As recently as five years ago, the south side of Oxford Street between Howard and Mascher Streets was a large vacant lot, and the building immediately to the east was home to a lamp factory that looked like crap. What a difference a few years has made for this small stretch and South Kensington as a whole.
Of course, we told you about this development before any of it happened. A few years ago, we told you about plans to convert the Pieri lamp factory, originally a dye works, into Oxford Mills, a mixed-use building targeting teachers and non-profit workers. And it was just over two years ago that we told you about plans from D3 Developers for ten homes ar 120 W. Oxford St., the aforementioned vacant lot. In the time that's passed since then, all of the homes have been completed and from what we can tell all of them have sold. At the very least, none are currently listed for sale. Prices for the homes ranged between $400K and $440K, from what we can tell.
With these two seemingly successful projects paving the way, it the area is ripe for additional development. Just a week ago, we told you of plans to convert a warehouse on Mascher Street into 22 apartments. And then there's the vacant lot in the photo above, which seems like a great candidate for redevelopment, though we haven't heard about any concrete plans for the parcel. It wouldn't shock us in the least to hear about another townhome plan for this parcel, but since it's strangely zoned for single-family use, any plan will need to come before the community. So as usual, we'll be on the lookout.