It was just a few months ago that we directed your attention to a renovation project taking place at 925 N. Broad St., a property most commonly associated with the City Blue location on its first floor. The upper floors of this building have sat vacant for several years, an illustration of the underwhelming real estate performance on this stretch of North Broad over the last several decades. But it’s already old news that this part of North Broad is seeing considerably more action of late, with the renovation of the Divine Lorraine to the south and the reopening of the Met just across the street. So it wasn’t such a surprise when we discovered this building was picking up a couple new stories and turning into an apartment building. Needless to say, there’s been some decent progress over the summer.

Dare we say, it appears that new apartment buildings are becoming a trend on this block. Next on the list is 915-923 N. Broad St., a row of one-story buildings that have housed a day care and an auto parts business at various points in the last decade. Developers now own the properties and are proposing a 6-story addition, but considering that none of the existing building facades will be visible when the project is done, you can just think of it as a new construction project. This project, due to its size, has to go through Civic Design Review. As such, we’ve got some renderings from their application, with credit to Sky Design Studio for the architecture.

The project calls for retail space on the first floor, along with parking for 21 cars and 24 bikes. The second floor will have office space, and floors 3-7 will include 70 apartments. By our count, that’s just over a hundred new apartments between this project and the adjacent development. That’s may feel like a lot of new density for this block, but this area can absolutely handle it. We’d actually argue that it could handle a heck of a lot more density which we have to believe will be coming down the pike in the next few years, including the planned addition across the street. Remember, the Girard stop for the Broad Street line is just steps away from here and Temple is just a few blocks to the north. Ridge Avenue is just a few blocks to the west, and maybe by the time this project is done, there will be a few exciting new businesses on that corridor. Hey, it has to happen eventually, right?