Fitler Square doesn’t see a whole lot of construction, given its relatively stable ownership base and the fact that so many of the homes in the neighborhood are already in pretty good shape. When homes do get fixed up in this neighborhood, the work generally takes place inside, with developers electing to leave the facades alone. This is due in part to the fact that many facades in this area are fairly attractive to start with, but it’s probably more influenced by most of the neighborhood sitting within the Rittenhouse Fitler Historic District. With homes in such a district, owners are able to do as they wish inside, but must get permission from the Historical Commission to make any exterior changes. Hence, it doesn’t happen too often.

On the 2500 block of Pine Street, neighboring homes 2528 and 2530 Pine St. both got major interior and exterior work done last year, making them outliers for the area. Making the homes even more unusual, you can see in the images below that both homes are set back from Pine Street, unlike any other homes on the block. Nb, the western home sold at the end of last year for a whopping $1.215M. Not a shocking number at all, when you consider the home and the location.

These facades don’t look much like any others in the neighborhood, which made us wonder how the developers were able to build them as such. So we looked at some old agendas from the Historical Commission to find some answers. But we couldn’t find any mention of either property. Then we looked at a map of the historic district and realized that the block somehow sits just outside the district. So the owners of the properties were able to do whatever they wanted with the facades. Similarly, that explains how the newish home happened across the street.

Remember, we brought this property to your attention about a year ago, noting that developers were planning four more homes for the surrounding properties. That project needed ZBA approval, which finally came through last November. Construction hasn’t begun just yet, but we see the permitting is moving along and we imagine construction will get moving in the coming months. Figure, if the rehab across the street sold for just over $1.2M, the new homes on Pine and Panama Street will sell at even higher prices. We’d think they’ll trade at over $2M without even breaking a sweat.