Formerly industrial corner of North Philly is seeing a boom in senior affordable housing

A project to transform a long abandoned factory into 56 units of affordable senior housing moved forward Wednesday, as City Council passed enabling zoning legislation through its Rules Committee.

The effort is a collaboration between the Deliverance Evangelistic Church and its community development corporation, which owns the vacant building at 3031-49 N. 21st St., and Philadelphia-based Odin Properties.

“Whenever one of these [affordable] buildings wants to open up in Philadelphia, the line is literally around the block with seniors to apply to see if they can get an apartment,” said Pastor Glen Spaulding.

“So many seniors, even in our church, many of them are in homes with steps that they can no longer manage,” Spaulding said.

Odin Properties’ Phil Balderston said the projected construction cost is $30 million, and the company plans to rely on a combination of Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credits.

The four-story property is the site of the former De Long Hook & Eye Company Factory, which manufactured garment fasteners.

Deliverance Evangelistic Church acquired the property for a nominal fee in 1995. Mayor Ed Rendell wanted the church to turn it into a rehabilitation facility for recently released prisoners.

“To make a long story short, the community wasn’t interested at that time in having former prisoners come in,” Spaulding said. “They wanted something else done with the building, so that didn’t go through, and it sat empty for many years.”

The property will have 49 one-bedroom units and seven two-bedroom units. The industrial layout allows for both large windows and high ceilings.

“When we first saw it, one of things that was so special were the large window openings,” Balderston said. “Those large openings will afford a lot of light and air into the units, and that’s something that’s very rare in affordable housing projects.”

The project will be reserved for those 62 and older who make 50% of the area median income (a little less than $42,000 for a one-person household). Nineteen parking spaces will be offered at a nearby surface lot.

The project’s reliance on Low Income Housing Tax Credits, however, means a long timeline to completion. Balderston said he doesn’t expect construction to start until 2028.

The property is zoned for industrial use, as are many of its neighbors to the north and east. Councilmember Cindy Bass’s legislation to tweak the zoning to allow the project to move forward is expected to be enacted by the end of the month.

“We’re very excited about some of these formerly industrial sites being able to come online as low-income senior housing,” Bass said. “It’s so very important because people want to be able to age in place. There’s a lot of folks right in that neighborhood who want to stay in that neighborhood.”

To the west and south of the old Hook & Eye company is an intact rowhouse neighborhood. The homes that border the property have been looking out on the building’s deteriorating hulk for decades.

A block away, affordable housing developer New Courtland just completed a project for seniors, the 48-unit Clearfield Apartments.

Both were designed by CBP Architects’ Nancy Bastian and are expected to draw from the rowhouse neighborhoods as seniors seek homes in buildings with elevators.

The New Courtland project is the “first new construction in that area in a long, long time,” Bastian said. “We tried to pick up on the feeling of some of the industrial buildings that are still there [like] at the other end of the block [Deliverance’s] vacant building.”