New way to build affordable housing | Real Estate Newsletter
And pet-focused home renovations.
The opening of The Parker apartment building at 13th and Bainbridge Streets a few months ago could be the start of a new way of creating affordable housing in Philly.
That’s due to a unique agreement between the city and the building’s developer.
A third of The Parker’s apartments are income-restricted, but the developer built the units without financial aid from the government beyond the cheap land it got from the city. Tenants pay market-rate rents for most of the apartments, which helps support the homes where tenants pay less.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
From cat condos to doggie spas: See how homeowners are renovating with their pets in mind.
Preserving a South Philly church: Find out how a plan for apartments could be a model for saving other historic city churches.
Sports paradise: Peek into the sports dens of these avid local fans.
📮Do you have a fan cave (sports or otherwise) that could rival these? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.
— Michaelle Bond
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At The Parker, people who make $38,000 a year live in the same building as people making $180,000 a year, according to the president of the firm that developed the property.
That’s because a handful of apartments are reserved for folks who make half of the region’s median income — about $38,000. Nine apartments are reserved for folks who make about $50,000 a year.
An innovative aspect of The Parker arrangement is that the city still owns the land that the building sits on. That makes a difference, because it means the city can make sure the development firm holds up its end of the deal and that some of the site’s homes remain permanently affordable.
Cities and housing authorities across the country are making similar moves to build mixed-income housing without federal government aid, which is in short supply.
In Philly, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson praised The Parker as a model for future affordable housing projects.
Keep reading for the long history of the property on which The Parker now sits and find out why replicating this project’s success could be difficult.
Pets are like children for a lot of homeowners, so it makes sense that when it’s time for renovations, owners make decisions with their furry kids in mind.
And in many renovations, pets are not just a consideration, but a priority.
In a recent survey by a home design website, almost half of respondents said they prioritize pets when they make decisions about upgrading their home. That includes using pet-friendly materials and adding built-in pet areas, such as grooming stations and play structures.
Jeannine and Kevin Tait in New Hope are the parents of four adult sons and two kitties that they got as empty nesters. This spring, they built a cat condo for their 3-year-old domestic longhair cat Coco and their 2-year-old Ragdoll cat Cleo.
The Taits created a roughly 38-square-foot cat room with 7-foot-high ceilings as part of a basement renovation. Included in that space are:
a custom-designed bridge
a water fountain
an automatic litter box
Keep reading for some cute dog and cat photos and tips on what to consider if you’re renovating your home with pets in mind.
The latest news to pay attention to
A beloved South Philly church will be turned into 33 apartments and an event space in a plan that preservationists hope will be a model for other historic Philly churches.
A Moorestown mansion designed by Reading Terminal architects has been saved from demolition, but other vintage homes in the township could be lost.
In downtown Haddonfield, a developer is transforming a longtime regional destination into a mix of homes and new retail space.
SEPTA will lease five long-neglected, Victorian-era rail stations to a Philly developer basically for free for 99 years, so he can renovate them and add housing.
A West Philly church that is a community icon was given historic protections against the wishes of church leadership.
A historic $16 million transformation of Market Street has begun in Old City.
This South Jersey strip mall just sold for almost $42 million as nearby regional malls struggle.
House of the week: For $749,900 in West Mount Airy, a six-bedroom Victorian with a wraparound porch and six-car driveway.
We asked local Philly sports fans to let us into their homes' most precious spaces — their fan caves. And Inquirer readers were happy to show off the rooms they’ve been building their whole lives.
In this story, we highlighted three fans and the mementos and collectors' items that make their spaces special.
One of my favorite details: One fan’s sports den includes an Inquirer newspaper box stacked with papers announcing major wins.
Meet the fans:
Jay Gleckner, 44, converted his home’s lower level into a fan cave that includes a 135-inch projector screen with surround sound. He has the folding chair he sat on in Citizens Bank Park when the Phillies won the World Series in 2008 and an original portrait of Allen Iverson that the former Sixers superstar once tried to buy from him.
Bill Levy, 71, displays generations of memorabilia in his basement. That includes tickets from a 1919 exhibition signed by Babe Ruth and a glove signed by boxing legend Joe Frazier.
Bill Messick, 69, also turned his basement into a fan cave. In it, he keeps ticket stubs from the first and last football games played at Veterans Stadium and a framed photo of his tailgate group that was used in a trash-talking ad for recycling.
Keep reading to peek inside these fan caves and see what other goodies their owners have in their collections.
🧠 Trivia time
The Brutalist is a new film set in midcentury Philadelphia — but it was filmed in another country because modern Philly’s aesthetic doesn’t match the time period.
Question: Where was The Brutalist filmed to recreate a Philadelphia of days gone by?
A) Newfoundland
B) Germany
C) Hungary
D) Switzerland
This story has the answer.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the location this photo shows?
📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.
Our last photo quiz showed the Macy’s in Center City at Christmastime. As readers noted, it’s in the historic Wanamaker building. Shoutout to Janet P., Gary P., Betsy F., and Joe D., who were among the first to answer correctly.
John S. shared that “Wanamaker’s holds a special place in the lives of my wife and I.”
As a kid living in Olney, he took frequent shopping trips there with his mother. His family later moved to Warminster, but trips to Wanamaker’s continued to be an annual Christmas tradition.
Then he met his wife. “And as it turned out at that time, my future mother-in-law worked at Wanamaker’s, where she spent most of her paycheck on the bargains that she would scout out on her lunch breaks.”
“I still remember the beautiful organ concerts and the Christmas light show narrated by John Facenda. Meet me at the Eagle.”
Enjoy the rest of your week, and I hope you have a happy and healthy 2025.
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