We’ve been keeping tabs on the building at 4100 Chestnut St. over the years, first bringing it to your attention back in 2011. At that time, we noted that student housing player Campus Apartments had purchased the building, with longtime occupant Graphic Arts Inc. moving their operations to Port Richmond. The property is huge, with about 35K sqft of interior space and about the same amount sitting vacant, historically used for parking. With tremendous bones and a wonderful location to its credit, we wondered what would eventually fill this property.
We checked in again on the property during the summer of 2013, noting that some of it was looking worse for the wear but other parts of the exterior had clearly undergone renovation. We noted that the owners of the property had a plan to build high rises on the vacant section of the parcel, but as you can see in the photo above that has not happened. As for the inside of the building, we’re pretty sure not much has happened either. But a couple readers have reached out lately, letting us know that work has indeed been happening inside. And the expected tenant was quite a surprise.
According to a reader, Amazon is opening a warehouse in this building. They didn’t know whether the plans call for a warehouse that handles typical Amazon fare or whether it will be related to their Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service, but nevertheless it was incredible to hear that Amazon will soon be planting a flag in the middle of West Philly, next door to Penn.
Perhaps you’re doubtful- we were too. To verify the story, we went to the New Style Pizzeria right across the street to ask around. We asked the guy behind the counter, as soon as the construction workers from across the street were finished putting in their order, if he knew what they were working on. Without prompting, he said it’s going to be an Amazon warehouse. And that was pretty much all the info that he had. But that was good enough for us. An Amazon warehouse is coming soon to West Philadelphia, they’ll be reusing a great old building to boot, and we got a pretty good slice of pizza out of our investigative efforts. It’s been a good day.