Snockey's Oyster House was one of the most fabled restaurants in Philadelphia, serving seafood to the masses since 1912. It was with heavy hearts that the Snock family closed the business at the end of 2015, but according to Philly.com, it was an aging ownership and a younger generation not willing to enter the restaurant business that ultimately meant the end for Snockey's. The restaurant moved around a few times over its long run, operating out of 1020 S. 2nd St. for its last 40 years.
With the closing of the restaurant, many developers started circling, with an eye toward redevelopment. We're generally fans of neighborhood retail, and we would have hoped that a new owner would try to find a new restaurant tenant for the first floor space. But given the demand for real estate in Queen Village, that was probably a pipe dream.
The building is now getting renovated into a seven-unit building by the new owners, V2 Properties. We've seen countless projects from this developer around town, notably on some narrow South Philly blocks near Snyder Avenue where they're doing a ton of townhome construction. In fact, the Snockey's project is fairly unique for V2 in that it's a condo project, according (yet again) to a Philly.com story. This project should be finished by the fall, and we would guess that buyers will be lining up to move into this property. Assuming, that is, they can get the seafood smell out of there.
In looking at the permits for this project, we learned that there will be another project happening at 1022-24 S. 2nd St., immediately next door. For this project, developers will be demolishing a small apartment building and constructing four duplexes in its place. The duplexes will be laid out like the letter 'C', with two units fronting 2nd Street with a courtyard in between them, and entrances to two square-shaped buildings through said courtyard. We don't have much more info on that project right now, though we'd think the units will be offered as condos, like the project next door. Unlike the Snockey's building though, don't look for any turrets on the new construction. That sort of thing just isn't done these days, sadly.