Housing development may have slowed across Philadelphia of late, but that’s not really the case in Manayunk, where good sized residential and mixed-use projects along the Main Street corridor continue securing approvals to redevelop former industrial sites near the Schuylkill River. But sometimes the approval process takes quite some time and results in substantial changes. 4436 Main St. is a fine example this phenomenon.

We first covered this property in the summer of 2022, when we told you to expect 243 units over five-stories, with a ton of first-floor parking and a pedestrian bridge over the canal to a retail/amenity combo on Main Street. We were excited by this project from ROCK Urban Development, and appreciated the upgrade for this huge section of Venice Island. By the time October rolled around, the project was going to Civic Design Review and had shed some some density, with the unit count dropping to 213. In early 2023, the project changed again, after the first CDR meeting. The number of apartments remained the same, but the design on Main Street was altered to separate the residential and commercial uses, streamlining the pedestrian connection between the island and the mainland.

Since then, the project has continued to evolve. The developers needed approval from the Historical Commission because the site sits within the Main Street Manayunk Historic District. This resulted in additional design changes, like increasing a setback and adjusting the color of the terracotta paneling. Somewhere along the way, the density went down some more, landing at what we expect is a final number of 181 units. The first floor sits in the flood plain, so we can’t think of a better use than the 106 parking spots in the plans. Here’s a quick rundown of the changes we’ve seen to the Main Street facade over the years, with a hat tip to JKRP Architects for their design work:

And here are some renderings of the rest of the project, in its latest form:

We reached out to the developer for an update and learned that the project has reached its final iteration and they are moving forward with procuring building permits in the coming months. The goal is to start construction late this year or early in 2026, which tells us to expect this project to be wrapping up sometime in 2028. Sure, we wish that the project had 60+ more units, but we’ll still consider it a win for Manayunk as a long underused property will pick up a couple hundred new residents. Between this project and others, Venice Island will soon look completely unrecognizable compared to its recent past and even its current state. Surely, the businesses on Main Street will only appreciate all the new customers.