It's been about a year since we last visited the 600 block of Federal Street, at which point we told you about two exciting projects for the block. You may recall, developers had just purchased an ugly stuccoed former auto shop in the middle of the block and had plans to convert the building into 13 apartments with retail on the first floor. Other developers bought the former Federal Pretzel Company building and were on their way to converting the building into a laundromat, a vacant retail space, and two apartments upstairs. As we check in, we see there's been progress on both fronts, though neither project is anywhere near the finish line.
You can see, the second floor of the former garage at 630 Federal St. has been demolished, and some lumber is holding up the first floor facade. It's perhaps a little odd that the developers are saving a section of the building, but if you look at the project in person you can see there are some large steel beams behind the wall so perhaps it would be too cumbersome to tear down the whole thing. As we said, the project will entail thirteen apartments which will involve the addition of two new stories atop the remaining structure. There will also be a retail space on the first floor which will house a business of some kind, and nine parking spaces accessed via Manton Street. But as you can see, there's still a long way to go for this project.
Regarding the former Federal Pretzels at 636 Federal St., it seems there's some work going on, but it's unclear whether the work is almost finished or just getting started. We can say for sure though, that the new meters on the front of the building aren't a great look.
As we told you to anticipate, the section of the Federal Pretzel building on 7th Street has been demolished. Despite the fact that the properties aren't so deep, plans are still in motion for two new single-family homes. At the very least, the progress is encouraging to see on 7th Street. On the other hand, we're pretty sad to see the fabulous sign disappear forever.
The next time we check in on this block, we predict things will be much further along for both of these projects.