Last week, we covered the first leg of our six-part series chronicling some of the construction taking place in the northeast quadrant of Greater Center City. Today we shuffle a bit to the east, where things are booming in what we’re calling Upper Northern Liberties, as “Northern Northern Liberties” is too much, even for us.
There is plenty happening across this entire swath of map highlighted in yellow above, but we are focusing today on several projects roughly around the angled Germantown Ave., which has become somewhat of a new downtown over the last several years as things have built up around the transformational original Piazza, which we first mentioned back in the earliest days of your favorite Philly real estate blog, all the way in February 2011. Once again, these are all projects that are currently in some form of construction, and as you can see, the sites are at various stages of their development lifecycles.
We’re starting today on N. 3rd St., before taking a hard turn down Germantown Ave. to check out some of the larger projects in the works.
The first stop on today’s excursion is the only project along our entire journey that we haven’t previously covered, where 808-18 N. 2nd St. is getting a residential conversion and neighbor. Plans call for an addition to the existing structure, which was formerly the Mifflin School and dates all the way back to 1825 before closing in 1919. Zoubek Properties is working with architects Level 9 on 29 units across the existing structure and the new build portion. Things were busy on the site, so we’d imagine the addition on the surface parking lot to the immediate south of the former school will be starting in short order.
Just across the street at 817 N. 3rd St. is a project we’ve covered before. Formerly a low-rise industrial building, 48 units are now being framed up next door to a partner project that’s already completed, both coming to us from Atrium Design Group. We’d imagine the exterior of the new building will be similar to its neighbor, which will create quite the dramatic facade along this stretch.
We jump a bit to the northeast to see a nearly completed project that we stopped by last year after first checking it out in 2018. North and South Liberty Triangle are for-sale condos coming to us from Streamline Development at 1115-27 N. American St. near the incredibly busy hub around 2nd & Girard. HDO Architects handled the design for these 127 which sit across two buildings, both of which are getting their finishing touches. Oh, and the CVS on the ground level of the Girard-facing building has recently opened, too.
Making our way immediately to the south, 1102 Germantown Ave. brings us the Beverly, yet another mixed-use project joining perhaps the busiest construction area of the city. The former surface parking lot is now a sexy 51-unit building from Stamm Development and MORRISSEY, who also handled the Hollywood-inspired interiors. And one of those interior spaces will be filled with SIN, or Steak Italian Nightlife, a “vibe dining” concept which will offer a Vegas-type experience when it opens in September 2023. This one is also close to completion, with the striking modern massing sporting exterior tones leaning much warmer than the cooler tones suggested in the renderings.
Last but certainly not least, we continue south on Germantown Ave. to check out a project brought to us by an affiliate of OCF Realty. 1031 Germantown Ave. will consist of a two-phased, 36-unit townhouse project taking the place of the former Vesper Day Club which sports nifty underground parking to go along with the handsome design from JKRP Architects. 1032 N. Front St. right next door will add an additional 45 units as part of a conversion to the former Immaculate Conception Church. This historically protected building recently got the go-ahead to proceed from the Historical Commission, so we can’t wait to see this building get restored and add more density to this corner of Northern Liberties.
Add these 336 units to the 499 we just covered in Part 1, and we are now at a grand total of 835 new units to round out the first third of our six-part trip. We almost wouldn’t believe it if we didn’t see it for ourselves, but this part of Northern Liberties is simply exploding with construction absolutely everywhere you look.
Disclosure: An affiliate of OCF Realty is the developer for the 1031 Germantown Ave./1032 N. Front St. project. OCF Realty is the parent company of Naked Philly.