In the riverwards, East Girard Avenue is in the midst of continued redevelopment. From the almost finished Joe's Steaks at Frankford in the old Acropolis location across the street from Johnny Brenda's, to Marlborough where a former rose garden was developed into mixed-use, East Girard continues to see improvement.
Where the roses once bloomed on the corner of Marlborough St. is now Girard, a french brasserie on the ground floor, with apartments above. Across the street, an old auto supply store sold a couple years back and has been wonderfully restored, pointing to even more reinvestment along East Girard. Now there are plans for more mixed-use, this time at 1142 Crease St., a property that looks like it was once a small gas station. That's two small half-size blocks, from Shackamaxon, where another mixed-use project brought the Palm Tree Market with five units above.
Fishtown Neighbors Association approved developers' plans last month for a four-story building with three apartments above and a ground-floor retail space at the property. Modern Developers Group purchased the 1400 sqft lot in 2012 for $90K. The project goes to the ZBA this week.
East Girard has seen other new retail endeavors open in the past two years as well. In addition to Girard, Stock, a Pho place, has been a wonderful addition. Ooh, and Sancho Pistola's has been working out pretty well too. This is all within a few minutes walk of the rampant Frankford Ave. development that seems to be adding some new retail place each month. Like the still shiny La Colombe cafe on the 1300 block, for example. Take it all together and consider the additional development still to come, and we see an already vibrant neighborhood getting even better every day.