Today we sojourn to the Burholme neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, mere steps from Cheltenham and lower wage taxes. Just a couple blocks away from the city’s edge sits the intersection of Cottman, Rising Sun, and Oxford Avenues, more commonly known to locals as “Five Points.” Should you find yourself driving around these parts, please be careful at this intersection – it’s pretty confusing the first time and barely better the second time.
1000 Cottman Ave., at one of the corners of Cottman and Oxford, has had a number of different uses over the years. Looking way back, a two story building once stood here which housed a beauty parlor, a hot dog stand, and even an adult book store (not all at once). That building was eventually demoed and the site served as a parking lot for the car dealership across the street. In the early 1980s, a suburban style bank branch for Cheltenham Federal Savings and Loans appeared, with Fleet Bank and then Bank of America taking over as the years rolled along. In the last couple years, the exterior was significantly altered as a pharmacy took over the building.
Despite the fact that the building was recently converted from a bank to a store, some additional redevelopment appears to be on the horizon for this property. According to permits that were pulled earlier this week, the owners will build a three story addition above the pharmacy, with plans for 6 apartments in the new section of the building. We only have an elevation drawing at this time, but we’re hopeful that the project will include more architectural flair than is currently evident. Given the prominent location at a well trafficked intersection, this feels like a reasonable enough ask.
You can see that there’s still a sizable surface parking lot that will remain behind the growing building. This strikes us as a bit of a missed opportunity, as the site could accommodate a building with three times the footprint and a couple dozen units and still conform to the zoning code. Even if the owners wanted to keep the surface parking on the first floor and just build above, that certainly would have been possible. Then again, they put a bunch of effort into building out a new commercial space and then decided to add three stories to the building, so it’s not out of the question that another phase for this property is lingering on the horizon, to be pursued sometime after the initial addition is completed.
While one fairly modest mixed-use project won’t single-handedly revitalize the Five Points commercial corridor as the city has been working on for over a decade, it’s nice to see this former bank branch get retrofitted to better fit in Philly’s urban fabric. Sure, we would have appreciated something larger and denser, but even this little project should be considered win for Burholme.