A 43-unit apartment building that preserves historic features is proposed in Old City

A corner of Old City long considered for apartment development is now slated for a new 43-unit, seven-story building — an update from a smaller plan approved by the Philadelphia Historical Commission.

The property at 148 N. Second St. contains several buildings that are regulated by local historic regulations.

Two of the buildings have been approved for demolition — at 152 and 156 N. Second St. — while two are being preserved and incorporated into the project at 148 and 150th N. Second St.

The tallest points of the proposed structure are pushed back from the street to avoid overshadowing the older buildings and to keep in line with historic regulations.

“We … really made sure that those historic buildings at the corner were the star of the show, and our building wraps around those and gently steps down to them,” Derek Spencer, technical director with Gnome Architects, said at a Wednesday meeting of the Old City District.

The project, from Philadelphia-based developer Virgis Anusauskas, is seeking permission from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to build a taller and denser building than the underlying zoning allows.

It will include about 1,400 square feet of commercial space and parking for 15 vehicles. The project is replacing a number of buildings that were previously used as restaurant supply stores.

Anusauskas hopes to find a tenant that will not be open late at night — as his office will also be in the building.

The proposed project would contain a majority of two-bedroom apartments of about 900 square feet, with three three-bedroom units on the top levels between 1,100 and 1,500 square feet.

Anusauskas said a huge number of studio and one-bedroom apartments have been built in Philadelphia’s central neighborhoods in recent years and he is seeing more market demand for larger apartments.

He is also keeping his options open when it comes to renting or selling the units.

The condo market in Philadelphia has been weak since the pandemic, but he thinks the sheer quantity of rental units available right now means there may be an opening to make this a condominium building.

“I’m not looking at studios at all, and one-bedrooms for the condos is not good,” Anusauskas said. “We want to have the people who live there to have some peace of mind, so we don’t want too many people.”

The plan approved by the Historical Commission had six stories, but Anusauskas says the new, taller version has received verbal affirmation. He is seeking the support of the Old City District ahead of an Oct. 28 Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing.

Attendees at Wednesday night’s community meeting asked why the project couldn’t remain within the rules that the existing zoning allows. For example, the height limit is 65 feet, where the proposed structure at its highest point is about 77 feet.

The development team argued that historic regulations made it more difficult to stick with their earlier plan, preventing them from maximizing the possible square footage on the site without going taller.

“Because we had to keep these two corner buildings, we can’t overbuild on top of them,” said Spencer of Gnome Architects. “We have to completely leave those pieces of those buildings untouched, so that really prevented us from maximizing the use of the site.”

Anusauskas says his team has a lot of experience with rehabilitating historic buildings, and he doesn’t foresee too many challenges, after he clears this last set of regulatory requirements.

He hopes to begin construction as soon as he gets zoning board approval.

If the zoning board doesn’t approve the project, he said, he will go back to the drawing board and find a way to make it work.

He says the cap over I-95 at Penn’s Landing and the new park that will be created there makes the neighborhood even more exciting.

“I love Old City. I love the history. The community is great,” Anusauskas said. The park ”will pick the whole neighborhood up, and we want to be part of it.”