North Broad Street continues to rise. We’ve told you about several large, mixed-use projects that have broken ground and have been proposed over the last several years. Check out our Map Page to see all of those articles.
One of the most underbuilt sections of North Broad Street is its intersection with Girard Avenue. The northwest corner is a surface parking lot and drive through KFC and Checkers fast food restaurants. The northeast corner is a McDonald’s, a surface parking lot, and a what was a gas station (the gas station pumps were recently removed – anyone know what’s happening there?) The southeast corner is actually a cool lowrise mixed-use building, but it definitely is not maximizing its CMX-4 zoning designation. Then there’s the southwest corner, where a 1-story CVS pharmacy building and surface parking lot are located at 922-38 N. Broad Street.
The CVS is now closed and there are plans for some major changes on this corner of Broad and Girard Avenue. Zoning permits were issued on Friday for the demolition of the CVS building and the construction of a 7-story structure with retail on the first two floors, 160 residential units on floors three through seven, 48 underground parking spaces, roof decks on the 3rd and 7th floor, balconies off the apartments, and 80 bicycle stalls. The project will utilize the underground accessory parking bonus.
This by-right project seems like a much better use of the more than 27,000 square foot CMX-4 parcel that is located directly next to the Broad Street Line subway station than the current 1-story building and parking lot. Hopefully, this development will move forward in the near future and will motivate the owners of some of the other corner parcels to develop their land to higher and better uses.
No renderings of the project have been released to date, but we anticipate seeing them in the coming months as the project will need to appear before the Civic Design Review (CDR) due to the amount of residential units it contains.
How do you feel about this project. What type of business would you like to see move into the 2-story retail space?
Kyle is a commercial real estate agent at Rittenhouse Realty Advisors, a homeowner, and a real estate investor in Philadelphia. Kyle uses his extensive Philadelphia real estate market knowledge to help his clients buy and sell multifamily investment properties, development opportunities, and industrial sites.
Email Kyle@RittenhouseRealty.com if you are looking to buy or sell a property
Instagram: @agent.kyle