We love seeing new buildings and homes for people rise in Philadelphia. However, it pains us to see handsome buildings that seem to be in good condition demolished only to be replaced by another modern box. We have not seen project renderings yet, but that is what we expect will happen at 1609-13 Poplar St., the former home of Nu-Stop Recovery and Education Center and currently the Nomo Youth Academy.
At the end of June, the RM-1 zoned parcels at 1609 and 1613 Poplar St., both owned by Nu-Stop, were combined. Then, on July 1st, permits were pulled to demolish both buildings on the site and to erect a 4-story, 21-unit building with a roof deck and 21 surface parking spaces. From the permits, it looks like the whole ground floor will be parking, and residential units will be on floors 2 through 4. The developers will be utilizing the green roof density bonus to pursue this project by-right. We imagine that the property is pending sale to a developer, or that city records have not been updated with the new owner’s name yet.
Over the last 10 years, this block has gone from mostly vacant to nearly fully-filled in with new construction buildings. We like to see the density of this new proposal, but are sad to hear that these buildings will likely be demolished. We always appreciated the structures in the past when passing by. We also are not a fan of the 21 parking spaces taking up the whole ground floor area. A 1 to 1 parking ratio here seems to be overkill, especially since it looks like the new residents in the building won’t have any trouble getting a cab.
