Fishtown is a white hot neighborhood, buoyed by the eclectic Frankford Avenue commercial corridor and a seemingly unending parade of development projects throughout the area. We know this not only because Forbes Magazine says so, but because we’ve been paying close attention over the last decade, providing you with the play by play. But this wasn’t always the case. For decades, this was a working class neighborhood, ignored by developers, hipsters, and property assessors alike. With negligible interest from investors, plenty of real estate sat around, not being used for highest or best purposes. This was especially the case on Frankford Avenue, where many large parcels were used by industrial businesses and there were numerous lots sitting vacant. There were also a number of vacant lots inside the neighborhood, off the corridor. Many of those lots have turned into homes over the years, but not all of them.

The photo above shows an example of one such lot which has continued to sit vacant. 2318-26 E. Susquehanna Ave. is a sizable lot which has been sitting vacant for over a decade. It looks like it had some kind of community use a few years ago, but recent images show it as a storage lot for a few vehicles and some garbage. Developers purchased the property last summer and paid $875K, putting it under agreement only two weeks after it was listed for sale. By right, these developers could have built four homes on the lots but instead went to the ZBA to get permission to build a fifth home. They got that approval last month, and have already broken ground on the project.

Digging through some of the permitting documentation, we realized that KJO Architecture did the design work for the project. We were able to snag a project rendering from their Instagram feed, and the homes look like they’ll be a solid addition to the area.

Even if we didn’t appreciate the design, let’s agree that just about anything would be a step up over the vacant lot. Now we’ll just be left to wonder what kind of prices they’re able to get here. Reckon we’ll find out soon enough.