We don't see it too often, but every now and then we find out about construction in Packer Park, near the stadiums. Recently, a reader, perhaps on his way to see the Sixers lose, came upon four homes under construction on the 3200 block of Chaucer Street. This seemed odd, as this block has been built up for many years and he seemed to remember homes in this location previously. He was quite right- there were homes here before.
Our first thought was that a developer purchased the row of homes, seeing an opportunity to build a block of new homes for resale. But public record indicates that 3237-43 Chaucer St. are all still privately owned by the same people who owned them a year ago. Then we looked more carefully at the permits for this project and discovered that the new homes were replacing homes damaged in a fire. Last September, a fire ravaged one of the homes and damaged three more. Thankfully, nobody suffered more than minor injuries as a result. But it seems the homes were damaged beyond repair, and now the families impacted by the fire are getting brand new homes as a result.
So there you go folks. It's not an exciting wave of redevelopment coming to Packer Park; it's just four families trying to get back what they lost in a fire. We send those families our good wishes, and hope that construction wraps up asap.