We were making our way through Francisville the other day and a seemingly new chain link fence caught our attention at the corner of 16th & Cambridge. The 'Work in Progress' signs on the fence are a pretty good indication that something will soon be happening here.
Before we get into the project, let's first provide some context. This property has been used as a surface parking lot for the last couple decades (at least) by Saint Joseph's Hospital, but the hospital hasn't need the parking lot quite so much since it closed back in March. The North Philadelphia Health System owned the hospital and shut it down because they've dealing with financial difficulties for many years. NPHS, also operators of the Girard Medical Center, surely saw an opportunity to raise some needed cash, and sold off parts of their former parking lot (and if we're reading the public record correctly also lost a part of it at sheriff's sale). This corner will represent the first project cropping up at the former parking lot, as developers are planning a trio of quadplexes for this corner. These units will fit right in with the condo buildings immmediately to the south, constructed a few years back.
These buildings will be only the first in a wave of projects coming soon to the 1600 block of Cambridge Street. At 1614 Cambridge St., permits have been issued for a duplex. At 1616 Cambridge St., developers are in the process of selling a parcel that could accommodate a 25-unit building by right. And at the corner of 17th & Cambridge, the same developers building at 16th & Cambridge have another nice sized lot which they can take in a number of directions.
All of this, of course, begs the question of what will happen to the former hospital on the north side of this block, running through to the south side of the 1600 block of Girard. As far as we can tell, NPHS still owns the former hospital and we can only speculate as to what a developer would be willing to pay for the 125K+ sqft building. Similarly, we have to wonder whether the eventual buyer will look to reuse the building, probably with a residential conversion, or whether they'd look to demolish it and building something new in its place. Either way, it'll represent a major change in use for this property, which has been home to a hospital since at least the 1860s.