Slowly but surely, development momentum seems to be picking up in Grays Ferry, with action spreading west from 25th Street and south from Grays Ferry Avenue. Remember, we told you over the summer about a bunch of new homes under construction on the 3000 block of Titan Street, just behind the site of the former Bottom Dollar grocery store which closed down several years ago. And we’ve covered numerous small and medium sized projects on the eastern side of the neighborhood over the last few years. Today, we turn our attention to 2921 Reed St., a surface parking lot that’s a couple blocks below Grays Ferry Avenue.

To call it a surface parking lot isn’t entirely accurate, as a third of the lot has been used as a little playground for the day care across the street. Those days are over though, as developers purchased the parcel earlier this year. Said developers are looking to build a row of six homes on the property with a drive aisle in the rear. Since the property is zoned for mixed-use commercial though, this project will require approval from the ZBA- and we confess we have no idea whether the variance will be granted. Given that a by-right project could include more units and no parking though, we’d think the community would be on board with the plan.

When we see projects like this, we assume that the homes will be listed for sale and it’s not even a thought that they’ll be offered as rentals. Those homes on Titan Street are selling in the high $300K range, so figure these homes would go for low to mid $400Ks, considering the inclusion of parking. Then again, there’s something that makes us think that the homes will actually be listed as rentals and not offered for sale- the name of the entity that owns the property has QOF in its name, indicating that the investment is being made by a Qualified Opportunity Fund. As the property is in a Federal Opportunity Zone census tract, there would be considerable tax benefits to building a project here and holding onto it for ten years. And we have to think that the expected sale prices will be quite a bit higher here in a decade than they are today, so there’s another benefit to go along with the tax benefits. Sales or rentals, new homes will certainly be an upgrade here, though we do feel bad that the kiddies at the day care need to find a new spot for outdoor time. Fortunately, the D Finnegan Playground is just a block away!