It must be about 5 years since Bobby’s Bar at the corner of Frankford Avenue and Dauphin Street closed down. The dive bar, once known as Bob’s Happy Hour Tavern, was a long time neighborhood staple. It’s closure left the northeast corner of Dauphin and Frankford feeling abandoned and blighted for years. However, we’re now seeing some action on the site.
In 2017, the property traded hands for a price of $450,000. The new owners were granted a variance for 7 residential units plus ground floor commercial space in 2018. The plan entailed demolishing the carriage house on the back of the property and building an addition off of the back of the main building.
For years, the site sat untouched. The carriage house was finally demolished sometime in 2020 but no construction work followed. The delay in starting construction could have been caused by the pandemic, but who knows.
Construction on the addition eventually began over the summer this year and the structure has now risen 3 stories out of the ground. When completed, there will be one residential unit on the first floor and three units on each of the 2nd and 3rd floors. We’re hoping the whole ground floor of the original building is dedicated to commercial space.
The renderings of the project depict the addition being a modern structure clad in white brick and what looks like two tones of metal panels. It will be interesting to see how the final product turns out with old meeting new.
It’s great to see the corner building preserved and are excited to see this prime corner reactivated. What kind of business would you like to see open in the retail space once the project is completed? How about another bar? Something else?
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