Out of towners looking to come to town for First Friday might soon have to think a little harder about taking the train, as another surface parking lot is poised to disappear from Old City. This seems like the logical next step for the neighborhood, as we've seen several residential projects crop up in recent years to supplant parking lots, including Bread Street Estates on Race Street, the Adagio Homes project next to the Ritz, and the collection of new homes next to Fireman's Hall. The newest project, planned at 44-50 N. 3rd St., would knock out one of the larger parking lots left in the neighborhood.
According to a story from Philly.com, National Realty Investment Advisors are taking on their first project in Old City, and have a plan for an eight-unit building on the front of the property and nine townhomes in the rear. There may or may not be commercial on the first floor of the condo building, but we'd think parking would be more likely. JKRP Architects did the design work, and the renderings look pretty much like you'd expect for high-end new development these days.
Since the project is occurring within the Old City Historic District, it needs approval from the Historical Commission. The article indicated a Tuesday HC meeting, but we couldn't find info about any such meeting so we'd assume they haven't considered the project just yet. Based on early comments from HC staff though, it appears the project will get approved. Then, we'd think, the project will have to go to the ZBA, but we can't be sure without seeing more specific project details.
Unlike many of the other projects we've seen in Old City of late, this project will have a mix of price points- expensive and incredibly expensive. We'd have to imagine the homes will get listed for over $1M, but the condo units in the building on 3rd Street should check in at a lower price point. While they'll still be quite pricey, we can't think of too many examples of new constuction condos in Old City in recent memory. So there's that. Also, it's always great to hear about a disappearing surface parking lot, so there's at least one more benefit resulting from this project.