We last checked in on the Ingersoll Commons project about a year and a half ago, when construction fences had just appeared at a long-vacant lot at 16th & Master. This lot had been owned by City agencies since the 1980s, and a few years back Community Ventures was selected as the developer for the parcel with a plan for a green space and ten homes to be sold at affordable prices. As you're probably well aware, almost all of the new construction in this area is built with an eye toward student rentals, making this project a very transparent effort by the City to foster a project that targets non-students/people that already live in the area.
In the time that's passed since our last visit, the homes have been finished and many have sold, according to the Community Ventures Facebook page. We aren't sure about the final sale prices, but earlier articles pegged the prices for the 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom homes at around $140K per home.
The homes are set way back from 16th Street, leaving room for the future park which is now under construction. The new green space will certainly be a welcome new amenity for the neighborhood, and it will also have some stormwater management features. Check out this rendering and site plan from KSK Architects, which will give you an idea of what you can expect here when the construction is finished.
Clearly, this project represents an upgrade over a large and overgrown vacant lot. And the new park will be a wonderful amenity, hopefully enjoyed by the neighborhood for decades to come.
But we would still posit, as we did when we last checked in on this project, that it seriously misses the mark. There is a major need for affordable housing in Philadelphia, and the creation of ten units for purchase is barely a drop in the bucket. Given the huge tract of land and the desirable location, the density should be greater. Community Ventures recently broke ground on a project called Centennial Village in West Parkside, which will mean 52 affordable rental units in a four-story building. The Ingersoll Commons site could have accommodated such a project and still included a new green space as well. Alternately, wouldn't four-story duplexes have been an interesting choice instead of two-story single-family homes? This would have doubled the unit count but maintained the exact same footprint. And let's not forget that despite the $140K sale price, the cost of each unit was over $400K, according to a Philly.com story from 2014.
We don't claim to understand how these affordable housing choices are made in Philadelphia, but it seems that the status quo is barely moving the needle while costing federal, state, and local taxpayers millions of dollars every year.