We were originally drawn to this location by the sight of a rather unattractive, seemingly newly constructed building, built mostly out of cinderblock. When making our way toward this monolith, we noticed a number of poured foundations along the way. Looking to the past on Google Maps, we see that the foundations have been poured for years, and there has been considerable progress made on the cinderblock building.

Getting a closer look at the building, we could see that it consists of two units built above a gated garage that was open to the rear. This style can be found on a couple of other blocks in Northern Liberties, and it’s one that we just don’t comprehend. It’s as crazy as, say, building a new building out of cinderblocks!

The windows and the wood siding actually look pretty nice

Finding an address for these properties in public record was tricky, but we eventually figured out that the lot goes from 1108 to 1126 N Bodine St., with the large building stretching from 1116 to 1124. Yikes, that building is WIDE. Interestingly, both units are currently listed for sale, one for $499K and one for $549K– both have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and high end fixtures, but neither listing has any photos! Digging a little deeper, it seems that Automatic Empire LLC, the developer of the building and the lots next door, has seen some significant litigation activity in recent years, which might explain why the foundations remain unbuilt and the side of the cinderblock building remains unfinished.

Hopefully everything gets sorted out soon and those houses get build- just please let’s stick to wood framing and brick facing like everyone else, huh guys? Ok, thanks a million.