If you live in Manayunk or if you drive past it on I-76, perhaps you've noticed that a big building has sprung up next to the Schuylkill River in the last year. We last visited 1 Cotton St. about a year ago, when it looked like this vacant parcel was finally getting redeveloped after years of proposals that never amounted to anything. Some people might remember that Connelly Containers was once located here, but it was demolished quite awhile ago. Visiting the property the other day, we see that the Isle Apartments project is looking to be moving along rather nicely.
This project from Realen Properties will include 156 rental apartments once it's complete. You can see, the living space is only on the four upper floors, with parking on the ground floor. This is necessary because the project sits on Venice Island, between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River, and is very much in the floor plain. You know how Main Street seems to flood every few years? We're pretty sure that Venice Island sits even lower, making the flood risk a real consideration for this project.
Potentially flooded parking area notwithstanding, this project is a breath of fresh air for the Manayunk waterfront. We'd posit that this property, accessible both by car and by pedestrian walkway, is getting developed with the right project, and we'd have to guess that the businesses nearby won't complain about the batch of new customers. According to the signage on the site, we can expect this project will wrap up in the next few months, so those businesses won't have to wait for much longer. Then again, after so many years of nothing on this site, what's a few more months?