We first visited 40th & Baring in the summer of 2011, when we told you about a new 15-unit building under construction on the northwest corner. As the years have rolled along, we've probably been back to this intersection a dozen times to report demolition, renovation, and/or new construction within a block or two. A handful of years ago, there was hardly any new construction housing stock in this area. In the last five years, we'd estimate that over a hundred new apartments have come online around here.
Most recently, it seems we've been spending time on 40th Street just north of Baring. How Properties demolished an old warehouse and built a project with 22 apartments which has been dubbed Blockley I Apartments. Across the street, developers renovated a long blighted residential building over the course of the summer of 2014. Approaching Spring Garden Street, a row of quadplexes mostly finished up in time for the school year that started a couple months ago.
Perhaps you, like us, when you heard about Blockley I Apartments, were wondering why the developers chose to give it a numeric designation. It would seem to suggest that they have a similar apartment project on deck. And it just so happens they do. If you take a look at 415-21 N. 40th St., you'll see the project is already under construction. This was a vacant lot for years, and the new building will contain 25 apartments at most (we couldn't get the exact number from the permits). We expect it will look like the building next door.
We'd imagine this project will be finished in time for the fall of 2016 and like so many of the other properties in the area, we suspect the students will happily rent out the building. So yeah, giving the first project a numerical designation does indeed make sense but it'll remain weird until the building next door is finished. We'd have been okay with just calling the first building Blockley Apartments and the second one Blockley II Apartments but what do we know.
By the way, in case you're wondering, the apartments get their name from Blockley, the former name of the township that historically included much of West Philly. The name went away when the township was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854.