In Passyunk Square, new building continues as plans for five new single-family homes at 1437-49 Beulah St. received a vote of non-opposition from the Passyunk Square Civic Association at their December zoning meeting.

The homes will, if approved, fill in a stretch of vacant lots at the elbow of a skinny street that's almost too narrow for a car to fit down, between 7th and 8th, Reed and Dickinson Street. The developers acquired four of the lots last summer for $120K. The fifth was purchased this past summer, and the sixth was bought even more recently. The lots are only 13.5’ wide, which is why the developers are building five homes instead of six. Let's agree that buyers will be far more enthused about 16'-wide homes. That these guys want to build on this tight squeeze of a block points to the idea that right now is the time to develop in Passyunk Square.

It's where various new projects are underway and increasing rents are causing neighborhood favorites, like El Zarape, to find new quarters in the area. Just a few blocks east in Pennsport, multiple projects, including one in the site of a former church, are progressing which will bring increased value to the immediate adjacent area. Keep in mind in the past two years we’ve repeatedly covered how development in one neighborhood easily spills over into the next. 

Across the Passyunk Square neighborhood, proposals for new projects have continued to fill up the PSCA's zoning agenda. Perhaps the most visible project in the neighborhood is the Armory building that was demolished earlier this fall on Broad Street to make way for 60 new units in a new six-story building. There are also plans for ten new apartments to take the place of the former Jehovah's Witness building at 1235 Federal St., which should get underway soon. And, there is also the Latona Court project on 12th Street that’s wrapping up. Though it’s not quite buzzing at the same pace as neighborhoods like East Kensington or Francisville, Passyunk Square is acquitting itself quite nicely development-wise these days. And we expect it to continue.