A reader tipped us off recently about 126-32 Dickinson St., a large Pennsport property that's currently available for sale. Passing by the property, you can see a two-story building and a fenced area on Dickinson Street and you'd never imagine that the property spans over a quarter of an acre.
To the west of the property there are older two-story homes. To the east is I-95 and a collection of homes built about ten years ago. One of those homes recently sold for over half a million, giving an indication of what potential developers might consider when penciling out a project next door. The big challenge with this property, and the reason we bring it to you instead of buying it ourselves, is the odd shape of the parcel. The listing provides a drawing that shows what we mean.
The lot is zoned for single-family use, so we would guess that the community would only support a project with homes, not a large rental or condo building. A project with homes in this location would certainly need parking, but the property is land-locked aside from 58' of frontage on Dickinson Street. Perhaps the HOA next door would allow the developers to use their drive-aisle, which would improve access to the site but would still make for a very complicated residential layout. Looking at the property quickly, we can see a way to easily fit seven homes, maybe eight. Now is probably a good time to mention, the asking price for the parcel is $1.625M.
At this purchase price and given sale prices of new homes in the neighborhood, we're not sure how a residential project would work for this property. Perhaps someone out there has a more creative take and can think of a way to fit more units on the property? Otherwise it seems the price will need to come down in order to entice redevelopment.