Dobson Mills Phase II Expands East Falls Apartment Community

Dobson Mills is an apartment complex in the East Falls neighborhood that was built about ten years ago along Ridge Avenue, on formerly vacant land.  It provides a modern community on a stretch of Ridge Avenue that used to have very few residential buildings. It has close proximity to East Falls’ beautiful waterfront and the small shopping district at Ridge and Midvale Avenues.  A small property to the south has remained vacant since the construction of Dobson Mills’ 416 current units were completed a decade ago. Now, Winther Investments plans to expand Dobson Mills with a second phase soon. This second phase is being designed by Steinberg Dickey Collaborative and will be built on the long vacant site to the south.

Dobson Mills Phase II will have three buildings, with a similar traditional design to the first phase.  Buildings One and Two will be four stories and Building Three will be three stories tall and closest to Scott’s Lane.  Scott’s Lane will be the main access road for Phase II, with an emergency driveway to Ridge Avenue. All three buildings will have a total of 134 rental units, like the first phase.  A pool and outdoor plaza will be in the middle of the three new buildings. The new phase will have 91 new parking spaces. The second phase would have pedestrian pathways to the first phase.  The Phase II buildings will have red brick and shingles, and pitched roofs, continuing the traditional look of the complex.

East Falls has been seeing much new development in recent years.  Along the waterfront, a new apartment building is being built at Ridge and Calumet by the Falls Bridge, another former apartment complex next door has been renovated, and the Schuylkill Falls housing project has been redeveloped into the mixed-income Falls Ridge community.  Nearby in Manayunk, other waterfront developments are being built and planned near the Wissahickon Falls and on Venice Island. Dobson Mills was among the first large market-rate apartment communities in the East Falls neighborhood and now it is expanding to meet growing demand.