The two-story parking garage at 510 S. 8th St. was constructed in the early part of the 20th century and has likely provided off-street parking for tens of thousands of autos over the years. The garage replaced a secondhand building supply yard and probably felt like a big step in the right direction for the neighborhood, at least to the extent that regular folks cared about city planning in the years after World War I. Today though, a two-story garage on a roughly 10K sqft parcel qualifies as a ridiculously underused property, given the desirability of the Washington Square West neighborhood.

It’s not news that this garage is less than ideal at this location. Back in 2015, we told you that Toll Brothers would be redeveloping this property in conjunction with the Society Hill Playhouse across the street into two five-story condo buildings. Those plans met with opposition from neighbors, and Toll Bros. eventually shifted their plans to a pair of by-right four-story rental buildings.

By the summer of 2016, Toll Brothers abandoned plans for both properties. New developers ended up demolishing the Society Hill Playhouse and constructing a three-story building with 26 units, calling it ‘the Bradford.’ The parking garage was not involved in those plans. In 2019 though, new developers came forward with a by-right proposal for a two story addition to the parking garage, which called for 32 units over four stories. Alas, this project also never moved forward and the old garage is still intact to this day.

Now, a new plan has emerged for this property, and it’s a departure from the previous proposals. Center City Jewish Preschool (CCJP) is located around the corner from this property at the B’nai Abraham synagogue on the 500 block of Lombard Street, and they are looking to expand. Currently, the school has about 70 kids in their pre-school program, but they are aiming for a pre-K through 8th grade Jewish day school which will eventually serve 180 children. The project would also include three residences which will house the Rabbi’s family and any visiting scholars. Like the most recent residential proposal, CCJP would add several stories on top of the existing structure, with the final height reaching about 70 feet. Though the school would rise higher than immediately adjacent buildings, its location just half a block away from the South Street commercial corridor makes it feel less obtrusive than if it were located elsewhere in the neighborhood.

With the project going to the ZBA later this year, the team from the school has started making their case to the local community groups. Last week, the school met with Washington Square West Civic Association and the South Street Headhouse District for the first of two public meetings. And the developer has already met with some near neighbors who live behind the property, which has already resulted in some tinkering with design elements. We expect, before the next public meeting, there will be some revisions that incorporate feedback from neighbors and RCO representatives. A setback along 8th Street was already floated by the development team, indicating a willingness to compromise a bit on the massing of the final building to minimize the visual impact.

The project has a host of zoning refusals to overcome. Included among them are height, the use of a roof deck for a school, the fact that the building is attached rather than detached, 12 interior parking spots instead of 23, and accessing those parking spots from 8th Street. Several of these zoning refusals would go out the window if the building were developed for residential purposes, so the team from the school and architects SgRA will certainly have their work cut out for them with the community, but will have some pretty compelling hardship arguments at the ZBA.

At the community meeting, the response was decidedly mixed. Typical concerns like a fear of additional traffic and opposition to height certainly came up, but there was also support from folks that emphasized the benefit a local religious elementary school would have for Jewish families seeking such a school who would otherwise transport their kids to the ‘burbs. Like we said, these plans seem likely to evolve as the community process continues to play out, but we suspect, with some tweaks, the project will eventually get approved. And we’re rooting for that outcome; we’ll take a vibrant school over a little parking garage any day of the week, and twice on Shabbat.