Just because it's been a few weeks since we've been able to get ourselves to East Kensington doesn't mean there isn't a bunch of development news to report in the neighborhood. Take, for instance, a large vacant lot at 2565-77 Amber St., which sits near the intersection of Frankford Avenue and East Huntingdon Street. This parcel has been sitting vacant for many years, with the surrounding chain link fence slowly getting overrun by some aggressive flora.
Developers bought this property back in 2013 and are now looking to build seven triplexes. They went to the ZBA earlier this week, but the case got continued. Has anyone been to the community meetings on this project that can provide some insight into how it was received? Perhaps the neighborhood was looking for a single building here instead of a number of smaller buildings? Or maybe, because the property sits so close to Frankford Avenue, the community wanted retail on the first floor. After all, there's a Steak N Shake across the street and just beyond that building we've seen some new mixed-use buildings rise on Frankford Ave. in the last couple years.
Of course, the bigger news for this area is the upcoming Woods Square project half a block away on the 2600 blocks of Frankford Avenue and Amber Street. That project will include 178 units, 15K sqft of retail, and 20K sqft of office space. So while seven new triplexes would certainly add to the vibrancy of this section of Frankford Avenue, Woods Square will take things to another level. If things keep up at this pace, pretty soon we imagine we'll be spending some more time on Frankford on the other side of Lehigh. Who could have predicted such a thing even five years ago?