A Strawberry Mansion church will be redeveloped as affordable housing
The project is being partly paid for as a result of the 1970s-era Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to invest in historically neglected areas.
Strawberry Mansion’s Cornerstone Baptist Church is slated for redevelopment as an affordable apartment building with 44 units.
The sprawling church, located at 2117 N. 33rd St. on the edge of Fairmount Park, was sold earlier this year to Philadelphia-based Select Redevelopment for $1.9 million.
Most of the units will be available to those making 75% of area median income, or less than $45,000 a year for a one-person household, with some available for even less to people earning lower incomes.
There will be 29 one-bedroom apartments, 14 two-bedrooms, and one studio. The project is estimated to cost $10 million to develop, with construction estimated to be complete in April 2028.
Travis Seal, a principal with Select Redevelopment, says Strawberry Mansion’s historic building stock, walkability, and park access have long been underappreciated by the real estate industry.
“Obviously [Strawberry Mansion] had some economic disinvestment over the second half of the 20th century, but a lot of people are waking up to the sense that neighborhoods like this are not being made every day anymore,” said Seal.
Seal says the roughly 100-year-old building — originally a synagogue called B’nai Jeshurun — is actually in robust condition, better than many historic religious buildings.
“We’re really trying to work within the existing structure because structurally, it’s [in] pretty good [shape],” said Seal. “It has some pretty fundamentally good bones, as opposed to churches that might be of a slightly older vintage, from the late 19th century.”
The church is not historically protected by local preservation regulations — earlier proposals from other developers would have razed the building for new construction — and Select Redevelopment’s project will also not require any zoning approvals to move forward.
The company has held some neighborhood meetings to gather community feedback, although it was not required to do so.
The church’s closure “was a really big loss to the neighborhood in terms of just us utilizing that space,” said Tonnetta Graham, the executive director of Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation.
Graham says that at its height Cornerstone Baptist was a huge presence in the neighborhood.
The congregation allowed its property to be used for a lot of neighborhood needs, including hosting a boxing ring, Boy Scout troops, summer camps, a community kitchen, and for high school graduation ceremonies.
But as the neighborhood and congregation shrank, they could not keep up with repairs, a common reason churches fall into disrepair.
Graham said there are some neighborhood concerns about the project — some would like to see even more affordability — and that residents would like the project to include efforts to honor Cornerstone’s history.
“We’re just happy that it’s not going to be demolished,” said Graham. “That’s the main thing. We won’t lose the actual edifice.”
Redevelopment backed by innovative affordability fund
Like many areas of North Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion was hit hard by white flight and racist lending policies in the second half of the 20th century, which discouraged investment in the neighborhood and drove away residents.
In 1977, the federal government passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which compelled banks to make loans in neighborhoods that had experienced redlining and other discriminatory practices.
As part of TD Bank’s federal obligations to historically divested neighborhoods under the CRA, it has formed a $25 million partnership with CEI-Boulos Capital Management and together they are helping fund the redevelopment of Cornerstone Baptist Church.
The $25 million fund with CEI-Boulos is meant to allow TD Bank to invest in affordable projects without the long wait lists for competitive Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Many affordable projects suffer delays as they wait for that federal subsidy, and some are doomed if they don’t get a LIHTC award.
The CEI-Boulos partnership “helps us build a pipeline of CRA eligible deals outside of that pool,” said Scott Mularkey, CRA Investment Officer at TD Bank, which hopes to contribute to eight affordable projects in Philadelphia with the $25 million.
The TD Bank and CEI-Boulos fund will provide over a third of Cornerstone Baptist’s redevelopment costs.
They have previously backed a 49-unit project at 1348 S. 32nd St. in Grays Ferry and another 46-unit project at 2800 W. Diamond St., also in Strawberry Mansion.
Sam Spencer, CEO of CEI-Boulos, also argues that affordable rental housing is essential for Strawberry Mansion, where 57% of residents rent (compared to 45% of Philadelphia residents).
He also notes that 36% of residents in the census tract spend more than half their income on housing. He hopes the project will help people stay in their neighborhood.
“Strawberry Mansion has gentrification pressure,” said Spencer. “Our intent as a fund is to invest in projects that are going to serve current residents rather than drive current residents out.”
