Girard Avenue, 2nd Street, and Germantown Avenue form a large triangle that’s one of the more curiously underdeveloped properties in Northern Liberties. Collectively, all the properties here cover a little over an acre, but there are only two buildings on the site. One is paint store at the corner of Germantown & Girard, and the other is a vacant and blighted building at the corner of 2nd & Girard. Everything else is vacant land. It’s worth noting, there were two old homes on this site until 2013, but they were demolished. At that time, we hoped this meant that this entire parcel would soon get redeveloped. Alas, that hasn’t happened. But maybe soon?

We wouldn’t swear on it, but that sure looks like a drill rig doing geotechnical work on this site. For those that aren’t familiar, developers retain geotech companies to test the soil on their properties to get a sense of what systems are required for foundations. This is an incredibly important step, one of the first, in the development process. This could be an indication that a new project could be on the horizon for this property.

In case you weren’t aware, Tower Investments owns just about every property on this block other than the vacant building at 2nd & Girard. Since this developer has built so much in this neighborhood, it’s tough to predict what they could do with this property. Could we see a mini-Piazza? Another commercial development, like the Acme and its neighbors across the street? Or maybe something that’s purely residential, with the thought that this part of the neighborhood has enough retail? What the heck, maybe we’ll see a small factory. What would you like to see here?

Of course, it’s also possible that the workers weren’t doing geotech at all. Maybe they were doing something more mundane, like preparing to install a new utility pole on the site, and there’s nothing forthcoming at this location. Has anyone in the neighborhood heard about any plans on the horizon?