Over the years we’ve written quite a bit about North Broad Street, covering projects like the 344 units at Broad + Noble (located at Broad & Noble, ‘natch), 410 units at LVL North at Broad & Spring Garden, and many others. And the revamping continues on North Broad. We strolled along Broad Street recently to check out some of the construction activity, and came away impressed and optimistic for the future of the corridor.

619 N Broad St. was home to a car dealership for years, and about 15 years ago pivoted to being the home of the pre-school for nearby Rodeph Shalom. In the middle of 2022, we told you to expect a 119-unit mixed-use building here from TierView Development, with an arch-heavy design from Bright Common. We visited in February 2024, at which point demo was completed and foundation work was underway. Passing by recently, we saw that the sidewalk level archways are starting to come into shape, and the building’s brick veneer is becoming visible. When it’s done, the blue brick and yellow accents on the arches should complement the colorful tiling on the adjacent synagogue’s mosaic front facade.

Turning our attention a few blocks south, we’ve been covering the drawn out process around the new Pennsylvania’s Ballet building at 321 N Broad St. for more than a decade. Way back in 2012, we shared that the demolition of the site’s old building had begun. That original plan would change significantly over the next few years. By 2019, the plans evolved closer to what we’re expecting to see when construction is complete.

Earlier this year the City’s Art Commission signed off on the building’s signage, giving us an up to date rendering. The new structure will be noticeably larger than what was there before, but will still remain in the shadow of the 8 story Packard Building next door. In fact, the new building will come up a few feet short of the mixed-use project built on the parking lot on the other side of the future Ballet building that went up a few years ago.

We can’t help but wonder, if the recently approved zoning reforms eliminating parking minimums for CMX-4 properties were in place a decade ago, might a bigger redevelopment have gone up here? The zoning code allows for a much larger building than is being constructed for the Ballet, so this property could have accommodated quite a bit of density. Then again, there’s no guarantee that more liberalized land-use regulations would’ve delivered a residential building here, and a new cultural institution hardly seems like an outcome to be upset about.

The new buildings on North Broad Street may not be as tall as some of the new skyscrapers that have gone up over the last few years in Center City, but considering much of this area was covered in surface parking only a decade ago, the transformation is undeniable. And with plenty of low-rise buildings and parking lots still remaining, we expect more action in this pocket of Center City in the years to come.