Our coverage of the new student housing in West Powelton has been long running and extensive. We've seen, over the last few years, as the 4000 block of Baring Street has changed from a largely open field into a collection of new apartment buildings targeting Penn and Drexel students. We've watched large apartment buildings rise on surrounding blocks, replacing old warehouses and garages. And as recently as last week, we told you about apartments replacing a single family home on 41st Street.
This is a long way of saying that multi-family construction is very much the norm around these parts, and single-family project are few and far between. And that's why we're so surprised to tell you about three new homes at 313-317 State St., three properties that are only about a block from the famous corner of 40th & Baring. This was a vacant lot for many years.
You can't quite tell from the image, but these homes are quite skinny. According to public record, all three of the lots are just a smidge over 12', which we've explained before makes for a narrow home. The developers are clearly attempting to make up for what the homes lack in width by going up four stories. We would have to imagine that the single-family homes are the result of the fact that the lots are so skinny and the fact that they're only zoned for single-family use.
Of course, just because someone is building homes and not apartments doesn't mean that they definitely won't be offered to students as rentals. And the fact that we don't see these homes listed for sale right now gives us a sense that this could indeed be the case.