If you drive from river to river on Poplar Street, you can see redevelopment trends across various Philadelphia neighborhoods. In Northern Liberties, Front & Poplar was mostly open space as recently as a few years ago, but is now mostly new residential units. In Francisville, at 19th & Poplar, nearly the entire intersection and surrounding blocks have been redeveloped. In Brewerytown, we've seen demolition on Poplar of late, and it's a block away from the improving Girard Avenue commercial corridor.
But back to Northern Liberties. 5th & Poplar is another Poplar Street intersection where dozens of units have either been finished or are soon coming online. Most recently, the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association supported plans to raze an old building at 517-533 Poplar St. and in its place build forty new homes. Masada Builders first proposed plans for 40 units here with 1:1 parking in the fall of 2013. At that time, the NLNA said they'd likely support the project, but there were still some tweaks to be made. They also wondered if it was feasible to salvage the warehouse. In 1916, the building was Poplar Theatre and held 850 people. Now it's a faded ruddy red warehouse, soon to meet its end.
When developers reappeared before the NLNA a couple months back with revised plans, they presented designs from a new architect. Plans still included the 40 units. but with 35 interior parking spaces. At the meeting, the NLNA asked Masada to change a few things—namely, according to Larry Freedman, NLNA zoning chair, creating a little more street level open space, a smaller common deck which provides more setback between adjacent buildings, and reduced height at one of the corners. A corner commercial unit was also redesigned to better fit the scheme. When Masada reappeared before the NLNA last month, the project got community support.
When completed, these 40 new units will join a score of new homes that have come online the past few years near 5th & Poplar, like Pressman Commons, which provided 21 new homes. Take that into consideration with recently approved plans for 38 townhomes at 6th & Fairmount, which will back up to nine homes along North 6th Street, and we're really throwing some spice into the broth. Add the TransAlantic project on Fairmount which will make convert the old warehouse into 48 apartments and it's clear there is still a great deal of building happening in Northern Liberties.