasional large commercial or institutional building. For some reason though, the city block that’s bounded by 6th Street, 7th Street, Moore Street, and McClellan Street has never fit that rubric. A hundred years ago, it appears it was used for a variety of industrial purposes and as recently as the 1960s it included a warehouse for a beverage company and a theater. Today, a business called Woodcraft Cabinets PA dominates the block, with a painted black warehouse casting something of a pall in every direction. We can all agree, we hope, that this location, in the middle of a residential neighborhood, probably isn’t the ideal spot for a cabinet warehouse/manufacturer.

This isn’t, incidentally, the first time we’ve brought this building to your attention. Over the summer, when we checked in on a nine home project on the north side of the 600 block of Moore, we said “we have to think that developers have been reaching out to the owners of these properties of late, making unsolicited offers…. at a certain point, those offers might prove too rich to ignore, and as a result there’s a decent chance that we’ll be seeing some more changes on this block before too long.” Oh man, we love it when we’re right.

Pretty much concurrent with our story, developers did indeed strike a deal to partner with the owners of the roughly 1 acre parcel. A couple of readers have reached out of late, notifying us about an upcoming EPX community meeting at which those developers will be presenting their plans to transition this property to a more standard South Philly layout than ever before.

Per the meeting agenda, the plans call for the construction of 25 homes on McClellan Street, 23 duplexes on Moore Street, mixed-use buildings at the corners of 6th & Moore and 7th & Moore, and 84 parking spaces. By our count, that’s 77 new residential units, with more than a parking spot for every unit. Will that be enough parking for the community? Will people be comfortable with the density? If you want to find out first hand, the meeting will be taking place on Wednesday at 1025 Mifflin St. at 7pm. Be a pal and let us know how it goes!