We've visited Marshall Street between Poplar and Girard a couple times over the years and have seen some major improvement in a very short amount of time. As we've told you before, this street was the heart of the Jewish pushcart market back in the early 1900s but has been in severe decline since the 1950s. Just two years ago, we were surprised to see that a couple of homes were rising close to Poplar Street because the block was pretty much as disaster near Girard. Earlier this year, we discovered improvement on the northern end of the block as we told you that the former Kneses Israel Anshe S'fard synagogue was getting converted into apartments and pointed out other development nearby. Recently, another significant project got underway here, a 13-home workforce housing development from BMK Homes.
The Residences at Marshall will rise on 13 previously vacant lots that were owned by the City of Philadelphia. According to a press release, the units will be a mix of two and three story homes, all with three bedrooms, with interior space ranging from 1,100 to 1,200 sqft. Units will be priced at a bargain, just $229,999, though buyers will be required to have an income level at or below 120% of the area-wide median. Groundbreaking took place a couple weeks ago and we noticed that there's already formwork in the ground for a few of the homes. Way to not waste any time, BMK!
As is usually the case with this developer, KJO Architecture did the design work for the project. Check out the rendering:
The continued redevelopment of this block is great news in our estimation, and the size of this project will only serve to accelerate the further redevelopment of the area. While we aren't entirely clear on the logic of the City subsidizing the construction of workforce housing, we appreciate that this block will be mixed-income and ideally as it fills in with more residents it'll revert, in part, to being mixed-use as well. The commercial history of this street is incredibly rich, and it would indeed be an awesome thing to see some interesting businesses open up in some of the remaining retail spaces on Marshall Street. We couldn't tell you whether this would be economically viable, but we'd sure hope that some business owners out there could find a way to make it work.