As spring comes to South Street, locals see signs of rebirth

When Jim’s Steaks caught fire in July of 2022, it wasn’t just the famous eatery that was gutted. In some senses, it felt like the last shreds of South Street’s promise also went up in flames. The electrical blaze, which shuttered the iconic landmark and traffic driver, came only one month after a mass shooting on the street left three dead and 11 injured. That in turn led to a surging police presence and stoked fears that a neighborhood that relied on foot traffic and tourists was now unsafe. Meanwhile, buildings that went vacant during the pandemic remained boarded up. Crowds dwindled. ATV and dirt bike riders transformed the empty street into a racing circuit.

South Street had always been rough around the edges. But in recent years, the pain has been real, even on a street that has endured decades of ups and downs. “I never seen it this bad,” said Ron Karasenti, who has sold designer brands and sneakers, like Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, for 25 years at his boutique, Platinum.

Earlier this year, he expanded to a new shop, Muse, just down the street. But these days the sidewalks just aren’t full, he says. “There’s nobody down here, even on the weekends. It’s very sad.”

But this spring, as the weather gets warmer and the potential for crowds return, boosters of South Street see signs of life — from new shops and leadership to efforts to curb quality-of-life issues and nuisance businesses — and a potential return to promise of the iconic Philly thoroughfare.

“South Street bottomed out,” said Tom Vasiliades, owner of the iconic South Street Souvlaki since 1972.

“The only way to go is up,” he said.

» READ MORE: Here’s what to eat, drink, and do on Philly’s South Street

After two years of being shuttered, Jim’s Steaks is expected to reopen in late spring, expanding to nearly twice the size — a badly needed boon.

“It will be like a blood transfusion,” said Eleanor Ingersoll, newly appointed head of the South Street Headhouse District. She said the iconic steak shop draws nearly a million visitors annually.

Along with Jim’s reopening, 15 boutiques, shops, and eateries are slated to open on South Street this year, an injection of new life on a street where the only constant has been change.

“When someone says, ‘You can’t go down to South Street anymore,’ I say, ‘When was the last time you came down?’ ” says Shannon Maldonado, owner of the sleek new hotel, cafe, and retail shop Yowie, which has been a draw. “The perception isn’t the reality.”

Progress on some fronts is slow. Abbotts Square, the 22,000-square-foot, block-long retail space in the 200 block of South Street, remains empty seven years after its former owner announced it would be filled with a Giant Food Store. (“We’ve been staring at a giant, gaping hole for 10 years,” said Bridget Foy, whose eponymous bar and restaurant is located across the street.)

The building was recently sold to New York developers.

In fact, nearly one out of every five buildings in the district — which encompasses Front to 11th Streets, Head House Square, and Fabric Row — are owned by New York realty corporations, city records show. Clustered in the heart of the district, many of those 54 storefronts are currently vacant.

“They don’t have any interest in what goes on down here,” said Dan Matherson, owner of Repo Records, of the absentee owners.

But among Matherson and other local business owners, there’s a renewed sense of camaraderie.

In text chains and backroom meetings, owners from newer spots like Yowie and South Street Art Mart, and institutions like Repo Records and the bar Tattooed Mom, have been sharing ideas about vacancies, street closures, and better promotion. They are fitting champions for a strip once saved by a ragtag band of bohemians who beat back an expressway.

“It developed organically. We really wanted to talk about a vision for South Street — a direction for it,” said Robert Perry, owner of Tattooed Mom.

Feeling ignored by the district, they want results.

“By coming together, we’re making ourselves a force,” said Matherson. “They have to hear us.”

Ingersoll said she shares the business owners’ concerns. A community leader who lives two blocks from South Street with her family, she took charge of the South Street Headhouse District in January, after complaints that it had grown complacent. The goal is to return a sense of “vibrancy,” she said. “It felt rudderless for a while.”

There’s a lot to do.

Like getting a handle on the finances of the group, which operates with a board of directors, a $930,000 annual budget, and a staff of three part-time employees. That money will pay for special events, advertising, trash pickup, and other efforts to revitalize the street.

“We’re currently able to pay our bills and look towards innovative ways to bring foot traffic to South Street,” Ingersoll said.

A big part of her job is chasing absentee landlords, who often charge exorbitant rents, neglect their properties, and fail to pay their fees to the district, Ingersoll said.

