Like the US economy, the real estate market in Philadelphia has been running hot for about a decade, and we’re now at the point in the development cycle that developers have gobbled up almost every obviously attractive parcel in desirable neighborhoods. This being the case, we’re seeing more and more examples of projects that try to make the best of challenging development sites, as many developers find themselves faced with a lack of better options. At 801 Aramingo Ave., developers are trying to fit a square peg into a triangular and poorly located hole. But hey, it’s Fishtown, so why not give it a shot?

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View of the property
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Looking through the property at Fletcher Street

This property has been used to store cars for a number of years, though we don’t know for what purpose. We figured the property was associated with the auto garage next door, but looking at property records, now we don’t believe this to be the case. It’s sort of academic at this point, as developers are now proposing a four-story, eleven-unit apartment building here, with three parking spots. The project has a few refusals, including for the parking and a lack of a retail space. Considering the location, we don’t think that either refusal should be problematic.

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Looking toward Girard from the property
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I-95 across the street

This property is located in a very weird spot, right at the end of the East Girard Avenue corridor and across the street from an I-95 offramp. On the one hand, it’s walkable as you go toward Girard. On the other hand, if you take a few wrong steps, you’re on a highway. Combine the location with the triangular shape of the property, and it feels like one of the more challenging development sites we’ve seen. That being said, a building instead of a surface parking lot is a great improvement, and assuming people are willing to live in the building, a bit of density at this location is a welcome sight.

A community meeting took place earlier this week on this project but we don’t know how it went. We can’t imagine the project encountered any opposition, but you can never be sure with this sort of thing. Perhaps someone that attended the meeting can share its outcome?