Naked Philly Blog Posts Archive - OCF Realty

Dec 07

Skinny Mildred Street Could Trade a Surface Lot For Three Homes

Categories: None

Dec, 07, 2018 | 1 Comment | Bella Vista

For whatever reason, Bella Vista seems to have more than its share of narrow little streets that are perfect for pedestrians but miserable for cars. We've explored some of these little blocks over the years, drawing your gaze to the hidden 600 block of Kenilworth Street, and showing off projects on Delhi Street, Schell Street, and most recently, on Percy Street. Speaking from personal experience, these blocks are great to live on, specifically because cars tend [...]
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Dec 06

Redevelopment Authority Looking to Unload Some Spare Parts

Categories: None

Dec, 06, 2018 | 2 Comments | East Kensington

For as long as we've been blogging about real estate, we've been complaining about the fact that City agencies own thousands of properties, scattered across town. Don't get us wrong- it's well and good for the City to own certain types of properties, like municipal buildings, parks, rec centers, and the like. Our aggravation is instead tied to all the random properties that the City has acquired over the years and the fact that it has [...]
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Dec 05

Home Furnishers Building on Ridge Demoed by PHA

Categories: None

Dec, 05, 2018 | 5 Comments | Brewerytown

The Philadelphia Housing Authority is now a few years into a massive redevelopment effort in the Sharswood neighborhood which will eventually result in the creation of over a thousand new units of affordable housing. This plan stands on two pillars- the demolition of the Blumberg apartment buildings in the heart of the neighborhood, and the taking of over a thousand other private properties scattered around the neighborhood through eminent domain. At this time, the towers are [...]
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Dec 05

A Bunch of New Homes Have Appeared in Eastern Pennsport

Categories: None

Dec, 05, 2018 | 2 Comments | Pennsport

For most of Philadelphia's history, the Delaware River was its central economic engine, serving as the main hub for goods coming into and going out of the city. Piers lined the river, warehouses and other industrial buildings followed, and then residential neighborhoods filled in behind. As the river has become less important to the city's economic well being, we've seen various types of development appear along the waterfront, including shopping centers, residential projects, public space, and of course, a [...]
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Dec 03

Scrapyard Closes on N. American Street, Now What?

Categories: None

Dec, 03, 2018 | 1 Comment | South Kensington

We can't claim to remember the state of South Kensington back in the 1970s, but we have to think that the area around 265 W. Berks St. was quite downtrodden, such that a scrapyard appeared on this 3-acre property which had previously been used as a rail depot. While we can't speak to the state of South Kensington from forty years ago, we're intimately familiar with its current situation, booming with development and transforming in ways [...]
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Nov 30

Development Opportunity at Broad & Lombard?

Categories: None

Nov, 30, 2018 | 6 Comments | Washington Square West

An address on Broad Street in Center City, aka the Avenue of the Arts, is a trophy location in Philadelphia, and you'd think that these blocks would be lined with cultural institutions and/or tall buildings jammed with offices or apartments. This is generally the case next to City Hall, but within a shockingly small number of blocks, the scale decreases tremendously, with three-story buildings appearing before you even get to Lombard Street. These buildings are certainly not [...]
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Nov 30

Delorean Time Machine: The Village

Categories: None

Nov, 30, 2018 | No Comments | South Philly

In Early 20th Century Philadelphia, the lands south of Oregon Avenue were a wilderness, pockmarked with industrial uses, shanty towns, small hotels, and farms, in between snaking freight rail tracks, creeks, canals, and long roads left over from Native American trails. Isolated communities formed in this wilderness- the community known as “The Neck”, Martinville, or Stone House Lane is the one that is the most written and spoken of. Despite that, no physical evidence remains [...]
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Nov 29

Novo Philly Phase One Homes are Sold Out, Not That You Could Have Afforded One Anyway

Categories: None

Nov, 29, 2018 | 3 Comments | Logan Square

A clunky building held down the corner of 17th & Wood for many years, functioning as office space and sitting across the street from a couple of giant surface parking lots. Just a half a block from the Vine Street Expressway, the building didn't call much attention to itself and probably never showed up on most people's radar. So it was with some excitement, back in 2012, that we shared the news that developers had purchased [...]
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Nov 28

Regent Terrace Apartments: Historic Senior Housing in the Middle of Southwest

Categories: None

Nov, 28, 2018 | 2 Comments | South West Philadelphia

It wasn't even two weeks ago that we told you about a gorgeous but deteriorating church at the corner of 52nd & Chester, opining that the new owners of the property would likely tear it down. We visited this building thanks to a reader tip, so we zipped out to the property, took our photos, and made our way back toward the office. We neglected to look around too much, and that was a big [...]
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Nov 27

Will We See a New Mixed-Use Building Near Norris Square?

Categories: None

Nov, 27, 2018 | No Comments | South Kensington

As South Kensington has seen more and more construction over the last several years, developers are slowly pushing their way up into the Norris Square neighborhood, seeking additional opportunities. We've covered a smattering of these projects, like the new homes on the 2200 block of N. Howard Street, but aside from the Gotham Buildings adaptive reuse project, we haven't seen a ton of developer interest on 2nd Street specifically. That makes sense- and if you ever [...]
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