Flying Kite has compiled a list of 14 projects (in no particular order) that have the city all hot and bothered. Some are large, some are small; some are around the corner, others still years away. All of them should have radical impacts on both their neighborhoods and Philadelphia as a whole.
[…including two projects in the Eraserhood.]
In March, Naked Philly told you about plans for a bunch of apartments on the 1200 block of Noble Street, a block that they’d bypassed in the past on numerous occasions. It actually extends over 13th Street and has an entrance to the Reading Viaduct which should someday be a wonderful park, Philly’s version of the High Line. In the past, this parcel was a large parking lot. Now a bunch of buildings have risen.
RECOGNIZING the needs of Chinese and other Asian-American communities in Philadelphia, Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley yesterday announced a significant state grant to help build the Eastern Tower Community Center, a long-awaited project just north of Chinatown.
State announces grant to help build high-rise near Chinatown.
Councilman Jim Kenney introduced a bill on Thursday aimed at stepping up the city’s efforts at historic preservation.
The measure would create a “Special Committee for Consideration of National Register of Historic Places.” Its purpose would be to review all of the properties that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places but absent from the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, and to determine which of those properties should be certified historic at the local level.
Only buildings that are certified historic on the Philadelphia Register are subject to special local protections against alteration or demolition.
PlanPhilly | Councilman proposes funding committee to register more historic buildings.
For every ballyhooed success — Minnesota’s Travail, raising a quarter-mil — there’s a project like Philly’s own Yachtsman, which earned some derision for its (successful) late-inning tactics. Supporters laud the simplicity of the act: Why jump through all those flaming SBA hoops when you can get the cash infusion you need from your own customer base? Detractors, meanwhile, resent the implication that they should help pay for an establishment that’s already planning to take their money.
Tony Montagnaro, a member of the cooperative developing W/N W/N (“Win Win”) in a former Thai restaurant in the Eraserhood (931 Spring Garden St.), has been grappling with this issue since they began work on their cafe-bar-restaurant in early 2014.
The main force behind a proposed casino project in Philadelphia says he’s not happy with how slowly things are going.
Second Philly Casino remains in limbo as developer grows frustrated — NewsWorks.
Brick & Mortar–the new neighborhood joint being opened at 12th and Pearl by ex Franklin Mortgage partner Michael Welsh–has gone and gotten itself an executive chef.
Win Win Coffee Bar–perhaps its name says it all. The new cafe, at 931 Spring Garden, aims to create a new kind of urban environment on a rough and tumble block once home to Milton Snavely Hershey’s first confectionary shop (and now, in that same building, Colisimo’s Gun Shop–“The Gun Range”). Win Win hopes to capitalize on new investment going on here, at the edge of the Eraserhood (we’ll call it that as long as David Lynch fever is hot), including the music venue Union Transfer, which opened in 2011.
Brewing With Solidarity At Win Win Coffee Bar | Hidden City Philadelphia.
As a real-estate developer and architect, Gary Reuben (above) can be found making a living through his work as the owner and operator of the Wolf Building, on Callowhill at 12th Street. After purchasing the building in 1997 with his business partner Gary Reisner, Reuben, 60, made the decision to rent space out to artists. Today, the building houses 50 apartments, more than 130,000 square feet for both commercial space and non-profit agencies, and Underground Arts, a music venue located in the building’s basement.
