The very busy River Wards developer responsible for a large portion of those luxury townhomes you see popping up across Kensington and Port Richmond is at work on a new  South Kensington project, reports Sandy Smith for Philly Mag. Developer Riverwards Group recently filed zoning permit requests to build a 146-unit mixed-use residential-commercial project between Germantown Avenue and Fifth Street along Cecil B. Moore. Smith reports that

Ten percent of the units  —14 total— will be “designated as ‘entry-level’ condos priced at $159,990. The remaining 132 units will sell for anywhere from $239,990 to $279,990 — apparently market-rate in the gentrifying area. Philly Mag offered no details on the size of the coming condos or their amenities. Smith notes that the developer added the lower-priced units in response to concerns about affordability voiced at community review meetings about the development, called Avenue V. Planned for a lot zoned for industrial uses, the 32-building retail and residential development will require zoning variances. The developer said the buildings will range from three stories to eight stories, with one condo unit on each floor. Avenue V will rise within a stone’s throw of another RiverWards project, N5 Square. Described by the developer as a “real estate revolution” comprised of 57 “luxury” homes selling for 399,990 for a “carriage home” with no parking and up, N5 Square is under construction on a lot last occupied by a circus school.

RiverWards also recently got the go-ahead from the  Zoning Board of Adjustment to build a 155-unit luxury housing project on a four-acre site at the corner of Lehigh and Frankford avenues, adjacent to the Conrail tracks, not far from the epicenter of the city’s opioid crisis.  Those homes are expected to sell for $199,000 to $369,000.

(KJO Architecture)

RiverWards received mixed feedback from neighbors over the 2035 Lehigh Avenue development, in particular the ZBA’s ruling “allowing real estate interests to skirt existing land use regulations, despite community opposition,” PlanPhilly’s Jake Blumgart reported. “We have a particular issue with this project because it goes against five years of community planning,” said New Kensington CDC’s Andrew Goodman during public testimony against the project at the Planning Commission in February. The news that Riverwards is still raising money to complete the project “raised additional questions from planning commissioners who feared that if the RiverWards Group got its variances they would only end up building the single-family homes and doing away with plans for the mixed-use buildings,” Blumgart reported.

By Diana Lu

May 15, 2018