We’ve covered a few dormant projects that have come back to life recently, and today we have news of yet another, this time on the edge of Northern Liberties. We last covered the one-story commercial building at the corner of Orianna & Girard way back in 2017, after the owners of the property had renovated it after years of vacancy and blight. Remarkably, the property has been unused over the last eight years, and we confess we have no idea why this is the case.
New owners purchased 332-34 W. Girard Ave. at the end of last year and are now making moves to bring it back to active use. First, look for the construction of a two-story addition atop the existing building. This addition will include four apartments and improve the scale of the building in the context of the Girard Avenue corridor, though we’d have liked to see something even taller. In addition to the addition (see what we did there?), Papa Johns will be opening on the first floor, relocating from their current spot on the 700 block of W. Girard.
As you can see in the image above, Papa Johns won’t be the first pizza place at this corner. P.S. Pizza made its home here, likely opening in the mid 90s and closing a number of years before our 2017 story. The previous owner secured permission to open up a sit-down restaurant in the building in 2019, but nothing ever came to fruition. Last year the owner secured a permit to convert the building to office use, but nothing came of that either, and the building sold a few months later
The project is moving forward by right and the addition will definitely bring the property closer to its highest and best use. In most of the city, the property’s CMX-2 zoning would allow another floor and some more density by utilizing the mixed-income and green roof bonuses, but the Girard Avenue Overlay imposes a strict 38′ height limit for properties fronting the avenue. This overlay has only a nominal impact on this relatively small property, but the height limit will result in zoning complications for anything of substance planned between 2nd and Broad Street, moving forward. The long awaited project across the street at 310 W. Girard Ave. will rise seven stories and that feels entirely appropriate, given the width of Girard Avenue. Ditto the newish six-story building at the corner of 6th & Girard. Fortunately, both were approved long before this bonkers overlay took effect.
A fun fact, the new building at 4th & Girard was constructed on a property that was previously an Italian restaurant. So the new Papa Johns will slide right into the pizza vacuum that was left when Trios closed down a few years ago. And one could argue that Trios was filling the gap left by the shuttered P.S. Pizza. Thank goodness, the pizza-related suffering will soon end on the 300 block of W. Girard.