August 11, 2016
Google/StreetView
A nine-story apartment building with shops on street level is proposed for this parking lot at 49th and Spruce streets in West Philadelphia.
Preliminary plans for a nine-story apartment building in West Philadelphia were discussed at a community meeting on Wednesday night.
The development on the southwest corner of 49th and Spruce streets, proposed by developers Hillel Tsarfati and Kfir Binnfeld, would consist of retail space on the ground floor and 160 apartments above, according to West Philly Local.
The meeting offered the developers a chance to get feedback from the community, while residents were given the opportunity to voice their concerns on parking, property taxes and rents.
The developers have yet to seek city approval for the apartment building. But a zoning variance would be necessary for the current plan, which would require additional public meetings before it can be put up for approval by the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The lot Tsarfati and Binnfeld are looking to build on is zoned RM-4, a high-density residential classification that carries no height restriction, but the development plan exceeds the floor-area ratio limit of 3.5 times the square footage of the lot. A zoning variance would be required.
Above the retail space on the first floor, 12 one-bedroom apartments, six two-bedroom apartments, and two studios would be built on each of the eight remaining floors. The hope, West Philly Local reported, is for the apartments to come in with rents as much as 20 percent below market rate, and be marketed toward “young professionals.”
Tsarfati and Binnfeld purchased the lot from the city in 2014 for $310,000, according to Naked Philly. The two previously worked in a partnership with Oren Brothers Real Estate to restore the Croydon Hall Apartments across the intersection at 49th and Locust streets.
The lot they are planning to develop is currently a parking lot for the Croydon apartments.
The meeting was sponsored by registered community organizations the Garden Court Community Association, the Walnut Hill Community Association and Cedar Park Neighbors.
