Naked Philly Blog Posts Archive - OCF Realty

Apr 01

Parking Lot on the Outs at 8th & Market?

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Apr, 01, 2020 | No Comments | Market East

In case you're unaware, the southwest corner of 8th & Market is a surface parking lot. Has been for decades, actually. Historically, this was the address of the Gimbels department store, which started operating on this block in the late 1800s, and by 1927 occupied a collection of handsome buildings that sold all manner of goods, with a focus on middle class customers. Needless to say, they don't build buildings like this anymore. Maybe 40 years ago In [...]
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Mar 31

Three Homes Planned at 3rd & Queen, Have to Think They’ll Be Fancy

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Mar, 31, 2020 | No Comments | Queen Village

The historic Queen Village neighborhood is home to all sorts of architectural treasures, but it's also got its share of clunkers. Firmly in the latter category are a pair of one-story homes on the southeast corner of 3rd & Montrose. From what we can tell, this property once contained four homes, but those homes were torn down in the first half of the 20th century and the property then sat vacant for quite awhile. In the early 1960s, [...]
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Mar 30

No More Development Possible on a Small Francisville Block

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Mar, 30, 2020 | No Comments | Francisville

As recently as a decade ago, the northeastern section of Francisville was in rough shape. Years of disinvestment combined with wholesale demolitions of vacant properties during the Street administration had left a tremendous amount of vacancy in this part of the neighborhood. There were numerous blocks where empty lots outnumbered buildings, and many of the remaining buildings were not in terrific shape either. Let's look at the block of 15th Street between Ogden and Parrish Streets as [...]
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Mar 27

A Surface Parking Lot Finally Disappears on Frankford Avenue

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Mar, 27, 2020 | No Comments | Fishtown

The 1300 block of Frankford Avenue is one of the most vibrant commercial blocks in the neighborhood, featuring several food-based businesses that drive foot traffic from inside and outside the neighborhood. La Colombe is a landmark in Fishtown, with a beautiful and cavernous space converted from a former industrial building. But don't forget neighborhood corner pub Fishtown Tavern, or dessert mecca Cake Life, or the terrific Kensington Quarters, among others. With all this good stuff on this block, it's [...]
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Mar 26

Apartment Building Progressing Across From Harbison Dairy Project

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Mar, 26, 2020 | No Comments | East Kensington

Perhaps the most famous architectural marker in East Kensington is the water tower shaped like a milk bottle atop the old Harbison Dairy on the far western edge of the neighborhood. You may recall, this building was designated historic a couple years back and is currently undergoing a massive renovation into a mixed-use building, which will include 86 apartments and retail. As far as we can tell, that project is moving along pretty well. But we're [...]
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Mar 25

Big Foundation at 4th & Cecil B Moore Will Mean a New Mixed-Use Building

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Mar, 25, 2020 | No Comments | South Kensington

In the last couple years, we covered two sizable projects in store for the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. You may recall, we told you about plans for a project called Avenue V on the southwest corner, including 146 apartments, 4 retail spaces, and 52 parking spots. A little more recently, we briefed you on a pair of new buildings planned for the northwest corner, featuring a seven-story office building and [...]
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Mar 24

Demolition at 8th & Jefferson Means What?

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Mar, 24, 2020 | No Comments | Temple Area

A reader reached out to us the other day, wondering what had happened to the building at the northwest corner of 8th & Jefferson. This building had been home to Victory Through Christ Outreach Ministries, though we suspect the building was originally constructed with a store on the first floor and an apartment upstairs. The years didn't treat the edifice especially well, with small windows filling larger window openings, a mix of stucco and Formstone [...]
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Mar 23

Ongoing Changes For Two Former Churches at 18th & Wharton

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Mar, 23, 2020 | No Comments | Point Breeze

It's remarkable to think that the intersection of 18th & Wharton was home to three different religious institutions just a few short years ago, and today there are none. Back in 2015, we told you that developers had purchased the double-wide church on the northeast corner and had plans for two homes. Those homes sold at the end of 2017, each trading at over $500K. Homes on the northeast corner More recently, a little over [...]
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Mar 20

Hoyvin Glavin Check Out These Renderings at 50th & Springfield!

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

The property at 5013 Springfield Ave. covers nearly an acre, but you'd never guess it just from passing by. Because of the way that the Media/Elwyn train tracks split the 5000 blocks of Springfield and Warrington, there's an oddly shaped quasi-triangle at this address, with minimal frontage on Springfield and a ton of depth along the tracks. For the last few decades at least, this property has been used for storage and parking, but as [...]
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Mar 19

Will People Want to Live at 8th & Callowhill?

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Mar, 19, 2020 | No Comments | Loft District

Let's take a narrow definition of Center City, and arbitrarily draw the boundaries from South Street to Spring Garden, river to river. Sounds like the most desirable real estate in Philadelphia, does it not? One would think that every square inch of Center City would be in high demand and that anyone would want to live in any area within these boundaries. But... that's not quite accurate. There's definitely one part of Center City that's not so desirable, [...]
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