It was back in May that we drew your gaze to the southwest corner of Hancock & Thompson, where developers were working on an eight-unit condo building. We were shocked though, because every unit was under agreement even though the building was still months away from completion. We now see that half of the units have sold, with prices between $290K and $410K, indicating a very robust market for condos in South Kensington. So really, it should come as no surprise that other developers are looking to get in on the action in the general vicinity.

Not even half a block away, we noticed a construction fence surrounding the vacant lot at the southwest corner of Palethorp & Thompson. We see that a developer bought 1252 Palethorp St. back in the spring of 2016 for $112,500, got a zoning permit in the summer to build a duplex, and then sold the property to another developer for $225K in the fall. Not bad for half a year’s work, eh? The developer that purchased the property has a building permit in hand and with the fence in place we’d think that construction will start sometime soon.

In the two images above, we’re looking east from Palethorp & Thompson, and we see that new condo building in all its glory. Across the street, another developer is planning a duplex at the southwest corner of Hancock & Thompson. While rentals are certainly a possibility, we again think it’ll be condos here, given the prices across the street. We wish them luck, though with a twinge of bitterness, as we tried to buy this parcel a couple years ago.

While the prices for the condo building are beyond anything we would have reasonably expected, they do make some sense when you consider the block in question. Though this is very much South Kensington, the location is just a block away from Northern Liberties and two blocks from Fishtown. Even though the prices are high for the neighborhood, the proximity to those other, higher priced neighborhoods provides some real value to buyers. This is a long way of saying that we don’t necessarily believe that condos farther north or west in the neighborhood would necessarily sell at a similar premium. But you never know, we’ve been wrong about this kind of thing before.