A year and a half ago, we visited the intersection of 12th & Spring Garden and noted the vacancy at both the southeast and southwest corners. Today, it's pretty much the same story. On the southwest corner, there's a burned out gas station. On the southeast corner there's a huge vacant triangular parcel that used to be a lumber yard, and before that a brass works. 
Unfortunately, it seems like it's status quo for the old gas station. As for the lot across the street, times could be changing. The other day, a reader gave us the heads up that the property was recently posted for sheriff's sale. According to the Sheriff's website, the property is on the list for March 17th Tax Collection Sale. This makes sense, because the property owners currently owe almost $95K in property taxes. Looking at the reporting from the Revenue Department though, it seems the owners may be paying down their debt which would either postpone or cancel the sheriff's sale.
The current owners, East Spring Garden LLC, bought the property for just over $2M back in 2007 and they've tried to sell it a couple of times since for as little as $2.8M. Hopefully, the sheriff's sale possibility will result in the current owners redeveloping the parcel, their willing sale of the parcel, or a new owner coming in that has a little more urgency to redevelop. Considering the changes on nearby blocks of Spring Garden Street in recent years, this would seem like a great development opportunity for the right party. And if the sheriff's sale means that will happen sooner and the City will get some much needed revenue, that's all the better.