After three community meetings and lots of feedback from a collection of design professionals, neighbors and developers have come to an agreement on a project that will see the construction of seven new homes on a vacant triangular lot in Northern Liberties. 405-45 Saint John Neumann Way sits between 4th and Leithgow Streets, and the lot’s unusual shape may be the reason it’s remained undeveloped to this point. But since members of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association approved the project in November, the lot should be under construction this spring.

The property has sat vacant for years, and plans from Callahan Ward to develop the site were likely spurred by the consistent construction that has swept across Northern Liberties in the past decade like a healing. “With the help of one of the neighbors who went to a side design meeting, they kind of worked things out,” said Larry Freedman, NLNA zoning chair. That neighbor, according to Freedman, helped get other neighbors on board.

We first shared word about this project a couple of months ago. It's good to see that the developers and the community have been able to come to a compromise that works for all the stakeholders involved. By reducing the size of the project from eight homes to seven homes and by reducing the height of the homes slightly, Callahan Ward was able to satisfy the concerns of the community.

The new homes will be built very close to 5th & Poplar, which has entirely transformed in the past year due to a number of new projects. The Pressman Commons are new townhomes that are almost completed and took the place of a warehouse that stood on the corner as recently as last summer. And four homes were recently completed just north of 5th Street. Plus, there’s proposal to turn a former theatre nearby into 40 more units. So if you throw in this project for seven more homes on this little side street, you can see how Northern Liberties is filling in anywhere that space allows.