If you've traveled down 2nd Street in the last couple months, you've surely noticed that there's some relatively new construction activity on the southeast corner of 2nd & Vine. We've actually been meaning to cover this one for awhile, but the volume of traffic on 2nd Street has generally made it tough to snag the needed photos. Thanks to the Pope, we were able to safely take some pictures over the weekend, so here we go.
Developers purchased 150-54 Vine St. earlier this year for the very reasonable price of $900K. Now they're building 3 homes, each five stories tall and with a garage. Amazingly, it seems like this project is being done by-right thanks to the property's CMX-3 zoning. Since it sits in a historic district, the project did go before the Historical Commission but since the vacant lot was non-contributing they didn't really have very much to say about the project except that they didn't like the garages. But that feedback wasn't binding, and soon the homes, designed by Harman Deutsch, will look like this:
This project is very consistent with the residential development we've seen in this area of late. Mansions are currently under construction on Church Street, Arch Street, and Walnut Street. Recently, we updated you on a ten home project on Race Street, the Bread Street Estates. And let's not forget about The Baldwin Philly, a six home project under construction across the street, on the northwest corner of 2nd & Vine. Those are listed at just under $1.6M. We first told you about this project about a year ago, when it was just a hole in the ground.
It still amazes us that people are paying those kinds of prices for new homes anywhere in Philadelphia, but we're particularly surprised that developers are building such luxurious homes a few steps from a highway overpass and across the street from a gas station.
On the plus side, residents will have easy highway access and no excuse to run out of gas.