The eastern side of Olde Richmond is its own little triangle, surrounded by busy roads. To the west, this pocket is cut off from the rest of the neighborhood by the Aramingo speedway. To the east are I-95 and Richmond St., which is now an extension of Delaware Ave. along this stretch. The northern border is the ulta-wide Lehigh Ave. To the south, this neighborhood is graced with an auto-centric shopping center and gigantic surface parking lot. This triangular area is also part of the Federal Opportunity Zone program, unlike most other parts of Olde Richmond.
Even with all of these hindrances, this section of Olde Richmond continues to chug along. We have seen new construction houses erected and rising home prices over the last decade. However, we have not seen large-scale mixed-use development in this neighborhood. It looks like that is changing.
A beer distributor and surface parking lot has stood on the pistol-shaped, 7,643 square foot, CMX-2 zoned lot at 2634-36 Belgrade St. for as long as we can remember. The final keg was kicked in 2018 when this one-story building was demolished. Construction has been slow and steady ever since.
The project entails a 4-story building with 19 residential units, ground floor commercial space, and 15 parking spots. Locale is the development company behind the project. They are also building the 19-unit mixed-use building near the York-Dauphin Station that we told you about recently.
We are happy to see this residential density brought to Olde Richmond along with a retail storefront. We would have liked to have seen less parking spaces in this project, but we assume the developer has a target demographic in mind and has structured their project in a way to attract those people. The project is a relatively far walk to the subway. However, there are bus routes nearby. We think that the project’s proximity to the I-95 interchange likely caused the development team to include such a high parking ratio.
The renderings for the project show a modern building with a drive aisle on Miller St. and a community roof deck. We were not able to locate the commercial space in any of the renderings that we dug up. However, we assume that it is located along Belgrade St.
What kind of business would you like to see open in this new building? How do you feel about 19 high-end residential units joining the neighborhood mix? Do you think this is the right amount of parking spots for the location?
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
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