A reader recently tipped us off about 1931-37 W. Passyunk Ave., a large building around the corner from Nick's Roast Beef. It's possible that they emailed us because they happened upon the listing while looking for who knows what on the internet, and there's a chance they contacted us because they know the owner or the realtor and they're trying to get the property some attention. But in this case, the motivations don't matter to us! Here, check out the property:
Wow, this thing looks lousy. One would have to think it looked nicer back in the day. But now… yikes. The two-story brownstone next door retains most of its character, even though the first-floor window is boarded up. Both properties are currently listed for sale in a single package, with an asking price of $950K. The current listing indicates that the property has about 3,700 sqft of land, and old listings show that the buildings were once home to a beauty school, a furniture store, and a catering hall upstairs. But it's the rendering that really makes the listing pop.
This rendering is just so confusing.
To be fair, the listing does clearly state that it's a rendering of "what the site could look like." At first glance, the building looks like a computer generated image, inserted into the surrounding streetscape. And to be clear, we could imagine a world in which a developer purchases this property, demolishes the existing buildings, and constructs something that looks like this. Looking more carefully at the image though, it becomes clear that this isn't the site at all, as the buildings on either side don't correspond at all to what you see today on West Passyunk Avenue. Also, there's no angle parking on this block. Upon further examination, we're not sure whether the image is a photograph of some other building somewhere, or an actual renderinng, inserted into a random streetscape that doesn't correspond with the site in the listing.
Rare is it that a rendering confounds us so. Aside from that, we'd say that this building should eventually sell, but at a much lower price. It could be an interesting mixed-use play somewhere down the line, though lower rental rates and muted retail interest in the area will drive the ultimate sale price.