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Building in hot Francisville area

MJL Properties has projects in up-and-coming neighborhood where land values are rising.

MJL Properties is a Francisville-based family-run builder/developer, started in 1999 by Michael Loonstyn. Michael's father, William, and Michael's wife Andrea, both work for the company and are pictured here with him.
MJL Properties is a Francisville-based family-run builder/developer, started in 1999 by Michael Loonstyn. Michael's father, William, and Michael's wife Andrea, both work for the company and are pictured here with him.Read more

Land values in Philadelphia's Francisville neighborhood are beginning to take off, and MJL Properties is capitalizing on that trend.

Real estate developer Michael J. Loonstyn, wife Andrea and father William run the family business, MJL Properties, out of offices in Francisville that are on the ground floor of their newest apartment complex, at 831-849 N. 19th St.

Francisville's boundaries run east-west from Corinthian Avenue to Broad Street and north-south from Fairmount Avenue to Girard Avenue. Land values there have increased about 40 percent in the last three to four years, Michael Loonstyn said.

"A typical lot that went for $70,000 is now going to $120,000," he said, "and there's very little vacant land in Fairmount or Spring Garden," now highly desirable places to live in Center City.

About four years ago, Loonstyn paid $900,0000 for a site where he built 36 apartment units with some parking, as well as 12 three-family dwellings he chose to keep as rentals. For several decades, two vacant warehouses and a house had been on the property.

"When I bought it, everyone thought it was risky," he said. "We were just offered $8 million for the whole thing. We rejected it."

Loonstyn, 49, got started in the business through his father, who owned a roofing company in Philadelphia. William Loonstyn, 69, now works with him.

In 1999, the younger Loonstyn started MJL Properties and in the intervening 15 years has completed 150 units, including apartments and homes on the 1800 block of Wylie Street, on Cameron Street, on Corinthian Avenue, and on Ogden Street.

At 2001 Poplar St., Loonstyn has just received approval for three condos he plans to sell. He just purchased 2031-33 Wallace St., two shells where he is starting a custom build-out into one larger home. For a new Corinthian Avenue project, MJL Properties is working with architect Morrissey Design of Flourtown.

MJL's business model is to build and either sell the units or rent and manage them. The rentals are overseen by Andrea Loonstyn.

"We are our own general contractor; we do all the building, using high-quality materials, no vinyl siding or anything like that," Loonstyn said. "We are builders, myself and my dad, and it's been a long climb."

Currently, the company manages about 92 rental units in the city's Spring Garden, Fairmount and Francisville neighborhoods.

Loonstyn's first project was to purchase his grandmother's house from her landlord, a rowhouse on the 800 block of North Taney Street that he bought for $2,000. His first large-scale project on his own was in the 800 block of North 25th Street, a property bought for $45,000 in 1999 and sold six years later for $450,000.

He graduated from Temple University's real estate school, which "gave me a different set of skills."

"A lot of developers don't want others in the business, but I encourage others to do it. Competition is good," he said. And in Francisville, "it's an up-and-coming neighborhood, where people are nice. Things are appreciating so quickly."

Loonstyn works closely with Francisville's neighborhood association. "We want to benefit the area as well over time, as well as turn a profit," he said.

MJL's next development focus will likely be along Ridge Avenue. Loonstyn recently purchased a 30-unit building at 1614-1620 Ridge Ave. and has just completed the renovation of 1724 Ridge into three rental units and a storefront.

"Three to five years is a realistic time frame for the Ridge Avenue corridor to turn around," he said.

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