Queen Village is a gem, with a blend of historic charm, proximity to downtown, and a vibrant small business community that combine to make it one of the more desirable neighborhoods in town. As this has been the case for decades, redevelopment opportunities are few and far between, with most properties relatively well utilized. But there are occasional exceptions to this rule. One example can be found at 700 S. 2nd St., a property whose larger than expected size complicates its potential redevelopment.

The three story building on the southwest corner of 2nd & Bainbridge was constructed around 1785 and, as you might imagine, it’s designated as historic. But the property also includes two additional structures with less impressive pedigrees. Behind the historic building is a one-story structure that was built in the 1940s. Next door to the west is a the third building at the corner of S. Philip St. which was once much taller, but the upper floors were removed in 1959, leaving another unimpressive one-story structure at this terrific location. Because all three of these buildings sit on the same property and the property is listed on the local Historic Register, the Historical Commission has full jurisdiction over any proposed redevelopment here.

Developers purchased this property at the end of last year and they are now pursuing a plan to replace the one-story buildings at this site. If we were looking at redeveloping this property, we would have thought to subdivide it down the middle and build a single home fronting Philip Street. The new owners are taking a different and more clever approach, planning two homes fronting Bainbridge Street. With footprints of roughly 18’x36′ and four stories above grade, these homes will each have about 3,000 sqft of livable space, which is very much in line with what we’d expect for new construction homes these days.

From the plans from Lo Design we can see the architects have done a great job designing homes that fit into the existing context of the neighborhood. The extensive use of masonry will match many of the nearby buildings, including color matching the bricks. The homes will rise a smidge above the historic building next door, but will blend in well with the three and four story buildings on the surrounding blocks.

But like we said, the Historical Commission must sign off before this project can proceed. HC staff praised the design, saying that it “successfully differentiates itself from the historic building through its more contemporary design,” but suggested that the proposed windows are incompatible with the historic building. This seems like an adjustment that the development team can manage. More of an issue, the HC staff also wanted to see smaller homes, either matching or coming in below the height of the historic building to the east. This could only be done by eliminating the 4th floors of these homes, which would greatly reduce their marketability.

The HC’s Architectural Committee voted to recommend against allowing this project to proceed, but this isn’t the end of the line for the project. The full Commission has frequently adopted a more permissive attitude to redevelopment, most notably recently for the proposed construction of townhouses on the former site of the Saint Laurentius Church and the conceptual approval of an adaptive reuse of a Francisville church earlier this month. So it’s quite possible that the developers will get approval from the full Commission if they make some design tweaks while leaving the height alone.

But even if they get support from the Historical Commission, there’s still work to be done. This project will require a zoning variance, and previous efforts to redevelop to these structures have run into zoning challenges. In other words, this project must jump through a couple enormous hoops before it can move forward. Here’s to hoping that this development group can pull it off where others have stumbled in the past.