Let’s look at the odd setup at 1810-20 E. Moyamensing Ave., where an industrial building bears a sign that reads eModa.com. You’ll be forgiven if you don’t know what that business is or what they do, and to be honest, we don’t know ourselves. Attempting the obvious, we visited the website, and were directed to a site offering the domain name for the low low price of $500K. We’ll have you know, we wouldn’t pay a penny over $300K for that domain, so no dice there.

Given the rising popularity of Pennsport, this property is an obvious candidate for redevelopment. As we told you previously, the owners of the property went to the ZBA in 2014 to get approval for a nanobrewery in part of the building, which was necessary because the parcel is zoned for single-family use despite its industrial appearance. The nanobrewery, cool as it would have been, never came to be, and we believe the property has sat vacant for years. You may recall, last summer we told you about plans to demolish the building (no loss there!) along with the four homes that sit next door, and for the construction of a 32-unit apartment building with 14 parking spots. As the photos of the site indicate, that also didn’t happen.

It seems the community wasn’t delighted by the project, and this resulted in a pivot for the property. Instead of an apartment building, it appears we’ll be getting 11 duplexes instead. The plan was approved by the ZBA at the end of last year and the developers picked up their zoning permits a little over a week ago. We should add, we don’t quite know how the plan will lay out on the site, but we’re pretty sure the revised plan means that the existing homes will remain, maintaining a portion of the existing rhythm on the block.

With permits now in hand, we have to think it’ll only be a matter of time before this project gets moving. We’ll be pleased to see this upcoming transition, as the eModa building was always pretty rough on the eyes, and duplexes instead of single family homes will add density to the area and result in lower sale prices than townhomes, making the neighborhood more accessible. Now we’re just left hoping that the developers will name the development something like the eModa Townhomes, you know, to provide a connection to the history of the site.