After developers spent several months refining their project with the local civic group, more development is planned on Front Street along the shadow of I-95 in Northern Liberties. In April, members of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association (NLNA) zoning committee approved a proposal for eight single family homes at 933-37 Front St., a project initially presented two months earlier. The property is across the street from Liberty Gates, a Jersey Shore like condo project with inward-facing houses that pretty much do their best to ignore Front Street.

The lot

Liberty Gates

The area is one that has seen recent improvements and has plans for more. In March, we told you about plans for 11 new units on the 900 block of New Market Street, less than a five minute walk away from this block. And before that, in February we told about another 11 unit project being constructed at Front & Poplar. More recently, NLNA approved plans for three single family homes on the 1000 block of New Market St. and asked developers to reappear plans for five more homes on the 900 block after they had heeded some of the group’s suggestions. With this in mind, down near Front & Poplar in the River wards a new neighborhood is being born.

Homes under construction across the street

When one also considers the development of Penn Treaty Village, around the corner from all of this, and the plans for an entertainment complex at Delaware & Frankford a few minutes away, both visions from Core Realty, the waterfront along the River wards is clearly a bed of investment. And as the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation continues to receive funding for projects like its nearby connector improvements at Columbia Avenue and Spring Garden Streets, Sugarhouse expands, and improvements are made to Penn Treaty Park, the waterfront in the River wards seems primed for new residents.

–Lou Mancinelli