94-Unit Adaptive Reuse Project Planned for Historic North Broad St. Building

2527 N. Broad St. - E.A. Wright Bank Note Company Building
2527 N. Broad St. – E.A. Wright Bank Note Company Building

We’ve covered a ton of projects on North Broad Street and have repeatedly mentioned the upward trajectory of the thoroughfare. Most developments that we have written about and that have broken ground have been south of Girard Avenue, though. We see this changing in the coming years and recently told you about a 70-unit project near Broad and Allegheny and a 114-unit project just north of Erie Avenue on Broad St.

One area that we believe will experience tremendous growth over the next decade, due to its transit accessibility, surrounds Broad and Lehigh Avenue. Multiple regional rail lines and the Broad Street subway line converge at the North Philadelphia Station. You can make your way all the way to New York City by rail via North Philadelphia Station.

Big players already have their eyes on this area, with the North Station District plan currently in the works. This master plan aims to bring 4 million square feet of new development by ways of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the area surrounding North Philadelphia Station.

2527 N. Broad St. - E.A. Wright Bank Note Company Building
2527 N. Broad St. – E.A. Wright Bank Note Company Building – North Side

Just south of North Philadelphia Station and next to the original North Broad Station building, another sizable plan is in the works. Zoning permits were issued on January 15th to convert the historic 6-story building at 2527 N. Broad Street into 94 residential units.

2527 N. Broad St. was built in 1913 and was originally the home of the E.A. Wright Bank Note Company, which printed currency, stamps, securities, stocks, checks, diplomas, and other documents. More recently, the building has been used as a storage warehouse. The structure was designated to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in January of 2020 after being nominated by The Keeping Society of Philadelphia.

We are extremely excited to hear about the plan to redevelop this historic building into a new use. Although the building has not been taken care of over the years, it seems to have been built like a fortress and its exterior is in relatively good shape. With new windows and a little bit of love, this building is going to look fantastic. We imagine this building being the spark that ignites development on this section of North Broad Street just as the renovation of The Divine Lorraine was a catalyst for development between Spring Garden St. and Girard Avenue.

Hopefully, this project moves forward in the near future and we see another historic building restored in Philadelphia. How do you feel about this project?

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