A beer garden will open on one of Center City Philadelphia’s fanciest blocks, near Rittenhouse Square

A family-friendly beer garden will spring up this summer on the 1700 block of Walnut Street, the former site of three buildings destroyed by fire during the unrest in May 2020 and a posh shopping stretch off of Rittenhouse Square.

Avram Hornik — who owns a series of outdoor restaurants and bars, including Liberty Point and Morgan’s Pier on Penn’s Landing — has struck a deal with the company that bought the land in December 2022 to set up a seasonal outdoor restaurant.

Hornik said the beer garden, so far lacking a name, would run this summer and possibly in subsequent years as the developer moves forward with plans for a residential high-rise building with ground-floor retail on the site at 1706, 1708, and 1710 Walnut St. Plans have not even been submitted to the city, and such a project could have a substantial lead time in today’s climate.

Hornik told The Inquirer that the beer garden would be similar to Parks on Tap, the mobile beer garden he operates with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. It would have picnic-table seating, restroom facilities, and trailers serving beer and food on its 11,500 square feet. He said the site would include tents, trees, landscaping, and a children’s playground, and would operate from noon to midnight daily.

The site’s previous buildings — housing a McDonald’s restaurant, a Vans shoe store, and a Dr. Martens shoe store — were ransacked and set ablaze on the night of May 30, 2020, following a day of somber demonstrations condemning the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Only the facades remained, and the city recommended demolition, which occurred in early 2021.

The buildings previously had separate ownership but were packaged together for a sale valued at $15 million to a limited-liability company whose principals are not identified in public records. (The Dr. Martens store subsequently relocated to 1704 Walnut.)

The move, which has broad support from business and community leaders, will clean up an eyesore. A fence that had been erected after the demolition was covered with graffiti — “a wound on the street” is how Paul Levy of the Center City District described it. The property was graded this week.

The idea grew out of discussions among Levy, Richard Gross of the Center City Residents Association, Paul Steinke of the Preservation Alliance, and Ari Weber of Brookliv, a brokerage firm in Brooklyn and one of the developers.

“To me, the best case scenario is that great, new buildings will get built there with ground-floor retail,” Levy said. “But for the next year, two years, or three years, this is a great interim use that adds vitality and generates revenue back to the owner so they can meet their basic carrying costs.”

“There’s not a better location in Philadelphia,” Hornik said.