Though the 1100 block of E. Berks St. was historically a residential street, Heclyn Precision Gear Company built a small factory and warehouse at 1112-16 E. Berks St. back in the late 1960s. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that this building was constructed right around the time that I-95 was built less than a block away, dramatically changing the character of the immediate area. The gear business must have been pretty good during those years, as the company ran out of space and expanded their building in the late 1990s. Interestingly, the expansion was meant to include the demolition of a historic home from the mid-1800s at 1120 E. Berks St., but the Historical Commission didn’t allow the building’s demolition. In the end, the addition took up the home’s entire backyard – but at least the home stuck around!

We last checked in on this site in 2021 and told you that the property had been sold, with plans calling for the demolition of the industrial building and the construction of a four-story apartment building with 40 units. And lo, the building, dubbed Novum Apartments, was indeed built in the last few years.
While the block is a hodgepodge of residential, commercial, and industrial zoning, the owners were able to utilize the site’s multi-family zoning to build the project by-right without any parking. It’s a nice example of how Philadelphia’s zoning code sometimes allows medium sized apartment buildings sans parking, near transit. Of course, because it’s Philadelphia, the same project would be prohibited across the street. The arbitrariness of Philly’s zoning code really grinds our gears sometimes.
The pivot toward different uses on this block occurred around the time the gear factory was built, but the more recent changes in Fishtown have trickled to this area, resulting in other development. One example is the Riverview Court townhome project across the street, which we wrote about nearly a decade ago. And there are other opportunities on the block, just waiting for the right developer.
The warehouse at 1100 E Berks St., immediately next door to the Novum building, is currently listed for sale. The lot’s industrial commercial mixed-use zoning would complicate a residential project, so we’d assume that any project at this location would require approval from the ZBA. After all, we don’t imagine that anyone would spend nearly $1.4M to keep a century old single-story warehouse in Fishtown. Even so, it seems like a safe bet that sooner or later, we’ll see a proposal for a new building on this corner that’s quite similar to the new building next door.