You may not remember it was so long ago, but back in September, we shared the news that two homes were being proposed at the long vacant corner of 22nd & Federal. It took 'til January for the project to get the old stamp of approval from the ZBA, and it took several more months to get in the ground. That being said, you can now see two foundations at this corner, where soon one new home will front Federal Street and one new home will front Annin Street.
The developer that's building these two homes doesn't own the adjacent vacant lots on either Annin or Federal, so it could be awhile before those are developed, though a zoning permit was pulled for the lot next door on Federal Street. And we've heard some rumblings about new owners for the old Star Track Lounge, located just to the north of these future homes, but nothing is confirmed as of yet. We wouldn't be surprised, though, to see it come back to life in some new form before all the vacant lots next to the foundations disappear. Meanwhile, just a block to the south, and interesting rehab effort is underway.
We've seen plenty of rehab jobs in our day, but none have looked like this one. It looks like the Incredible Hulk walked up to the building and punched a hole in the facade, leaving framing and lathe visible from the street. The owners have a permit to replace the facade, but we've never seen a project where the front of a building is removed from the inside out. On the plus side, we imagine the new facade will look much better than the old one.