In South West Philadelphia

Spak Group has been developing in West and Southwest Philly for several years, and we've covered a few of their projects over time. As we've shown, this developer has made a bit of a name for themselves, being especially sensitive to the community as they consider their projects. Years ago, we told

The property at 5013 Springfield Ave. covers nearly an acre, but you'd never guess it just from passing by. Because of the way that the Media/Elwyn train tracks split the 5000 blocks of Springfield and Warrington, there's an oddly shaped quasi-triangle at this address, with minimal frontage on Springfield and

Student housing has inexorably marched north, west, and south from Penn and Drexel, spreading to various degrees into Mantua, Walnut Hill, Spruce Hill, Powelton Village, Squirrel Hill, and Kingsessing. These types of projects have been slower to move into neighborhoods in Southwest, but in the last few years we've definitely seen

It wasn't even two weeks ago that we told you about a gorgeous but deteriorating church at the corner of 52nd & Chester, opining that the new owners of the property would likely tear it down. We visited this building thanks to a reader tip, so we zipped out to

It was roughly half a decade ago that we directed your attention to the Word Tabernacle Baptist Church, a congregation that was worshiping out of a gorgeous building at 52nd & Chester, in Kingsessing. In the story, we expressed some degree of surprise that the congregation was able to use the

Anyone traveling towards the Gaslands above and below the Passyunk Avenue bridge may notice a small set of rowhouses set between a whole slew of industrial sites. This forgotten neighborhood has stood isolated from the rest of the residential parts of the city for its entire 150+ year existence and

Within the last six months, we've covered three projects that indicate growing developer interest in student housing projects further south and further west than we've traditionally seen in Southwest Philadelphia. The first example was at 1047 S. 51st St., where developers proposed a 12-unit building on a vacant lot just south

We were rather surprised, last month, when we learned about a plan for twelve units on 51st Street in Southwest Philadelphia, south of the Media/Elwyn tracks. At the time, we noted that it might be a tough sell to get students to live in a building in this location, as nobody

Last week, we told you about a student housing project that should soon get started on the 1000 block of S. 51st St., and we made a big deal out of the fact that developers believed that tenants would be willing to cross the Media/Elwyn rail tracks to get home at

We've provided a staggering amount of coverage of student housing's northern push in West Philadelphia, telling you about countless new projects extending to Haverford Avenue and beyond. With some of the prospects drying up to the north, it seems developers have taken a new shine to opportunities to the west