We were in the neighborhood the other day, and spotted some welcome renovation work taking place at 228-30 Arch St., two buildings that have been vacant for several years. Here’s an image of them from the late 1970s from Phillyhistory.org, to give you some idea of their history, as well as a shot from Google from 2009.

A few decades back

Four years ago

According to public record, Xunping Lin and Jin Dong purchased the two buildings earlier this year for a princely sum of $580K. This represented a handsome profit for the sellers, who apparently purchased the properties back in 2011 for $350K. Not a bad deal, if we do say so.

Demolition going on inside

According to the L&I Map, permits have been pulled to do complete renovations of the two buildings, with plans for as yet undetermined commercial uses on the first floors and three upstairs apartments in each property. It seems very likely that the buildings will look more or less as they do now (with new windows, doors, and storefronts, of course), since they’re in historic Old City, across from the (semi-historic) Betsy Ross House. Also across the street is the apparently complete renovation of the Berger Bros. building, which we’ve told you about a couple of times in the past.

It’s great to see some more Old City buildings coming back into active use, especially across the street from a major tourist attraction. We’ll be bringing you news of some similar projects in the coming days, with news about one long-term eyesore hopefully turning a corner in the coming months.