A once-stalled new construction project along the 3300 block of Spring Garden Street near Drexel has been completed, but its next door neighbor is still a boarded up and blighted building.
When we passed by 3309 Spring Garden St. early this month, a new structure with a stucco exterior, as opposed to the traditional brick that compiles the majority of facades along this block, was finished. Looking back at an image of the building in 2011 via Google Maps, we see the ground-floor windows were boarded up and the stucco was unfinished. Looking at the L&I Map, it seems that work paused on the project for a couple of years before ramping up again in 2013. The same developer that built 3309 Spring Garden St. owns the blighted building next door. But recently pulled permits suggest that this building will be rehabbed, with three new apartments coming soon.
These mark two of a number of properties along Spring Garden Street in West Philly that are under construction or were recently completed, and collectively point to the fact that Drexel students and developers are both expanding their residential sights. Just a block away on the 3200 block, new student housing is finishing up at 3221 Spring Garden right across the street from another new building. And as you keep going west to 35th Street, you run into Drexel's expanding portfolio with the renovation of an old building into the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships that's been underway since last fall.
With permits in hand for the renovation of 3311 Spring Garden St. and some new stucco on the first floor, it seems that the owners are moving forward with the property's renovation. Given the growth of student housing demand in the area, it wouldn't surprise us to see the project finished in the next couple of months, so it's ready for the upcoming school year. But given the owner's track record with the property next door, it also wouldn't surprise us to see a four-year construction horizon. Let's together hope for the former, ok?