A few readers have reached out to us over the last few weeks, passing along the news that construction is finally moving forward at Graduate Square. What is Graduate Square? We’re glad you asked.
The folks at Hightop Real Estate & Development have been working on this project, located at 2501 Washington Ave., for almost two years. They first presented preliminary plans to SOSNA in the winter of 2016, with a concept of a six-story building at the corner of 25th & Washington, a 5-story building on Grays Ferry Avenue, and 17 town homes between them. After some conversations with the community, the developers reduced the unit count of the apartment building on Washington Avenue, flipped the Grays Ferry portion to four triplexes, and altered the middle section to 11 town homes and 4 duplexes. Things changed some more by the time the project got to CDR last fall, with the apartment building going down to 5 stories, the triplexes on Grays Ferry getting swapped for two duplexes, and a return to the original plan of 17 town homes in the middle. Here are some renderings, from PZS Architects.
We were excited around New Years, when we spied some demolition activity at the property, and we declared that 2017 would be the year that Washington Avenue West would finally start to take off, between this project and Lincoln Square at Broad & Washington. But while Lincoln Square has held up its end of the bargain, Graduate Square has lagged behind, with seemingly little site work being done for much of this year.
As we mentioned at the jump though, that has changed, with the duplexes on Grays Ferry Avenue fully framed out, and the town homes to the east starting to move along. FYI, three of the four condo units are already under agreement, and at least one of the town homes is under contract at a list price of $675K. Expect those prices to go up as the construction proceeds.
Duplexes on Grays Ferry are great, as are new town homes in the middle of this large property. But the really important aspect of this project is the apartment building at the corner, which will also include a large commercial space. We can appreciate why the developers are opting to build town homes first, even if we are a little disappointed to have to wait a little longer for the mixed-use part of the project. If all goes well, we’re thinking that both this building and Lincoln Square will be done in late 2018, effecting some serious change on the corridor. Eh, we can handle it if our prediction was off by a year; we’ve done worse many times before.