The Italian Market is a Philadelphia landmark, and not just because Rocky has jogged through it once or twice. It’s home to a number of restaurants and specialty food stores, some of the most affordable produce in town, and a few flaming barrels for warmth. Every May, it’s home to one of the best outdoor festivals in town, offering an opportunity to try to climb a greased pole. It’s something that everyone in Philadelphia should have to do at least once.
The heart of the market ends at Washington Avenue, thanks to the huge vacant lot at 1101 S. 9th St., at the southeast corner of 9th & Washington. For almost a hundred years, this property was occupied by a warehouse owned by the American Ice Company. That building fell out of use at some point in the late 20th century and was finally demolished in 2008. A standalone building occupied by Anastasi Seafood remained at the corner, until that building was also demolished in 2022. And that’s how we have a 32K sqft vacant lot at this prominent corner.
Way back in 2012, we told you about plans from Midwood Investment to redevelop this site with a 30K sqft one-story commercial building and an underground parking lot. We lamented these plans, suggesting that a mid-rise mixed-use project would not only improve the fortunes of whatever businesses opened in the building, but would also help the existing businesses in and around the Italian Market.
We were delighted a few years later, when Midwood came around with plans for a six-story building with 157 apartments over ground-floor commercial. This plan encountered community resistance due to plans for a curb cut on 9th Street, but was ultimately approved by the City. In 2022, it looked like work was about to start on the project, but the site remains vacant to this day.
Yesterday, a story in the Inquirer gave us some major deja vu, as we learned that Midwood is pivoting back to a plan that resembles their concept from a dozen years ago. The newest plan, detailed in a brochure from MSC Retail, calls for about 23,500 sqft of retail space, along with a 2,500 sqft rooftop deck that will be utilizes by one of the commercial tenants. There’s no parking component to the plan from what we can tell, which we guess will please folks that are mostly concerned with curb cuts.
Like we said back in 2012, this plan is a step up from a vacant lot but a disappointment in terms of what could be built here. Our city needs density in central locations, and this is a rare situation where a well located parcel is sitting vacant and has zoning that would allow for by-right redevelopment into a mixed-use project. Assuming that something that resembles the above rendering gets built, it will represent a real underuse for a property that’s loaded with potential. Looking west on Washington Avenue, we can see new buildings that are consistent with what should be happening on this major thoroughfare. Unfortunately, this one will be an outlier.
If we’re looking at the bright side, this project will bring life to a section to the Italian Market that has been dealing with a blighted former warehouse or a vacant lot for decades. A new building will surely fill with new and interesting businesses, increasing the culinary diversity of an area that’s already home to some of the best restaurants in Philadelphia. In a few years we will certainly appreciate the improvement to this block and the Italian Market in general – but we don’t think we will ever stop thinking about what could have been.