Condo conversion plan gets once-over from NLNA | Philadelphia ...

The main entrance to the proposed condo development will be at 338 Brown Street, shown here...

A fairly creative plan to stuff 10 condominiums and a 7-car enclosed garage into a pair of former commercial and industrial buildings at 338 Brown St. and 725 N. 4th St. in Northern Liberties received its first hearing before the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association ?July 30. As with most other variance requests that come before the NLNA, parking, or the lack of it, became a sticking point.

But there were others. Ventilation of the garage, for instance, and whether the window wells developer Ari Barkan planned to cut into the Brown Street structure passed muster for adequate light and air under the city?s building code. There was also some talk about a first-floor unit that would be accessed strictly through the garage. The bulk of the discussion, however, focused on whether or not two more parking spaces could be shoehorned into that garage. Rustin Ohler of Harman Deutsch Architects explained that the structure was too narrow to replace that first-floor apartment with parking that the Streets Department would sign off on and the garage?s ceilings were too low to accommodate parking lifts.

...with a secondary entrance and parking garage at the former Media Bureau, 725 N. 4th St., which will get a third story under the proposal...

Should the NLNA approve this proposal, it promises to be a well-thought-out conversion of a commercial structure to residential use. The 4th Street building, which is joined to the Brown Street one at the latter?s midsection, had been home to an avant-gardish organization called the Media Bureau for a little more than a decade before it shut down sometime in the early 2000s; that space hosted film festivals, recording studios, drum circles and other outr? artistic fare.

The two two-story wings on 4th Street and the rear of the Brown Street building will get third stories added to them. Units will be mostly 1- and 2-bedroom, with a few distinctive bi-level layouts, including one 3-bedroom unit. Units will range in size from 744 to 1792 square feet. As the developer requested no other details of the project be made public at this time, we can only say that we think the finished product will be an asset to the neighborhood.

...as will the rear wing of the Brown Street structure, behind the tree in this photo. The four-story central section is visible above this wing, clad in white vinyl siding.

Assuming the NLNA can get past the parking thing. The committee recommended that Barkan return with a plan that includes window wells that the city?s Building Standards department can approve ? and 1:1 parking. The trickiness of meeting this last requirement led one committee member to remark prior to the vote, ?Some buildings just aren?t convertible to living spaces.? ?If parking is the only obstacle to this conversion, we beg to differ.

-By Sandy Smith for PhiladelphiaRealEstate.com

All photos by the author

Source: http://blog.philadelphiarealestate.com/condo-conversion-plan-gets-once-over-from-nlna/

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