Naked Philly Blog Posts Archive - Page 6 of 620 - OCF Realty

Oct 29

Solar Powered Apartment Building Arrives Next to the El

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Oct, 29, 2019 | No Comments | South Kensington

You may have heard, fossil fuel dependence is a bit of a problem for our humble planet. That mass of incandescent gas up in the sky provides an endless source of energy, but humankind has only taken baby steps in tapping into solar power. We've been slow to adopt solar for many reasons (according to some articles we just read), with cost being a significant hurdle. Fortunately, solar prices have gone down considerably as the years [...]
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Oct 25

Fresh Renderings For Upcoming South Quarter Crossing Renovation

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Oct, 25, 2019 | No Comments | Girard Estates

Who among us loves a shopping center? Not many hands raised, eh? Figured. In a perfect world, we'd walk everywhere and buy everything we need on our closest commercial corridor from small, locally owned businesses. But it ain't the 1950s anymore, and we buy countless necessities at big box stores and national chains when we don't buy them online. Though some of those big box stores have a presence downtown, others are only willing to open [...]
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Oct 24

Unique Brewerytown Duplex Caught Our Eye

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Oct, 24, 2019 | No Comments | Brewerytown

You may recall, last week we did an update on a significant development in Brewerytown, a collection of duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes replacing a surface parking lot on 27th Street. The buildings making up the first phase of the project have frontage on 27th Street and they're now finished and mostly occupied. The property is quite large though, and runs all the way to Taney Street, where additional buildings are now under construction. As we were [...]
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Oct 22

Philadelphia Got a 2nd Trader Joe’s Location Today

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Oct, 22, 2019 | No Comments | Chinatown

You love Trader Joe's but you hate waiting on line. This is a quandary for many Philadelphians, since long lines are almost as synonymous with this supermarket chain as happy employees and Trader Giotto's tomato sauce. With just one location in town at 22nd & Market, a trip to Trader Joe's sometimes requires just as much time waiting to check out as it takes to pick out your groceries. There should be some relief now, though, since the [...]
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Oct 21

Baltimore Crossing Project Will Offer New Construction Condos in Cedar Park

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Oct, 21, 2019 | No Comments | West Philly

As opposed to many other parts of town, condos really aren't a thing in West Philadelphia. And you can probably figure out why without thinking too hard on the subject. The most obvious reason is that student housing rentals are a very attractive and lucrative market, so the overwhelming majority of multi-family projects in West Philadelphia neighborhoods near Penn and Drexel are built with that approach in mind. There's also a fairly robust market for single-family [...]
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Oct 18

Rentals Are Slowly Overtaking a Surface Lot on 27th Street

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Oct, 18, 2019 | No Comments | Brewerytown

As Brewerytown has transformed over the last decade, some blocks have changed more than others. Especially on the western end of the neighborhood, huge vacant swaths have turned over, with the construction of a shopping center with a supermarket and numerous apartment buildings (we see you, Westrum). The changes on the 1200 block of N. 27th Street are perhaps a bit more low key, but no less transformational, as both sides of the block have seen [...]
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Oct 17

Former Industrial Building at 2nd & Spring Garden Taking Another Residential Step

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Oct, 17, 2019 | No Comments | Northern Liberties

The building at 201 Spring Garden St. hearkens back to the industrial past of Northern Liberties, and its relatively recent changes speak to the current direction of the neighborhood. The building was originally constructed in 1913 by Valentine H Smith & Co. wholesale druggists and manufacturing pharmacists. Over time, the building housed a toy concern as well as a door hardware business run by the on-the-nose Doorcheck family, and was eventually converted to office use about a [...]
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Oct 16

Plans to Demolish Some Two Story Homes on a Mixed Block of Carlyle Street

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Oct, 16, 2019 | No Comments | Temple Area

The growth of student housing near Temple knows no bounds, with projects big and small dotting the neighborhoods surrounding the expanding university. The Nest on North Broad Street catches the eye because of its vertical presence, while Diamond Green draws attention to itself by taking up a big chunk of a city block at 10th & Diamond. In terms of sheer volume though, the smaller scale projects have truly dominated the student housing boom near Temple, [...]
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Oct 15

Fishtown Neighbors Association is Raising Money to Rebuild a Smaller Rose Garden

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Oct, 15, 2019 | No Comments | Fishtown

A little more than three years ago, we told you about a significant proposal at 1405 Frankford Ave. which called for the construction of a new mixed-use building with 30 apartments. The developers could have built a 32-unit building with no parking, but instead proposed a little less density and 16 parking spots, thus necessitating a zoning variance. Despite the reasonable nature of the variance request (people generally appreciate the addition of parking when none [...]
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Oct 14

Some Updates and an Opportunity at 5th & Norris

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Oct, 14, 2019 | No Comments | South Kensington

Changes abound at the northwest corner of 5th & Norris. As recently as twelve months ago, this corner was a vast vacant lot, a former surface parking lot overgrown with grass and weeds. But that's not the case anymore. You may recall, back in the summer of 2017, we told you about two separate projects on the horizon here. Already, one of those projects is nearly finished, as four duplexes on Norris Street have exterior work completed. We [...]
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