Developer is pleased with Keswick Commons' residential/retail rebirth

'You've got to have one of these," Steven Balin said as he opened the door to Lily of the Valley Cupcakery and Cafe in Glenside.

"One of these" was a strawberry shortcake cupcake, a diet-buster unless one is your limit.

This particular variety turned out to be Balin's sit-down-and-consume choice of the moment, but he had Lily of the Valley's co-owner, Terence Baldwin, pack up a few more, as well as others in the cupcakery's portfolio of sweet treats.

"There are 19 kids in our neighborhood in Center City, and they love them," Balin explained.

It has been nearly two years since Balin, a principal with Justin Turner and Steve Wennik in Franklin Residential, spent $6.2 million at an auction for two Tudor-style residential/retail buildings in Keswick Village, at Easton Road and North Keswick Avenue.

Since then, the firm has spent more than $2 million renovating the buildings called Keswick Commons, which were designed in 1929 by Horace Trumbauer.

The renovation of the last two of the buildings' 26 apartments above first-floor retail space is being completed, Balin said.

The 24 other apartments have been leased, he said, and Balin has no doubt that the remaining two will be gone soon, as well.

"Some people in Glenside objected to the rents we were asking," said Balin, "saying that these were Center City prices." A two-bedroom was listed at $1,500 a month.

Yet empty-nesters and business owners looking for convenience jumped at the chance to live there.

"There is one couple who took it on themselves to put plants in the hallways," he said.

The mix of businesses and the success each is having pleases Balin and his partners.

Lily of the Valley, for example, had been elsewhere in Glenside since its opening in January 2014, when Balin convinced Terrence and Rashida Baldwin to move to North Keswick Avenue.

One of their next-door neighbors is Humpty's Dumplings, whose owners, Patrick Doyle and Jack Craig, leased space at Keswick Commons in the very early days.

Balin is so high on both businesses that as Franklin Residential continues to acquire property in Center City, he is looking for spaces in which Humpty's Dumplings and Lily of the Valley can open new sites.

Dino's Backstage came on the Keswick Avenue scene two months ago, after a delay that appears to have been designed to fine-tune the venue its owners had hoped to create.

At the restaurant/bar/cabaret situated next door to the Keswick Theatre, co-owner Michael R. Kelly-Cataldi is expressing just a soupcon of surprise at how well things have gone for him and husband Dino J. Kelly-Cataldi's latest enterprise, which encompasses what had been three adjacent retail spaces.

"We have bookings into October, and we opened in the summer," Kelly-Cataldi said. "Not every table" - there are 135 over three rooms and the exterior, Balin said - but the response has been such that the restaurateur is eyeing the basement for more seating.

Though the Keswick Commons retail base is diverse - its spaces are 100 percent leased - one of Balin's goals was to increase the number of dining choices for the 146,000 people who attend Keswick Theatre productions annually.

That meant bringing in new options as well as supporting originals such as the Village Diner and Queen Sushi.

The Weldon Soda Fountain, which looks as if it was plucked from an early-20th-century picture book, is co-owned by the diner's Jackie Ecker and John Thompson of a Taste of Philly Pretzel, also an original tenant.

Another goal was to have Keswick Commons serve as a catalyst for the growth of the rest of Keswick Village.

One example is 245 North, a collective gallery down the street that opened Sept. 9 and will regularly showcase the artwork of each of its three partners, as well as house a continually rotating slate of local artists' work.

"We have had an amazing positive response," said one of the partners, Robin Beall.

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