In Northern Liberties, countless warehouses have been demolished in favor of new development, with huge projects like the Piazza and Liberties Walk filling the space earlier on, and with new construction single family homes taking over more recently. Earlier this week, a reader tipped us off that another warehouse could bite it soon, though we confess we have no idea what would happen on the site if and when it does.
For years, Northern Liberties Self Storage has dominated a lengthy stretch of N. 2nd Street, a mostly faceless old warehouse in the thick of a thriving commercial corridor. Tower Investments bought the former Esco warehouse at 828 N. 2nd St. about a decade ago, which is about when we would imagine it was converted into the self storage facility. A wonderful building at the corner of Poplar Street, which came with the property, sat vacant for a long time until it was demolished earlier this year.
According to a newish thread on NorthernLiberties.net, the storage facility is closing or just recently closed. We would have to imagine that Tower wouldn't be closing the business down at this location unless they had fresh plans to reuse the warehouse, demolish the warehouse, or sell it to another party. As you can see in the photo above, the warehouse building is enormous- it stretches halfway to American Street, where it buts up against the recently renovated former Ortlieb's Bottling Plant. Its reuse, along with an addition, could make for a great mixed-use building. Alternately, it could be demolished and a new building could rise. But given the recent history in the neighborhood we mentioned earlier, the best bet would seem to be a mess of single family homes.
Or maybe it will just sit vacant for the foreseeable future. We certainly can't rule out that possibility either.