The hits keep on coming for North Broad Street. Once seen as the red headed stepchild of the Avenue of the Arts, North Broad Street has seen an amazing resurgence in the last few years and its future is incredibly bright. At Broad & Fairmount, the renovation of the Divine Lorraine is progressing, restoring one of the most striking buildings on the corridor and bringing 121 new units to the area. Restaurants like Osteria and Alla Spina are making North Broad Street a destination for people that don't live nearby. And very soon, even more people will call North Broad Street home.
Yesterday, Philly.com reported that the Parkway Corporation has purchased the large surface parking lot on the northwest corner of Broad & Spring Garden. The plans are a little nebulous at this time, but should be of the mixed-use variety and include residential, office space, and retail. And since it's Parkway, we have to assume that parking will also be involved, even though the property sits on a BSL stop.
This will be the third major project for this intersection, joining the renovation of the former State Office Building on the SW corner into apartments and the Mural Lofts project, the conversion of the former Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice into 59 apartments on the NE corner. Remember, that project should eventually entail some kind of commercial element at the corner.
Parkway is no stranger to North Broad Street, with their headquarters a few blocks to the south and its involvement in two major projects nearby at Broad & Callowhill. The last time we checked in on those projects, about half a year ago, they were in the early stages of construction. While the building on the west side of Broad is now only one story up, the building on the east side has progressed considerably. Remember, the western building will rise six stories and will include 229 apartments, two retail spaces, and 256 parking spots. The smaller building on the east side will also be six stories tall and have two retail spaces, but it will only have 110 apartments and 114 parking spots.
Considering all the aforementioned projects together, a shocking number of apartments are coming to North Broad Street in the very near future. With so many people moving here quite soon, we have to imagine that new stores and restaurants will arrive concurrently, to meet the wave of new demand. Should be interesting to see the mix.
And oh yeah, remember when a casino was also part of the conversation for this area? Bullet dodged, folks.