At home at a mall site | Real Estate Newsletter

Hundreds of homes are coming to a property where a dead mall once stood.

A $125 million, 500-unit apartment complex is planned for the former site of the Burlington Center mall in Burlington Township.

The Moorestown Mall and others in the region are adding apartments and other nontraditional elements, but here’s what makes the Burlington Center redevelopment unusual.

Keep scrolling for that story and to find out why Philly property owners are stuck in limbo, learn what you need to know about self storage, and take a look at an 1800s farmhouse in Elkins Park.

📮Today’s home tour features a property with a horse barn out back that the owner turned into a woodworking shop. If you had an extra barn’s worth of space, what would you do with it? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

— Michaelle Bond

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Growing up, the Burlington Center mall was the place where I met classmates for elementary school fundraisers at Burger King, ate Auntie Anne’s pretzels while I shopped, and smiled at the random statue of a boy riding an elephant in a fountain.

I went to the mall’s Cold Stone Creamery a lot, long after many other stores closed for good and the mall started getting sad. (I’m now realizing that a lot of my mall memories are food related.)

One of my best friends worked at the Bath & Body Works in the mall, and my first non-babysitting job as a teen was at a Chuck E. Cheese in front of it.

The mall and the Chuck E. Cheese are gone now, and in their place are warehouses and fast-food restaurants.

Coming soon: apartments, including some that’ll be available at below-market-rate rents.

Keep reading for the story of how a South Jersey town lost the mall that put it on the map and is now transforming 270 acres into a mixed-use development.

Imagine you bought a home seven months ago, but you still can’t access the property or make necessary repairs. Because you still don’t officially own it.

Some Philly property owners have found themselves stuck in this limbo. They bought properties through sheriff sales — in some cases, last year — but they’re not yet the official owners because their deeds haven’t been recorded.

Historically, people who bought Philly homes through sheriff sales usually got their deeds recorded six to eight weeks after an auction. But the deed-recording process can now take seven months or more.

In an Inquirer investigation, my colleagues looked at city records and talked to bidders, real estate attorneys, and real estate agents. When they looked into more than 130 sheriff sale deeds recorded over a six-month period, they found that owners had to wait an average of about 200 days for their deeds to be transferred.

Keep reading to see what the Sheriff’s Office has to say and to find out what else The Inquirer investigation found.

When I was a kid, my family had a storage unit that held onto our belongings while we waited for our new house to be built. I’m sure it was filled, but the only treasure I remember is a giant stuffed Gumby. (And I was little, so who knows how big it actually was.)

Self-storage has become an industry that makes more than $44 billion a year in the U.S. Because even though the country’s average home size has more than doubled since 1950, Americans still find themselves with too much stuff for their spaces.

We have some advice for navigating self storage, which can get pretty expensive.

One tip? Shop around. Undercover shoppers went to some local companies and found that the same sized space ranged in price from $1,561 to $6,183.

Here’s what else you should know before moving your stuff into a storage unit.

When Colin Browne stumbled upon the 1800s farmhouse he now owns, he “had to sell everyone” on it, including his bank, he said. The property in Elkins Park needed a lot of work.

The house had structural issues, and plaster was crumbling off. A particularly strong wind probably could’ve knocked over the horse barn out back.

The Delco native hadn’t even planned to move back to the area, but living in New England got too expensive. Browne’s wife, Karolye, (who, fun fact, created sweater designs that were regularly featured on The Cosby Show) got a job in Philadelphia. Browne, who’s a woodworker, needed a shop space and saw potential in the farmhouse’s barn. And the home’s price was right.

The four-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot house still has part of the metal roof that was put on in 1860 during one of two additions. Another nod to history is the speakeasy in the basement.

The homeowners spent more than 10 years remodeling. Find out what work they did, including the wooden pieces Browne made, and take a look.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the country’s oldest museum and art school, made headlines when it announced it was getting rid of its college degree programs. Starting Monday, PAFA is closing its Historic Landmark Building to the public.

Question: How long will the building be closed?

A) a year

B) permanently

C) two years

D) three months

This story has the answer.

Do you know the location this photo shows?

📮 If you think you do, email me back.

Last week’s photo showed a construction sand pile where Eighth and Ellsworth Streets intersect near Passyunk Avenue in South Philly. Shout out to Lisa G., Alejandro F., and Lars W. for getting that right. I hope that’s not the only “beach” you get to see this summer.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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