Hired to head the business district after the group’s longtime leader stepped down last year, Ingersoll also hasn’t shied away from hard choices closer to home.

Days into her tenure, she announced the district would be pulling wire trash bins that had become expensive dumping grounds (she is now reevaluating that decision). She recently decided that this year’s South Street Festival, the street’s annual block party scheduled for May, would be canceled. There was too little time to prepare, she said. (“I really want my first festival to come from a place of strength and organization,” she said.) And the district is finalizing a deal to transfer the lease of the Headhouse Shambles to a private conservancy that will oversee the historic shed that hosts a popular farmers market.

After hearing from owners, she said it’s her job to fight for an iconic street that often feels like it gets the shaft. That means not only working with police on street closures, but also hounding the Philadelphia Parking Authority to stop using the street as a training ground, she said.

“It’s hard to have a PR campaign about why it’s good to come back to South Street if we don’t address some of the everyday crappy stuff that makes it impossible,” she said. “Coming to South Street is a hassle. Is it going to be closed? Am I going to pay a ticket? Are they going to tow my car?”

Though business owners and community groups don’t always share the same vision for South Street — some owners feel that the district has too long prioritized the concerns of residents who might not necessarily shop or eat on South Street, but who would prefer a more polished version of the street — they’ve come together for a recent victory.

Last spring, neighborhood organizations from Society Hill and Queen Village successfully lobbied the city to pass zoning legislation to put a pause on the plethora of smoking lounges that were filling South Street. The effort, which came after nine lounges opened on South Street, was supported by many business owners.

“We all believe South Street is a place where everyone should feel welcome,” said Cait Allen, president of the Queen Village Neighbors Association. “But this is a use that caters to a very narrow segment of the population, and takes away a spot where everyone wants to go.”

Lt. Steven Ricci, commanding officer of the South Street Police Mini Station, said that major crime has decreased on South Street in the last two years: There was one homicide and four shooting incidents in the district in 2023.

“South Street is a safe place,” he said.

He says the current perception that the street is unsafe stems from “nuisance behaviors,” like reckless dirt-bike riding and tailgating in the streets around the neighborhood, he said. With Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and her new administration committed to stricter enforcement, Ricci said he expects orders to come to crack down harder on all quality-of-life crimes as the weather warms.

“Going forward, we’re going to pretty much have a zero-tolerance approach to nuisance behavior on South Street,” he said.

Ricci is working with Ingersoll and the business owners to rebuild trust — reopening the old police logbooks that require patrol officers to make daily visits to businesses and working with homeless outreach teams to engage the street’s unsheltered population.

He’s also working with businesses on a strategy that may close some busy intersections to pedestrian-only on warm weekend nights, but not scare away potential visitors.

“Because when it looks like a police state, the idea then becomes, ‘Well, there’s nothing going on down there anyway,’ ” Ingersoll said.

The road closures, which began after the mass shooting, are one of those issues where owners and community members don’t always see eye to eye.

“Everyone wants a vibrant commercial corridor,” said Allen, of the Queen Village group. “But that’s not what we have when you have 18 dirt bikes weaving in and out of traffic recklessly. The closures are a mechanism that curb the mayhem.”

For many business owners, the biggest reason to believe in South Street is that, despite the challenges, the storied strip remains a place for Philadelphians to go to find themselves.

Nicole Wiegand is the cofounder of South Street Art Mart. Her story reads like a love letter to South Street.

Growing up in South Jersey, she would walk across the Ben Franklin Bridge to get to South Street’s eclectic shops. For 15 years, she worked as a manager at the adult store, Condom Kingdom. Then, in 2018, she and her wife, Nicole Krecicki, opened up their artist-run retail shop, which began as a South Street pop-up.

“South Street holds a special place in my heart,” Wiegand said.

It’s the sort of connection that only South Street elicits, said Perry, the owner of Tattooed Mom.

“It’s a very emotional connection to a creative coming of age, and it sparks something,” he said. “It’s a sense of discovery.”

It’s a story that first began in the 1960s, when hippies bought falling-down buildings on South Street for a song, he said. It’s one that’s played out on the street ever since and why the street will endure whatever ups and downs come.

“It’s the magic of the place,” he said.

Staff Writers Dylan Purcell and Chris A. Williams contributed to this article.