Woods Square Will Bring Big New Development to the Upper Part of Fishtown
The Woods Brother Lumber Yard has been a fixture at 2621-27 Frankford Avenue for some time. But the site is about to be redeveloped into three large apartment buildings, connected by a retail and parking base. This development is being built by FLD Group and designed by Robert Anthony Peralta Architects and site engineer Durkin Associates. It will be called appropriately “Woods Square”.
These new buildings will contain a total of 178 rental apartments. The fifteen foot tall base will house 85 parking spaces and will have about a dozen retail spaces with a total of 20,000 square feet. There would be fourteen apartments along the sides of the first floor, with parking spaces in front of those units. The exterior will have large factory-style windows and some brick and paneling. The apartments will be one and two bedroom units, 750 square feet and 1,050 square feet, respectively. The units will have automated systems from Honeywell.
In between the three buildings, above the base, will be two fifty foot wide courtyards each with a green roof and patios. The developers intend to include side yards for storm water management. There will be fifty bicycle parking spaces inside and twenty bicycle spaces outside. Rents will range from $1,200 to $1,500. The developers don’t expect to make a profit off the retail spaces for the first few years.
The developers have been to Civic Design Review in July and will have to seek a zoning variance to build residential and retail on an industrial site. When completed, this development will signify a new phase of larger development for the upper part of Fishtown and that stretch of Frankford Avenue.
By, Gabriel Gottlieb
