Naked Philly Blog Posts Archive - OCF Realty

Jul 17

Farm For the City Dresses Up Thomas Paine Plaza

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Jul, 17, 2018 | No Comments | Logan Square

The Municipal Services Building (MSB) covers roughly 2/3 of the square block that's just to the northwest of City Hall, offering locals a one stop shop of bureaucratic hoops through which to jump. For example, you can pay your water bill at MSB, or grab a building permit, or apply to close your street for a block party, and depending on what you need to do, you might find yourself spending quite some time in the building's [...]
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Jul 16

Mixed-Use Building Under Construction Near Divine Lorraine

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Jul, 16, 2018 | 2 Comments | West Poplar

The southern section of the West Poplar neighborhood has undergone major changes over the last several years, with a mix of larger projects, like the Spring Arts Point development, and plenty of smaller, one-off infill. New construction has generally dried up in this neighborhood beyond Fairmount Avenue, mostly because the Richard Allen PHA homes run from 9th to 13th Streets, beginning at Fairmount. Further, the fact that the Divine Lorraine was sitting vacant and blighted for [...]
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Jul 16

No More Pallets at 5th & Cecil B?

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Jul, 16, 2018 | 4 Comments | South Kensington

There's something about a steamy July morning that makes us think about pallets. For your enjoyment, here are some pallet facts, thanks to Business Dictionary: Standard American pallets measure 4' by 4', but European pallets are typically rectangular in shape, measuring 1m x 1.2m. Who knew? Pallets can generally handle about a metric ton of weight, which explains why they're generally moved around on forklifts. Interesting! The terms skid and pallet are used interchangeably, though [...]
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Jul 13

Two Mega Lots Should Disappear in East Kensington

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Jul, 13, 2018 | 2 Comments | East Kensington

While East Kensington has become a booming neighborhood in terms of residential real estate development over the last handful of years, its history is distinctly industrial, like many other sections of Kensington. Most of the factories went belly up or moved away decades ago, and years of disinvestment in the neighborhood resulted in numerous old industrial buildings falling into disrepair and eventually getting demolished or burning down. Some of the former industrial sites have gotten redeveloped, with prominent examples including the [...]
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Jul 12

Wondering About Some Zoning Notices on Delaware Ave.

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Jul, 12, 2018 | No Comments | Northern Liberties

A couple of readers have reached out to us in the last few days, wondering about some zoning notices they, uh, noticed, on the 800 block of N. Delaware Ave., just south of Wells Meats. This discovery was incredibly exciting, as zoning notices near the river are often a sign of a significant new project on the horizon. As we thought about the address, we recalled a story we wrote last year about a development called [...]
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Jul 11

Society Hill Beverage Could Go Through Some Changes

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Jul, 11, 2018 | No Comments | Queen Village

It wasn't so long ago that owning a beer distributor was one of the most enviable professions in Philadelphia. Thanks to the restrictive liquor laws in Pennsylvania, distributors had a huge captive audience of customers that were looking to throw a kegger or buy beers without the massive upcharge that comes from buying six-packs. But liquor laws loosened in 2016, increasing competition for beer distributors and nibbling at the bottom line. We've seen some beer distributors close or look [...]
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Jul 10

Change Coming For 2nd Corner at 40th & Market

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Jul, 10, 2018 | 5 Comments | West Philly

The corner of 40th & Walnut is officially the northwest edge of Penn's campus, but the reach of the university extends far beyond that intersection. Off-campus student housing has extended west of 40th Street for a long time, but it's only really been in the last decade or so that student housing has pushed north of Penn. The Hub buildings at 40th & Chestnut are rather obvious examples, but if you continue several blocks further [...]
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Jul 09

Movement at Last at Former Theater at 6th & Poplar?

Categories: None

Jul, 09, 2018 | 1 Comment | Northern Liberties

The intersection of 6th & Poplar is a study in contrasts. The northwest corner is home to a row of homes that were built a few years ago, one of which recently traded for $760K. The southern section of the intersection is the northern edge of the Liberty Place Town Homes development, an affordable housing project that was constructed in the early 1960s and has architectural stylings that say as much. And then, on the [...]
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Jun 29

The New Rail Park is One of the Less Shady Places We’ve Visited

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Jun, 29, 2018 | 3 Comments | Loft District

The Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Company was one of the most significant companies in US history, emerging as the largest company in the world shortly after the Civil War. This company not only controlled rail road lines, as the name suggests, but also owned an enormous coal interest, primarily focusing on mines in central and northeastern Pennsylvania. You might have heard of the Reading Rail Road from Monopoly, or maybe you remember that Reading controlled [...]
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Jun 28

We Got a Sneak Peek of L’Anima, and It Was L’Awesome

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Jun, 28, 2018 | 1 Comment | Graduate Hospital

Today is the first day for L'Anima, an Italian byob at the corner of 17th & Carpenter. Yesterday, the new restaurant offered a sneak preview of their space and their food, and we managed to snag an invite. To the extent that we're able to provide objective feedback after gorging on free pasta, we came away impressed. Retail space on the southeast corner View of the open kitchen Peek inside the restuarant The restaurant occupies an [...]
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