The 800 block of N. Uber Street is a lovely little block with a pocket park at its southern end, but it’s got some development on the horizon for both sides of the street.

On the east side of the street, you can see a big new building at 815-17 N. Uber St. with square bays projecting above the sidewalk. That building went up over the last year or so, and includes six apartments which we suspect are rental units. Next door is a zoning notice for a similar type of project, but it’s particularly notable because the lots at 819-21 N. Uber St. were previously owned by City agencies. As they’re now in private hands, these lots will finally get filled in after many years of vacancy.

Across the street, 812 N. Uber St. has a demoliton notice posted out front. This building, along with several others on the block, was built as affordable housing by Community Ventures about 15 years ago. We’d guess that there was some kind of deed restriction that’s now expired, allowing the former owner to sell the property to developers. While the project across the street needs to go to zoning for a six-unit building, 812 N. Uber St. can go for six units by-right, which probably explains why the developers that bought it jumped on the opportunity after it was on the market for a mere three days.

This reminds us of a phenomenon we’ve seen nearby in this neighborhood on 19th and 20th Streets, where developers have built by-right condo buildings in place of low slung homes originally built as affordable housing. We don’t believe that the 800 block of N. Uber Street falls in the path of the neighborhood rezoning that was passed a couple months ago, so we’d think we haven’t seen the last of this strategy on this block or on others in Francisville.