Apartment buildings will replace one-story auto-oriented businesses on Girard Avenue

The easternmost stretch of Girard Avenue is a dividing line between some of Philadelphia’s most popular, and heavily redeveloped, neighborhoods.

But there are still a number of lots along the thoroughfare between Fishtown and Northern Liberties that would not look out of place on the side of a highway.

Neighborhood boosters have argued that these businesses deaden the streetscape and attract nuisances such as illegal dumping.

Two of them — the former 7-Eleven at 23 W. Girard and a bank at 130 W. Girard — are in line to be replaced by mid-rise apartment buildings with commercial space on the ground floor and without the surface parking lots that currently surround the properties.

Both are within an easy walk of the Girard stop on the Market-Frankford Line and the increasingly commercial and residential vibrancy under the train tracks.

“Between these two projects there will be a lot more people on the street, a lot more people using public transportation,” said Kristine Kennedy, executive director of the Northern Liberties Business Improvement District. “I’m hoping it creates a more vibrant and clean area.”

The 7-Eleven project, on the east side of the train station, will have 107 units, with 28 parking spaces, and is slated to begin construction in the coming months after first being announced in 2021. (The building permit from that year expires on May 31.)

Demolition permits for the 7-Eleven were issued on April 10, and the lot has since been fenced off. The developers, HK Partners and Alterra Property Group, expect to begin demolition in early May and then roll immediately into construction.

“Changing the use from a 7-Eleven to this mixed-use building that’s more urban in format will hopefully make that whole corner intersection a more friendly place,” said Henry Sullivan, of HK Partners. “If you look around it, this is kind of the hole in the doughnut.”

On the west side of the train station, the similarly single-story Truist Bank — formerly BB&T Bank — will be replaced by a seven-story, 84-unit apartment building with commercial space on the ground floor.

The lot is triangular, bereft of trees or grass, and is largely composed of a surface parking lot. Kennedy notes that the previous property owners declined to install bike racks or plant trees, unless pressed to do so by their tenants.

The new owner, Hightop Real Estate & Development, has been active in Philadelphia for over a decade. They are behind the proposed hotel project on east Chestnut Street, where Jones restaurant and the Las Vegas Lounge used to be, and the Wharton Flats, which hosts the Insomnia Cookies CookieLab adjacent to Pat’s and Geno’s in South Philly.

Hightop’s unit breakdown will include 21 studio apartments, 42 one-bedrooms, 21 two-bedrooms, and 3,500-square-feet of retail space. Trees and bollards are planned to line the property. Construction is projected to be complete in 2025.

“The unique shape and location of the lot … lends itself to creating a unique aesthetic,” said David Landskroner, a principal at Hightop. “The lot’s shape and location also helps give an ‘open air’ feel to the units, with each unit having more windows and balconies than what you would otherwise find on a traditional corner or infill lot.”

Both of these Girard projects are part of a continuing surge in housing development along the Delaware River north of Center City. Despite increasing economic challenges to development, residential projects have continued to roll out in Northern Liberties, Fishtown, and parts of Kensington.

Even so, the development boom has at times existed uneasily alongside other trends in the area, such as the opioid and homelessness crisis in Kensington, antisocial behavior on mass transit, and citywide problems with dumping and litter.

“Everyone has found this intersection frustrating,” Kennedy said. “This will have an impact on the negative things happening at the intersection.”