A reader reached out the other day, giving us the heads up that construction is finally moving forward at 1019 E. Columbia Ave., a mere five years after we first looked at the property. Back then, developers had purchased this large parcel at the intersection of Columbia Ave. and Salmon St., and had plans to demolish the industrial building on the site and replace it with nine homes and three duplexes. But the community was unimpressed by this plan and voted it down due to density concerns. And so the property was more or less untouched over the last several years, with its old building set way back from the street and its fence overgrown by all sorts of shrubbery.

Things look rather different if you visit this property today, as the old building is gone, the trees and bushes are out, and eight homes are under construction. Red Oak Development is building the project and has named it Riverside Row. Clearly, the community had an easier time with this new version of the project thanks to the reduction in density and the fact that every home in the project has parking, accessed from a drive-aisle.

Bright Common did the contemporary design work for this project, and on their website they explain some of the unique elements of the homes. For example, the rear drive-aisle eliminated rear yards, so these homes instead have front courtyards of varying sizes. They also note that the exterior cladding won’y have many seams, and suggest that the homes will look like stacked blocks when they’re done. Their rendering certainly suggests as much.

In order to give a view of the whole project in the rendering, the image pulls way back into I-95 and provides a perspective that may not be possible given the existence of the highway across the street. Also interesting, the rendering shows people (and dogs) using the green space across the street, which is currently a fenced-in berm adjacent to the highway. We couldn’t tell you whether this is an accurate portrayal of a future plan for this green space or whether it’s merely wishful thinking, but we’re certainly hopeful for the former. We don’t see why it couldn’t be converted to public green space, as we’ve seen along the highway in Queen Village or Pennsport. It would certainly be an added benefit, not only for the future residents of this development but for anyone else that lives nearby.