Northern Liberties, we worry about you sometimes, but maybe we shouldn’t: While the rest of the City suffers a real estate crunch built on the backs of flimsy mortgages, construction continues up in you at a rate that would make even the dooziest of Doozers proud. Behold:

The new development plan for Bart Blatstein’s property at Girard Avenue and Second Street includes 16- and 26-story residential towers, a total of 600 residential units, a 40,000-square-foot park, a new street (Van Horn), a grocery store and retail shops facing Girard, and parking that’s shielded from the street by buildings and landscaping.

But if our recession diet is telling us anything — bean burritos! who knew! — it is to, uhm, give this whole thing pause. Because that’s a whole lotta retail, and NoLibs currently ain’t even close to maximum occupancy. And there’s only so many Manyunk office drones left to pilfer. Nonetheless, we remain hopeful, and confident that if there’s a way The Bart can keep the Doozers building, it’ll happen. For if you build it, history has taught us, they will come and annoy the shit out of you, straight out of the neighborhood.
PlanPhilly: Tell Me You Don’t Look At This And Think “Whoa, They’re Putting Second Life In NoLibs?”
NoLibs.org: Here Go Yo, Here We Go Yo, I’m-a Complain About What’s The Scenario

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm.