When we last visited the 100 block of W. Girard in the summer of 2024, we provided an update on the progress at 130 W. Girard Ave., sharing that framing was about halfway complete for a new 7-story building. Checking in on this property today, we see a building that’s come a very long way and appears to be very close to the finish line. The developers are calling it the Archer, and it’s adding 84 units to an area that just won’t stop growing. Now we’ll just have to wonder what tenant will take over the commercial space on the first floor!
When we gave our update on the Archer, we also pointed to the vacant lots at 135 and 143 W. Girard Ave., right across the street. Some quick background – 135 W. Girard Ave. is over 7,000 sqft in size and has been vacant since the 1960s. The property was used as a parking lot for a nearby pub for some time, but has been sitting overgrown and empty for as long as we can recall. In the early 2000s there was a proposal for a 2-story office building here that never came to pass, and more recently, a three-story mixed-use project also got permitted but never moved forward. 143 W. Girard Ave. is a little over 4,000 sqft and has only been empty for about a decade. It was once home to a unique building that housed Lou’s Crab Pad, but that building bit the dust in 2014. The site has been empty ever since.
Back in 2023, we told you about permits for a pair of buildings on these lots which would rise 6 stories, combine to provide 60 units, and also include ground-floor commercial space. This was exciting news, but it was tempered by the fact that the permits were a bit dated, and we were worried the project would not move forward. The next year, the permits seemingly expired, which we thought would put the kibosh on the buildings.
But if you pass by these properties today, you’ll see that’s not what happened at all! It turns out the permits were merely being amended and now both buildings are under construction. At 135 W. Girard, we see steel in place, along with an elevator tower. At 143 W. Girard Ave., earth is moving in anticipation of the smaller western building. What a time to be alive.
The amended permits show some minor changes to the plans. Initial plans called for a large interior space to provide access to the roof decks but that space has been reduced to something closer to pilot houses. The commercial spaces had a mezzanine, but those have been eliminated. Also, the architecture, which once featured some prominent windows along Mascher Street, has been value-engineered a bit, with all the windows now a similar size across both buildings.
While we would have been more excited if the original design came to fruition, we won’t complain with the final iteration of a project that’s been years in the making. Considering all the development we’ve seen within a few blocks of here in every direction, this project makes all the sense in the world and will finally fill a couple long vacant properties on the Girard Avenue corridor. Matching buildings will rise on either side of Mascher Street will create something of a new gateway into South Kensington, at least to the extent that people walk into the neighborhood on this particular street.
Oddly, both buildings will include underground parking, which fulfills a parking requirement in the zoning code even if it dramatically increases construction costs and complicates the designs of the basements. Half a block from a transit stop, this feels like a bit of a strange inclusion, but it shows the lengths to which developers will go these days to avoid a trip to the ZBA. Meanwhile, we’ll also be interested to see what retail tenants take the spaces in this building. Dare we dream of a crab pad redux?