6-Story Addition Planned for Jewelers’ Row Building

There’s been a lot of bad news about Jewelers’ Row for architectural buffs over the last few years. Four buildings were demolished on the 700 block of Sansom Street to make way for a new condo tower. The parcels still sit vacant today waiting for construction to proceed. Then, earlier this year we told you that permits were issued to demolish two buildings at 730 Chestnut and to replace them with a 42-unit building.

Well, it’s time for some good news. Zoning permits were issued last week for the construction of a 6-story addition on top of the existing 6-story building at 734-42 Sansom Street. When completed, the structure will entail commercial space on the ground floor, office space on floors 2 through 6, and visitor accommodation units on floors 6 through 12. If you’re not familiar with the term visitor accommodations, this means that there will be some sort of short term residential rental units or hotel rooms on these floors.

The new permits do not indicate how many short term units are included in the plan, but permits were issued for the property in February of 2020 that included plans for a 6-story addition and 54 residential units in the building. We’re not sure if the office units on floors 2 through 6 were part of that plan.

We’re thrilled to hear that this beautiful building will be preserved and that additional density will be added to Center City within the 6-story overbuild. We haven’t seen any renderings of the project, but hope that the addition compliments the existing structure.

How do you feel about this project? Would you like to see additional floors added to other buildings on Jewelers’ Row and throughout Center City?