Naked Philly Blog Posts Archive - OCF Realty

Apr 17

Check Out This Amazing Building at the Corner of 28th & Girard

Categories: None

Apr, 17, 2019 | No Comments | Brewerytown

At the northeast corner of 28th & Girard in Brewerytown, a corner building with a very noticeable facade stands out from the other buildings on the block. This old edifice, which has been in use as a daycare center and four apartments for the last couple decades, has seen a lot from its corner perch over the last 145 years. Looking down the block NE corner of 28th & Girard When this building was completed [...]
Read More »

Apr 16

Six Condos Under Construction Across From West Philly High

Categories: None

Apr, 16, 2019 | No Comments | West Philly

West Philadelphia has a reputation for terrific architecture, and deservedly so. As long as you're west of the Schuylkill, you never have to walk too far if you want to drink in Victorian mansions that have remarkably withstood the ravages of the last century plus. While certain blocks can boast some of the most casually amazing architecture in the city, other blocks have homes with more workmanlike designs. Even those blocks, like the north side of the [...]
Read More »

Apr 15

Disaster Averted as Broad & Spring Garden Shopping Center Gets Canned

Categories: None

Apr, 15, 2019 | 5 Comments | West Poplar

With development pressure coming up from Center City and down from Temple, North Broad Street has made some incredible strides in the last decade. Two of the most prominent shifts on this corridor have occurred at the Broad & Spring Garden intersection, with Tower's conversion of the Pennsylvania State Office Building into apartments and EBRM's reuse of the former Thaddeus Stevens school for the same purpose. This additional density, combined with new residents from other projects nearby, [...]
Read More »

Apr 12

McGarry’s Building Will Be Torn Down and We Expect Mansions in its Place

Categories: None

Apr, 12, 2019 | 1 Comment | Old City

McGarry's Jewelers is an amazing local business success story. They've been operating since 1854, and that was so long ago that Old City was just known as "City" back then. Over the course of their history, we imagine they had a few different locations, and as far as we can tell they moved into their space at 312 N. 2nd St. in the mid-1980s. Not only did the business own the double-wide one-story building at the corner of 2nd & [...]
Read More »

Apr 11

Hole Appears at 8th & Kimball and That’s a Good Thing

Categories: None

Apr, 11, 2019 | No Comments | Bella Vista

We have mixed emotions about the 800 block of Kimball Street. On the positive side of the ledger, it's located right off the Italian Market and anyone that lives there has easy access to inexpensive produce and tasty meats and cheeses. The other end of the block however, always feels a little choked, probably because 8th Street is a bus route and traffic tends to back up from Washington Avenue. The rarely used triple-wide surface parking [...]
Read More »

Apr 10

New Foundations on Hagert Near Frankford Avenue

Categories: None

Apr, 10, 2019 | 3 Comments | East Kensington

Developers prefer to build homes on lots that are at least sixteen feet wide, but we live in an imperfect world. A narrower home often means a reduced sale price, but assuming the purchase price is correspondingly lessened, developers will still look to buy and build on skinnier lots. When East Kensington was laid out way back when, the development standards were clearly quite different, as this neighborhood has a ton of lots that only span [...]
Read More »

Apr 09

After Addition, Waverly Court Continues to Evolve

Categories: None

Apr, 09, 2019 | No Comments | Washington Square West

Philadelphia has more history than most cities in America, but even its oldest neighborhoods aren't frozen in time. From a real estate perspective, that generally means that old buildings get torn down and replaced by shiny new structures. Sometimes though, we see older buildings preserved, with their use and appearance evolving over the years. Waverly Court at 412 S. 13th St. is a fine example of this very phenomenon. The building was originally constructed as the HK Mulford pharmaceutical [...]
Read More »

Apr 08

Demolition on Walnut Street Will Maintain Mid Century Modern Facade For Some Reason

Categories: None

Apr, 08, 2019 | 7 Comments | Rittenhouse

Walnut Street is a central artery in Philadelphia, as it has been since before our parents' parents' parents were born. It was around that time, now that we think about it, that numerous mansions sprung up along Walnut Street, providing wealthy Philadelphia families with well-located and handsomely designed abodes. Some of those buildings have survived the last century plus, while others have unfortunately been lost forever. Others are still around, but their facades have been [...]
Read More »

Apr 05

Foundations at 20th & Kimball, And Demolition Up the Street

Categories: None

Apr, 05, 2019 | No Comments | Graduate Hospital

The gentrification wave that's crashed over the Graduate Hospital neighborhood over the last twenty years has radically transformed the area. Before this surge, Grad Hospital included over a thousand vacant lots and empty buildings, but at this point you don't have to go much beyond your fingers and toes to count every such property in the neighborhood. This being the case, it's reached the point that every little rehab or new construction project is cause for attention in this part [...]
Read More »

Apr 04

Building Coming Back to Life at 40th & Spring Garden

Categories: None

Apr, 04, 2019 | 3 Comments | West Philly

Heading north from Penn's campus along 40th Street, it's really striking to observe the number of buildings that have arrived on the scene over the last several years. Turn back the clock less than a decade and there was next to nothing in West Powelton in terms of development. Today though, there are countless new buildings here, with the transformed 4000 block of Baring Street serving as an extreme example of what's happened on surrounding blocks. Through all [...]
Read More »