For many years, the southwest corner of Broad & Norris has been surrounded by a red plywood fence, hiding the Temple Community Garden from street view. Immediately to the west on Norris Street and to the south on Broad Street were a bunch of old homes long ago chopped up into apartments. Those buildings were collectively known as the Triangle Apartment Complex and they were used in recent years as grad student housing. Let's just say they didn't have a stellar reputation.
Last year, the garden moved to a more visible location at Carlisle & Diamond. And in March, demolition got underway on the buildings nearby. Passing by today, you can see that the buildings are all gone but there's still heavy equipment on the site.
Given the location, it should come as no surprise that the parcel is owned by Temple University. Despite some persistent searching, we could not determine exactly what Temple is planning here next. Looking at Visualize Temple, their recently crafted master plan, this area is reserved for a "future athletics/recreation zone" without any greater detail.
The size of the parcel highlighted in green would probably be enough to accommodate a football field, wouldn't you say? Temple still hasn't publicly stated whether they'll be moving their football program from the Linc to a new on-campus facility, but this image from the Master Plan would seem to suggest it's more than a pipe dream. Of course, there are those that would argue that a new football stadium on Temple's campus is a bad idea and the fact that it hasn't been announced by the University suggests that it's not a done deal.
Short term, we expect a small park of some kind, just as a placeholder. And if a football stadium doesn't come to pass, we imagine Temple will eventually redevelop this key parcel into a new building. But for now, we can only speculate on the near and long term future for Broad & Norris.