It's amazing how a Naked Philly post can change between the time that we snap some photos and the time we sit down to write about them. A great example is the demolition we noticed the other day at 2110 W. Master St., rather close to some new projects that are just getting started on N. College Avenue and at 19th & Thompson. We saw this demolition, noted that the rest of the 2100 block of W. Master is a mix of worn homes, vacant land, and half a dozen clearly vacant properties, and thought that perhaps additional market rate development was spreading to this block.
And this made sense to us, in the moment. Francisville development is spreading to the north. Brewerytown development is spreading to the east. Temple students are more and more willing to live farther south and west. And looking at this block without any additional context, it seemed ripe for development opportunity. But… we were way off base with our train of thought.
It's true that the property at 2110 W. Master St. is owned by a developer who will surely build something new in its place. The home next door, incidentally, is owned by the same developer. A handful of other properties on the block are owned by developers and some are privately owned. But the vast majority of properties on this block, 25 in all, are owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which acquired most of them as part of a massive eminent domain effort in 2015.
While historically, PHA owning vacant land or a blighted building was a sure recipe for continued vacancy and blight, we're somewhat encouraged by their construction efforts a couple blocks away and the existence of a plan to redevelop Sharswood over the next several years. We still believe that the eminent domain effort was an overreach and are skeptical that the funding will keep pace with the plan, but it'll be years before we have a clear answer on that front. Should funding dry up, we can only hope that PHA will be willing to release some of the land to private developers rather than allowing history to repeat itself. The current neighbors on the 2100 block of W. Master Street certainly have a big stake in what happens, as do many others on blocks in the surrounding area.