A block south of Girard near the budding 5th & Poplar corner, where a warehouse was razed and townhomes are now being constructed, and around the corner from 5th Street where a number of single-family homes have been built of late, two new single-family homes at 965-67 Randolph St. will soon join the crowd.
Purchased last Halloween for about 320K, the parcel is right now occupied by two garages, one with brown and lime-green painted lattice work and a charming muted brick brown and dark tan pattern and a second-floor, which will be razed to make way for new homes with roof decks. The homes, like the garages they're replacing, will have interior parking. The project sailed smoothly through the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association zoning committee in late January, where neighbors saw no problem in the homes being built, according to the minutes. It goes before the ZBA next week.
You can stand at 5th & Poplar and walk in any direction towards a new or recently completed project. Up at 6th Street, a two-phase project of single-family homes is finally reaching its conclusion. There are also plans for another warehouse conversion in the site of a former theatre around the corner here. And if you slink down a diagonal alley-sized street east of 5th Street you'll come to 405-45 St. John Nuemann way, where the NLNA recently approved plans for the construction of eight new single-family homes.
Take your pick. Like the 19th & Poplar intersection that experienced widespread redevelopment around all its edges in the past two years in Francisville, so has 5th & Poplar in Northern Liberties. We won't pick, however. We love 'em both equally. Awww.