New Development Planned for NW Corner of Broad and Washington
The busy intersection of Broad Street and Washington Avenue, on the southern edge of Center City and the Avenue of the Arts, has gotten quite a bit of attention lately because of a planned development on the very large vacant lot on the northeastern corner. But another, smaller vacant lot on the northwest corner is, also, eyed for redevelopment. This new development would be a mixed-use development of residential and retail, similar to the one planned across the street, and would be called Lincoln Square. It would be smaller than the development across the street, which is still being planned in consultation with community members and the City Planning Commission.
This new development will have a large, wide eight story apartment building, that will run the length of the block along Washington Avenue between Broad and 15th Streets, on top of a large shopping center. It will have 356 rental apartment units. There will be a parking garage in the middle of the development, which will have 360 parking spaces. The shopping center will have 74,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and will extend to Carpenter Street and connect to a historic, but vacant, train shed. The train shed would be renovated and included into the development in some form. The train shed plays a part in the development’s name and history, since it was built in the late nineteenth century to replace an earlier train shed, on the same site, where President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin was on display along the late president’s journey to be buried in Illinois after his assassination in 1865.
This new development would be a dramatic improvement for this intersection. Along with the other development, on the east side, it would remake the virtual wasteland that is there right now and would lead to greatly increased real estate demand and property values, as well as, much more private development in the surrounding neighborhoods and on Washington Avenue and the lower end of the Avenue of the Arts on Broad Street.
By, Gabriel Gottlieb
