We took advantage of the amazing weather on Saturday and visited the Christmas Village on a preview day, and you know we knocked down a waffle within minutes of our arrival. And somehow, we refrained from purchasing anything else. Next time perhaps we won't be so lucky. Afterward, trying to spend as much time outside as possible, we took the long way home, and happened upon a 'For Sale' sign from Precision Realty Group at the corner of 15th & Cherry.
This building sits across the street from the Family Court building and next door to the amazing Deco Metropolitan apartments, . It has housed a deli on the first floor for a long time, and this business only makes more sense with the relatively recent addition of the Family Court building. That being said, it's been on and off the market for years, slowly decreasing in price from $3.7M in 2007 to $2.5M earlier this year. It's possible it's not even on the market anymore, since we don't see it listed and can't find any mention of it on the Precision website. That being said, we'd have to imagine the owners would look at any offer, considering the recent listing history. So if you're looking to sell lunches to the hungry masses, this could be an opportunity for you. Despite the fact that the property is zoned permissively at CMX-5, the relatively small size of the site would likely preclude any kind of serious redevelopment consideration. Bummer.
Speaking of small properties that are zoned CMX-5, we noticed another sign at 1528 Cherry St., a property we've covered in the past. Almost three years ago, we told you about plans to demolish a building at this location and that the owners of the property were looking at building a 16-story building for this 3,000 sqft property. The demolition is done, but the construction hasn't happened and now they're looking to sell the property through MPN Realty. According to Ambit Architecture, the plans call for 7 floors of office space and 9 floors of apartments (including a lobby, that would be 17 floors, but whatever). Check out this rendering for an idea of what could eventually get built here:
We cannot think of another Philadelphia example of such a tall building going up on such a small lot and we frankly have no idea whether it's economically feasible. We're hoping that it is and that this eventually happens, as it could be a blueprint for similar types of development in the future. Alternately, we have no idea what kind of project would work at this location, as it's boxed-in to the south by large institutional buildings.