A 157-unit apartment building planned for parking lot off of South Street
The project should be open by mid-2027 and will have two ground-level commercial spaces.
After multiple stalled development attempts, the surface parking lot on Bainbridge Street on East Passyunk Avenue appears to be set for transformation.
Philadelphia-based Alterra Property Group and E-Z Park, the longtime owner of the lot, are partnering to develop the half-block-long expanse of asphalt that lies just south of South Street in the Queen Village neighborhood.
Alterra will take over from E-Z Park’s previous development partner, Berwyn-based LCOR, and continue with the 157-unit project planned by their predecessor.
“We think it’s going to be a great addition to the Queen Village neighborhood,” said Leo Addimando, managing partner with Alterra. “Obviously when you can fill a surface parking lot with some mixed-use property, from an urban planning perspective, it’s an upgrade.”
The project will include 37 parking spaces for residents and two ground-level commercial spaces. One 3,700-square-foot space will front on the corner of East Passyunk and Bainbridge. The other 1,600-square-foot bay will be farther east, fronting on Bainbridge.
Alterra expects the project will be completed by mid-2027. The design is the same as when LCOR was the developer, with architecture by Bernardon.
The majority of the apartments, 92 units, will be studios. There will also be 36 one-bedroom and 29 two-bedroom units.
An earlier development plan for the site, released in 2018, included a mini-Target and more family-size units, as the property falls in the much sought-after Meredith public school catchment.
Alterra’s version of the proposal, however, will be less focused on families with children.
“I wouldn’t say that the project configuration, in terms of the mix of units, is targeting families with school-aged kids,” Addimando said. “But whenever you can build multifamily in a desirable school catchment in Philadelphia, I think it helps the viability of the project.”
E-Z Park is a long-standing Philadelphia business that began at a parking lot on Third and Bainbridge, a property that itself was converted to housing long ago.
The 2018 version of the Bainbridge and East Passyunk project, championed by E-Z Park’s Harvey Spear, would have had 50 apartments and a 152-space parking garage. But he said the city’s high taxes on parking have incentivized him to fill the surface lot with apartments and no public parking.
“I worry for South Street, which is just coming back, and they are filling up stores, but there’s very little parking left,” Spear said. “We’re happy we’re building a nice building, but I’m in the parking business. I would have rather done that.”