We were excited to tell you, a few months ago, that a new fence had appeared around a surface parking lot on Front Street in Old City and that developers were planning to shut down the parking lot and replace it with a nine unit building. At the time, we were a little short of details, and we didn't know whether the project would entail a condo building or a row of 9 townhomes. Checking in on the property today, we see that many of our questions have been answered.

Current view from Front Street

Foundations on Letitia Street

Looking at the row of new foundations on Letitia Street, we can now safely assume that the project at 24 S. Front St. will mean a row of townhomes. This parcel is unique in that it has frontage on one wide street, one narrow street, and one hilariously skinny street, in Front Street, Letitia Street, and Black Horse Alley, respectively. As a result, the developers will be able to have frontage and windows for the homes on the north side, even though they'll be very close to the apartment building next door.

Project rendering

On the construction fence on Front Street, a posted sign provided this rendering, which gives us a sense of what we can expect to see here. The sign also indicates that US Construction is the developer for the project, which we would not have expected. As we've told you previously, it's typically the MO for this developer to build and rent out their homes for a few years before putting them up for sale. We would be surprised to see that approach here, as all of these homes would likely sell for a minimum of $1.5M, and there's no telling what the market will be for Old City mansions in a few years, assuming interest rates climb. Whatever the strategy, we're just pleased to see that this surface parking lot is getting developed, and we're hopeful that other surface lots meet a similar fate in the near future.