After a long wait, it seems that 1507 and 1515 Catharine St. could get redeveloped soon. Remember, these properties sat vacant and blighted for many years until the Redevelopment Authority demolished them back in early 2013.
These properties, along with several others, were acquired by Universal Companies back in 2004. Universal pulled renovation permits but never fixed up the homes. The Redevelopment Authority pulled the homes back from Universal in 2010 but didn't do anything about them for a few years. Last year, the PRA marketed the properties, post-taxpayer-funded-demolition, for sale through the Phillylandworks website. Now they're privately owned after a developer paid $186,500 for the pair. Passing by recently we spied some zoning notices.
The developers appeared last month at a SOSNA zoning meeting with plans for a home on each parcel and got support. You can see, the lots are a bit of a challenge as they're each only 37' deep. A typical new home goes back 38-41 feet and a typical rear yard is at least nine feet deep, and clearly neither are possible here. The three-story homes will go back only 32', with 5' rear yards. So not much home and not much light and air. But that's what you've gotta do when you have such a shallow lot. We were kind of surprised that they aren't going up to a fourth story.
In between these two future homes, a project at 774 S. Hicks St. will do just that. That property, though much deeper at 48', is only 13' wide so it comes with slightly different design issues. But as we're seeing here and in other locations in the area, developers are just shrugging their shoulders and building whatever they can build in the very hot Graduate Hospital neighborhood. We'd be fascinated to see floor plans for these projects, to see how creative the architects can get.