This week, two readers have checked in, giving us the heads up about ongoing demolition at 1501 S. 20th St., on the southeast corner of 20th & Dickinson. We’ve visited this area previously, as three of the Northstar Point Breeze affordable housing homes were built on the southwest corner of this intersection just last year.

In the past

Across the street

The L&I Map only tells us that permits have only been pulled for interior demolition to this point. With no construction permits pulled, we couldn’t tell you the plans for this building moving forward, just that it looks different than it did and will surely soon look different than it does today.

Current view

According to public record, Svetlana Dvortsova purchased the property back in 2006 for $70K, a rather high price at that time given the location. It’s unclear whether the demolition we see now is due to efforts from this individual, or a new owner who purchased the building too recently to be reflected in public record. Either way, it’s a positive sign to see new market-rate development trickling this far south in Point Breeze. Is it possible that this project was influenced, at least in part, by the new construction affordable housing across the street?

If it was, this confirms, in part, a theme we’ve heard anecdotally over the last year or two- that the recent round of attractive affordable housing development in Point Breeze has surprisingly spurred new market-rate development in the neighborhood. An unexpected consequence of the program, we’d suspect. Has anyone else in the neighborhood heard this?