It’s been nearly a decade since a four alarm fire ripped through the Pvt. Boleslaw Grochowski American Legion club house in Frankford during Memorial Day observations in 2016. Fortunately, the blaze did not claim any lives, and miraculously a few mementos were even salvaged. Unfortunately, the fire devastated the two story structure at 2365 Orthodox St., leading to its demolition.

While the American Legion Post 396 was eventually able to re-open at a new location, its former location a block and a half north of Aramingo Ave. remains vacant.

The property, which was privately owned, has changed hands a couple times since the fire. The hilariously named Quick Cash Offer LLC bought the property in 2019, flipping it the next year to Orthodox Street Developers LLC. In 2021 these developers pulled a by-right zoning permit for a four-story building with ground floor commercial and 18 units on the upper floors. They listed the property for sale as a development site in 2022, starting at a $600K asking price. By the end of 2023, when the listing came down, the price had been reduced to $475K.

Finding no buyer and possibly underwhelmed by their own project, the developers have gone back to the proverbial drawing board and have pulled a new zoning permit for the property. This new permit, which is also by right, is again for a 4-story building, but this time includes 25 units, thanks to the mixed-income housing zoning bonus. Also thanks to this bonus, three of the units will remain affordable for fifty years. Looking at the updated plans from KCA Design Associates, we see that the building has also grown by 5′, with the extra height another benefit of the bonus. Sans bonus, a by-right four-story apartment building comes with lower ceiling heights, and the taller building will translate into higher ceilings in the apartments, greatly improving their livability.

We don’t make it to Frankford or Bridesburg very often, and for good reason – there’s just not that much development activity to cover in this section of the city. That being said, these neighborhoods are the next frontier after Port Richmond and as that neighborhood turns over, we would expect to see more action in these areas. On this block alone there have been a couple projects in recent years, and a new building at the corner of Oxford & Milnor would certainly provide the strongest proof of concept to date of the viability of development in the area.

Then again, we won’t count our chickens just yet. It’s certainly possible that these developers will move forward and build this project, but we can also imagine a scenario in which they turn around and list the improved project for sale, as they did in 2021. And who knows, maybe they find a buyer this time around. Whether it’s the current owners or some other party, we would be delighted to see this project move forward soon, bringing some life back to this vacant corner.