Developer Ori Feibush is planning another big apartment building on Washington Avenue

The Washington Avenue building boom is set to continue, as OCF Realty is partnering with two other developers to bring a 300- to 400-unit multifamily building to the site of the former Hoa Binh Plaza at 16th and Washington.

The parcel at 1601 Washington is slated for a seven-story multifamily building with a mix of 80% rentals and 20% for-sale condos, which would be in a smaller neighboring building fronting on Chadwick Street.

“Part of the discussion with immediate neighbors is about massing and density, and with the community, it’s affordable housing — getting all of that to effectively fit into the same box is the critical piece here,” said Ori Feibush, owner of OCF Realty.

Feibush said the project would be predominantly one-bedrooms with some studios and a “healthy” number of two-bedrooms. The units are not family-oriented, he said, although some will be more affordably priced.

“The units are larger than what we’ve historically done, but it’s unlikely in a practical sense that most of these units, or any of these units, will be rented by families,” Feibush said. “We intend to offer a portion of our units as affordable housing.”

The buildings proposed for 1601 Washington will also contain 30,000 square feet of retail and 210 underground parking spaces. The project was first reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The project is being developed by OCF in partnership with Howard Silverman and Mountain Shore Properties, the same combination that developed the former Frankford Chocolate Factory site at 2101 Washington into a six-story, 247-unit building.

This stretch of Washington Avenue has been transformed into a residential neighborhood over the last decade, as hundreds of apartments have been built — especially along its northern side bordering the neighborhood now known as Graduate Hospital.

Much of Washington Avenue once was occupied by warehouses, light manufacturing, and other large commercial uses. The parcel at 1601 Washington was the longtime home to now shuttered Hoa Binh Plaza. As the neighborhoods on either side of the avenue — Point Breeze to the south and Graduate Hospital to the north — saw real estate reinvestment, a debate unfolded about whether Washington should host more homes.

Philadelphia developers such as Alterra Property Group and the Post Bros. have built or are building large projects at the intersection of Broad Street and Washington. Feibush’s OCF has dominated the western side of Washington Avenue.

Feibush has advocated for the residential development, while others argued that the older industrial uses provided more jobs. He has built on the Chocolate Factory parcel and 2201 Washington farther west on the avenue. OCF’s headquarters are at 1936 Washington.

“It is my hope that after this project and a few other projects, we will have an environment where you’ve got a fully connected Washington Avenue where the entirety of the northern side is softer retail,” Feibush said. That would be “a much better experience for not just the residents in the buildings, but neighbors both north and south of Washington Avenue.”

Before the pandemic, 1601 Washington Ave. was slated for a different kind of residential use.

One of the earliest Vietnamese-owned shopping plazas on Washington Avenue, Hoa Binh closed after almost 30 years when it was purchased in 2019 by Streamline — a development company that, like OCF, was a major player in the redevelopment of this part of South Philadelphia.

The company proposed 22 single-family homes and 22 condos in duplex form. Streamline won neighborhood support for the project and planned to break ground at the beginning of 2020. Then the pandemic struck, and Streamline became the target of numerous lawsuits about the quality of their homes — leaving the company with little ability for new development.

Feibush and his partners have purchased the property from Streamline and are courting community groups and near neighbors. The land is zoned for industrial use, not retail or residential, so the developers will need a variety of variances from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to move forward.

Neighborhood groups such as the South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) will have input on the proposal. Feibush himself is on the SOSNA board, as are several of his employees, but he noted that none of them sits on the group’s zoning committee, which he will negotiate with.

“We are being treated as any other developer who would be seeking a variance for a project of this size,” Feibush said. “There are no members of my organization that sit on the zoning committee. To be honest, I don’t even know who sits on the zoning committee other than [the chair].”