Money Max Funding operated out of the two-story building at 641 N. Broad St. for over a decade, primarily offering taxi medallion brokerage and other financial services for cab drivers. As Uber and Lyft have taken on a much larger role in getting people from one place to another over the last few years, the taxi industry has felt a dramatic pinch. And we have to think that this trickled down to Money Max Funding, as they're no longer operating out of their longtime home and the phone number on their website goes to a cab company. You can see, their signage has been stripped off the building.

In the past

Recent view

That space is now available for lease, per Loopnet. The building has about 15,000 sqft over two floors and along with having great frontage on North Broad Street, the rooftop billboard also provides an excellent marketing opportunity. We would expect an office to lease the building, like the previous tenant, though there's certainly a chance that a retail tenant will take over the first floor and a different tenant will occupy the upper floor. With several restaurants popping up around here over the last few years, it's clear that a retail business can succeed on this stretch of North Broad. And oh by the way, the Divine Lorraine is just a block to the north, so there's a fresh supply of potential customers that are just moving to the area.

View from the north

To the south, we see there's construction happening on a project that we last covered over a year ago which will include a seven story addition, 41 apartments, and retail on the first floor. We'd have thought that the project would be farther along by now, but at least it seems to be making some progress. Like the Divine Lorraine, this will further improve the corridor with new residents and a new business or two.

Who knows, with Osteria across the street, restaurants coming to the Divine Lorraine to the north, retail next door to the south, and the restaurants nearby at 600 on Broad, perhaps this stretch could become a major destination dining corridor in the near future. When we consider this context, perhaps a restaurant would be the best idea for 641 N. Broad St. after all. Who's hungry?