Last week, we happened upon permits for a 7 unit project at 1639-41 Germantown Ave. that will fill in one of the last vacant lots on a block that has experienced a truly remarkable transformation over the last decade. We’ve visited this block several times over the years, most recently in late 2020, detailing how several developers have demoed or renovated old buildings and filled vacant lots with apartments and mixed-use projects.

Historically, both 1639 and 1641 Germantown Ave. were home to three-story buildings with ground-floor commercial and apartments upstairs. 1639 Germantown Ave. was demoed in the late 1990s, and 1641 Germantown Ave. survived until 2011. The two properties have been used to store cars and junk ever since, though the relatively recent addition of some decorative fencing has made the property look less terrible to passersby.

As this project is allowed by right, the zoning permit only includes elevations and doesn’t provide renderings or detailed plans. But it seems like a safe bet that the design from KCA Design Associates will look relatively similar to the 6 unit building next door, which was also their handiwork. Like its neighbor, this building will include recessed balconies, a roof deck accessed via multiple pilot houses, and a basement. From the presence of egress wells at the front and rear, we can deduce there’s some sort of basement living, but it’s not clear how the seven units will be spread out throughout the structure. In theory, the developers could have added another floor and a few extra units if they’d utilized the green roof and/or the mixed-income housing bonus. We suspect they didn’t do this because the property sits in the Mixed Income Neighborhoods Overlay District, where any project with 10 or more units requires an affordability component.

We’re happy to see the extensive use of brick along the front facade of this new building, creating at least a little bit of material continuity with the adjacent legacy buildings. Another bonus, the new building will help cover up the blank paneling on the newer building next door and help restore the unified facade wall along the sidewalk. While this is a small project in the grand scheme of things, it’s a terrific improvement over what’s been the status quo here for over a decade. And looking at the project in the context of what’s happened on the rest of the block, it’s just one more step in a positive direction as the whole neighborhood continues to heal from decades of disinvestment.