Naked Philly Blog Posts Archive - OCF Realty

Jan 24

Peering at the Scant Remains of the Former Girard Theatre

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Jan, 24, 2020 | No Comments | South Kensington

The Girard Theatre was located at 625 W. Girard Ave., opening to the public way back in the 1890s, and operating as a performance venue and later a cinema through the 1960s. The building was eventually converted into a supermarket and all of the facade details that suggested that the place was once a theater disappeared as the years went on. A couple of things still indicated the building's past, with the back of the building on Marshall Street [...]
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Jan 23

Chocolate Factory Project is Coming Into Focus at Last

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Jan, 23, 2020 | No Comments | Graduate Hospital

Frankford Candy is the largest marketer of licensed confections and gifts in the country and if you've ever eaten a chocolate bunny around Easter, it was probably made and/or distributed out of their sizable facility in the Northeast. Before moving there in the early 2000s, Frankford Candy was located much closer to downtown, in a sizable industrial building at 2101 Washington Ave., which people in the neighborhood still refer to as the "Chocolate Factory" property. This building, which [...]
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Jan 21

Classic Porn Theater To Office Building Story on the 2200 Block of Market

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Jan, 21, 2020 | No Comments | Rittenhouse

Let's say you're an important business person living in New York or Washington or Boston and you take Amtrak into Philadelphia for some kind of important business meeting. On a day like today, you're arriving at 30th Street Station and hopping in a cab or an Uber to get right to your destination. But let's pretend it's a mild day in April and you've got a little time to kill before your meeting starts. Strolling down Market Street [...]
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Jan 20

More Student Housing Coming Near the Tracks on 51st Street

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Jan, 20, 2020 | No Comments | South West Philadelphia

Student housing has inexorably marched north, west, and south from Penn and Drexel, spreading to various degrees into Mantua, Walnut Hill, Spruce Hill, Powelton Village, Squirrel Hill, and Kingsessing. These types of projects have been slower to move into neighborhoods in Southwest, but in the last few years we've definitely seen an uptick in construction south of Baltimore Avenue as other areas have grown more saturated. We've even been surprised by some of the projects that have [...]
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Jan 17

Broad Street Picking Up Four Mansions Next to Brandywine Workshop

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Jan, 17, 2020 | No Comments | Graduate Hospital

Non-profit Brandywine Workshop bought 730 S. Broad St. roughly 40 years ago, a purchase that included a historic double-wide building, a beat up warehouse, and a sizable vacant lot. According to a story from Hidden City, the historic Italianate building on the property was designed by architect Samuel Sloan and dated back to 1849. It was originally built as a volunteer fire house and was used as a police station and a starch works over the years, but when Brandywine bought [...]
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Jan 16

Subaru Dealership Makes All the Sense Next to I-76 in Grays Ferry

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Jan, 16, 2020 | No Comments | Grays Ferry

In writing about Washington Avenue countless times over the years, we've railed against its outdated industrial zoning and hoped for a speedy remapping process which would permit mixed-use development by right on the corridor. Hasn't happened, obviously. This isn't to say that we're opposed to industrial uses or industrial zoning in Philadelphia- it's just that we grew up playing Sim City and locating industrial zones right in the middle of residential zones never made any sense [...]
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Jan 15

Washington Avenue Property Wants to Keep Industrial Use While Adding Residential

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Jan, 15, 2020 | No Comments | Graduate Hospital

The triple-wide building at 2031-35 Washington Ave. has a decidedly backward looking approach to the corridor on which it sits. This two-story industrial building stretches all the way to Kimball Street and dates back at least over half a century. For many years, a tire business occupied the majority of the building and more recently a small restaurant occupied a small space as well. We had a lousy breakfast sandwich from this place maybe ten [...]
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Jan 14

Apartment Building Coming Near the Bottom of Point Breeze Avenue?

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Jan, 14, 2020 | No Comments | Point Breeze

Passyunk Avenue runs on an angle through several neighborhoods east of Broad, offering walkable retail and an impressive mix of different types of businesses. Over the last twenty years or so, this corridor has changed dramatically, shifting away from a focus on the surrounding neighborhood and becoming a retail and dining destination for people from all over the city. During those years, we've also seen changes in the neighborhoods around Passyunk, as home values have gone up [...]
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Jan 13

Office Building Has Lost Its Facade on Grays Ferry Avenue

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Jan, 13, 2020 | No Comments | Grays Ferry

When we think about the potential upside for real estate in the Grays Ferry neighborhood, a fewf things always come to mind. Its location is a definite strength, sitting adjacent to Grad Hospital and Point Breeze, and with easy access to the highway and West Philadelphia. Another plus for the neighborhood is the waterfront access, through the Grays Ferry Crescent section of the Schuylkill River Trail. We can only imagine what will happen when Center City people discover Grays Ferry, [...]
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Jan 10

Fishtown Says Farewell to Xynatech and Will Say Hey to a New Apartment Building

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Jan, 10, 2020 | No Comments | Fishtown

It wasn't so long ago that an enterprising manufacturer or artisan could easily and inexpensively set up shop in Fishtown, in one of many old industrial buildings scattered around the neighborhood. With the rapid gentrification of the neighborhood and the influx of retail to Frankford Avenue, this area has transitioned into a neighborhood where people want to live and work and hang out, and are willing to pay good money for the privilege. As a result, [...]
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