It’s been a rough decade for the neighbors on the 700 block of S. 2nd Street, as 718-24 S. 2nd St. has provided intermittent construction aggravation and a near permanent eyesore for almost all of those years. We first brought these properties to your attention in the summer of 2011, wondering about the status of this seemingly stalled construction project.

By 2014, new developers purchased the properties and were negotiating with neighbors and representatives of QVNA on how to proceed. The developers were hoping to resume construction on the existing buildings and produced a report from a structural engineer that indicated this would be a safe course of action. So we were hopeful that this project would finally get buttoned up. But then nothing happened. We came back here about a year ago, noting that demolition notices were posted and were optimistic that something could finally be moving forward. And then months rolled along and still nothing happened. Whoops.

But wait, we passed by this property the other day and lo and behold, it’s finally getting demolished. Not only have most of the buildings come down on 2nd Street, but the sections of the project at 207-209 Monroe St. are also gone. Finally seeing progress here is a wonderful change of pace; at this point we were resigned that the property would remain vacant for the rest of our lives. Color us surprised.

We reached out to the developer who told us that the demolition work should be done in the next two weeks. He also indicated that his group hasn’t decided on a final plan for this site and a partner is meeting today with neighbors in an effort to figure out how to proceed. The property is zoned for multi-family use, so an apartment building could be constructed by right. But we got the sense that the developers would prefer to build single family homes with parking, a project that would require a zoning variance (for the parking, not the homes). At this point, we don’t even care what they build, we’re just over the moon that this long stalled project is finally approaching a resolution. We imagine the neighbors are feeling a similar, though much more personal, sense of relief.