29-Unit Building Rising in Northern Liberties

Just to the west of the much loved Liberty Lands Park (which was once the home of the Burk Brothers Tannery) in Northern Liberties, we have seen multiple old industrial buildings demolished over the last 15 years and replaced by modern residential buildings. 952 North 3rd St. is the most recent example of this. Around 2018, a one story warehouse was demolished. It had been most recently occupied by Fred D. Hagendorf & Son, a printing and finishing company.

A couple of years after the warehouse was demolished, ground was broken on a 6-story, 75 foot tall building. The project initially entailed 25 residential units on floors 2 through 6, but in February of 2020, permits were issued to increase the unit count to 29. The building will also have 10 bicycle stalls and 9 car parking spaces on the first floor. The building seems to now be topped out and construction is progressing with windows already having been installed. The building will have balconies off of the residential units facing the park. From the looks of it, a large portion of the first floor street frontage will include a garage door or some kind of parking entrance.

It’s great to see additional residential density along the park and we’re happy to see this development moving towards the finish line. However, we’re not big fans of the parking entrance along the park. We can’t fault the developers here, though. This property is zoned CMX-3, which has a required 3 to 10 parking ratio. We imagine the development team would have preferred to have included more residential units within the first floor rather than including the parking spaces. However, foregoing the parking would have required the developers to get a variance from the ZBA, a long and expensive endeavor.

How do you feel about this project? Would you have preferred a building without a parking entrance along the park?

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