Wolff Court on Girard Avenue, in Fishtown, Replaces Auto Repair Garage

A new apartment building is planned to replace the Wolff Auto Repair shop at Girard Avenue and Palmer Street, or 501 East Girard Avenue, in Fishtown soon.  This new building is being developed by GY Properties and designed by Harman Deutsch Architects.  It will be called “Wolff Court”, after the name of the auto repair shop it is replacing.  The project was just reviewed by the Planning Commission’s Civic Design Review board last week.

Wolff Court will be four stories tall and have 71 rental units.  The first floor will have nearly 13,000 square feet of retail space, including a fresh produce market.  It will have 47 underground parking spaces, accessible from a sloping driveway in the back.  There will be four additional parking spots along the side of the first level, mostly for car share vehicles.  Above the first floor, the building will be U-shaped with a green roof on top of the first floor in part of the back.  The apartment units will be studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms.  The studios will have storage lockers.  The building will have a lounge and movie room for residents and a roof deck.  The roof will also, have a green roof.  The exterior will have red brick, metal gray panels, large windows, juliet balconies, and aluminum trim for the retail.  The apartment entrance will have a large awning.  Outside will be new street trees, with surrounding benches, and new bike racks.  

Fishtown has been seeing a lot of new development in recent years.  Frankford Avenue has several new midrise apartment buildings and soon a new hotel.  The Delaware River waterfront is seeing the construction of townhouses, a new apartment building with a climbing gym, and entertainment venues.  And, nearby in South Kensington, a building boom is occurring of similar apartment buildings and townhouses.  Wolff Court will be in the midst of all this development.

By, Gabriel Gottlieb