PHA shares initial redevelopment plans for Bartram Village in Southwest Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) on Tuesday unveiled the first phase of its sweeping redevelopment of Bartram Village in Southwest Philadelphia, with 64-units of mixed-income rental housing.

The Bartram Village public housing site at its peak hosted 500 units built in barracks-style buildings for defense workers in 1942. The first phase of the redevelopment plan is just south of that site, at 2639 S. 58th St., where townhouses, apartments, and amenities like a community room and playground will replace a vacant lot.

“We are actually doing our first phase on an off-site property because the Housing Authority is working through relocation with existing residents and figuring out what makes sense in terms of relocation and phasing on the actual site,” said Lindsey Samsi, a senior developer with national low-income housing developer Pennrose LLC, which is partnering with PHA on the project.

Historically, Bartram Village, which has a troubled history, has been home almost exclusively to very low-income residents.

The eventual redevelopment will total 600 housing units including some for ownership and potentially some commercial space for shops and eateries. The affordable rentals will target a variety of income levels.

That will be the case, too, with the first phase of the redevelopment, which will be reviewed by the city’s advisory Civic Design Review committee on May 7. Among the 64 units, 12 will be rented at market-rate, meaning there will be no rent subsidy.

“The idea is to deconcentrate poverty and to deconcentrate certain income pools,” Samsi said. “In an effort to do so, we mix in various income tiering within the affordable housing units and then 10 to 12 market-rate units” in the first phase of the project.

She notes that market-rate rentals in this part of Southwest Philadelphia are priced much lower than those to the north in Kingsessing, Squirrel Hill, or Cedar Park. The lowest-cost one-bedroom unit would be at $395 a month, while the highest one-bedroom could be up to $1,186. Tenants in subsidized units would pay a third of their income in rents.

PHA has been planning the Bartram Village redevelopment for six years and in 2023 received a coveted Choice Neighborhood Initiative implementation grant of $50 million from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Pennrose and PHA are hoping to break ground by the end of the year. The timing of the larger redevelopment is unclear as PHA looks for places for existing tenants to live in the interim. As in all of its large-scale redevelopment projects in recent history, PHA will ensure that current residents have a right to return to the redeveloped project when it is done.

“Relocation is very important to the residents, but also I’m hearing from residents that people want to remain in the neighborhood where they lived for generations,” Samsi said.