Frankford Avenue in Fishtown has been filling in with so many new businesses over the past few years, and even more so in the past six months, that soon it might look like the South Street West.

Today, we share with you news about the space now being built out, according to one of the workers on the site from Peroni Construction, for Blue Cadet, an award-winning web design and interactive installations firm on the 1500 block of Frankford near Palmer Park. Its neighbor at 1524 Frankford Ave. is the Philadelphia Record Exchange, which moved to this location a few months ago.

In the past

Future Blue Cadet

Blue Cadet will occupy one of two spaces at 1526-30 Frankford Ave., a building that was once home to a warehouse for the Samuel Machinery Company. We told you all about this property about a year ago, when the facade was taken off and replaced by a tarp. Needless to say, there’s been plenty of progress since then.

With the explosion in residential development in Fishtown and nearby Northern Liberties and East Kensington, the need for new retail has followed right behind like like summer on spring. The arrival of Blue Cadet on Frankford shows that the Fishtown area is drawing some smart new young companies. Blue Cadet has clients like National Geographic and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Also on the 1500 block, there are plans for a new restaurant at 1523 Frankford Ave. and just at the end of the block at Oxford, a vacant former bar will soon get renovated. The La Colombe proposal to create a new cafe/bakery/distillery on the 1300 block of Frankford just got approved as well, so look for that to get cooking very soon.

But what will the restaurant be?

Next to Blue Cadet, plans for a restaurant were approved. Has anybody heard about who’s coming in there?

–Lou Mancinelli