If you’ve ever traveled westward across the Grays Ferry Ave. bridge over the Schuylkill River, it’s quite possible you’ve found yourself at the triangular intersection of Grays Ferry and Paschall Avenues. This generally nondescript corner was home for decades to Herman’s Iron Works, a locally owned metal fabrication business. The business operated out of 1450-52 Grays Ferry Ave., utilizing a one-story building closer to the corner and a three-story building that was surely constructed for industrial purposes back in the day.

We found ourselves at this corner the other day, and to our surprise, the old iron works is gone and from the looks of things, a new building has risen in its place. Indeed, Herman’s has gone to the great forge in the sky, but its replacement isn’t exactly new and it isn’t exactly one building.

Developers bought this property a few years back, paying $630K, according to public record. While we would have expected them to tear down the buildings on the site in favor of something new, that’s not the approach they decided to take. Instead, they preserved the existing buildings as a part of their redevelopment effort, keeping them as separate properties. The three story building includes three units over commercial space and has new windows and repointed brick to go along with its complete interior renovation. The change at the corner is even more dramatic, where developers built a two-story addition and added new brickwork on the first floor of the existing building, including five units and another commercial space.

You can see from the signage, the two commercial spaces are occupied by Exit Elevate Realty and DiAntonio & Bongiovanni Builders. The office uses make all kinds of sense here, as any retailer would have a real challenge at this address, given the lack of foot traffic. Frankly, the project would have made even more sense without the commercial component, but it’s required by the Zoning Code and we can understand why the developers didn’t want to fight for zoning relief. Zoning relief or no, this is a cool and unexpected little project in an area that doesn’t see all that much development but is very close to areas that do. We can’t tell you whether there’s more to come nearby, but there are plenty of opportunities, including some located on this very block.