Meandering around West Philly the other day, we noticed a relatively fresh looking hole in the ground on the southwest corner of 41st & Ludlow. The lot at the corner has been empty for quite some time but a 3-story building stood next door until relatively recently. That building, clearly, has been demolished.

View in the past

Current view

Developers bought both properties last fall and are wisely combining the two lots into one to build a single project. The two lots together offer about 24' of width, so the options for this parcel were either two skinny homes or a single, more functional building (with more units!). According to the L&I Map, they're planning a four-story building with six apartment units. Given the location just steps from Penn's campus, we can only assume that these units will be offered as rentals. Perhaps this will come as a comfort to the individual that spray painted "No Condos" on the sign at the property which also shows a project rendering from KJO Architecture.

Sign on the fence

After all, student rentals technically aren't condos. Problem solved, right?

Aggressively, the developers are shooting to finish the project by August, in time for students arriving for the fall semester. That seems like a tight construction timeline given the structure that's getting built, but we'll be rooting for them to hit their deadline. If they don't hit that mark, it could be tough to find tenants until the spring semester. Such is life, it seems, in the student housing business.