Dating back farther than we can remember, there's been a wall at 1502-04 Green St. instead of two buildings. We confess, we never gave this wall much thought, perhaps because we were distracted on the block by the now-demolished PHA-owned blight at 1516 Green St. or the wonderful Chapel Lofts building. But if you pass by the corner of 15th & Green today, you'll notice that the wall is gone and two new four-story buildings are under construction in its place.
The property is actually enormous, taking up almost 8,500 sqft and stretching all the way to Brandywine Street. For many years, this parcel has been used as a surface parking lot and we'd suspect that the wall of Green Street offered a modicum of security for people who parked back there. Looking around the back of the property, we can see that the construction is perhaps covering half of the property, and the rest is still very much in use for parking.
To find out what's going on here, we had to do more digging than usual. With active construction happening, we couldn't get too close to look at posted permits. The typically reliable L&I Map told us nothing. A Google search of the address only told us that MJL Properties had proposed condo buildings here back in 2010, but had no new info since then. Finally, looking at the Zoning Archive, we happened upon a letter from the aforementioned developer noting a minor dimensional change that also describes a plan for a pair of 5-unit condo buildings on the site. Since the property hasn't changed hands since then and we don't see any revised permits, we have to assume that's indeed what's under construction. It's a nice addition to the neighborhood, we're glad to see it's finally moving forward after so many years.