It seems like just yesterday that we first called your attention to 538 Federal St., a building that was constructed about a hundred years ago as a substation for the Philadelphia Electric Company (we call it PECO today). For the sake of nostalgia and as evidence of its former use, here's an old image of the building:
Alas, it was over five years ago that we noticed some interior demolition here and had some high hopes that the building would get renovated and reused. At the time, we gave you the lowdown that PECO had sold the building in 1998 and that the owners lollygagged for a decade before taking a plan to the ZBA to convert the 13K sqft building into 16 apartments. That plan was ultimately withdrawn, and then in 2012 it looked like they'd be moving forward with a plan for 11 units instead. While we were perhaps a little disappointed about the lowered unit count, we were still pleased to hear that the building would be renovated and reused, not demolished and replaced by something less architecturally satisfying.
A year passed, and nothing happened. Then another year went by. And another. And one more. And here we are today, looking at a building that looks much the way it did four years ago. Well, there's one notable difference and that's the sign that appeared on the building at some point in the last few weeks.
Yes folks, this building is on the market. It's currently listed for $1.6M, but the listing doesn't provide much insight into what's been happening the last few years. It's being sold as-is, and would still make for an awesome residential conversion, though we could also imagine a developer buying the property and demolishing the building in favor of 7 townhomes. Just about any project on this property would require a zoning variance, as it's zoned for mixed-use and would require some kind of retail component. Even though there's a huge and amazing shopping center right across the street, we don't see mixed-use as the way to go for this building.
At the current price, we don't imagine anyone will come forward to redevelop this property. Assuming that the price comes down to something more reasonable, we're cautiously optimistic that we'll see something happen here at some point in the near future. Alternately, it'll continue to sit vacant, as it has for the last couple decades.