The latest big new apartment building proposed in Germantown is a 45-unit mixed-use project right next to the shuttered Rite Aid on the 6200 block of Germantown Avenue – a stretch of the corridor that is rapidly changing after many years of sitting desolate and blighted, with some buildings boarded up.

Philadelphia-based developer MGMT Residential plans to develop the thin strip of land at 6225-27 Germantown Ave., which runs back and behind its neighboring buildings. The site now has a billboard at the front and an existing building in the rear. 

It will join several projects in that immediate area now in various stages of completion – including the old Comer Paper building site at Germantown Avenue and Washington Lane, another mixed-use project with more than 40 residential units and ground-floor commercial space that the company is also developing. 

Plans for the new project call for demolishing the existing structure at the rear of the site and replacing it with the proposed four-story building – which would feature apartments, a basement garage, 27 on-site parking spaces and 32 bicycle spaces. The first floor will also include retail space facing Germantown Avenue. 

The site is zoned CMX-2, which means it is “by right” and does not require approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to proceed. 

The building will be subject to the Civic Design Review (CDR) process due to having more than 50,000 square feet of floor area. The coordinating Registered Community Organization, the 59th Democratic Ward, is scheduled to hold the CDR meeting today, Tuesday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m., over Zoom.

A history in the Northwest 

MGMT Residential is the development company that, by suddenly demolishing one of the historic Wood Norton apartment buildings at Johnson Street and Wayne Avenue to replace it with a six-story, 50-unit apartment tower, inspired a group of activists to establish historic protection for many of its pre-war apartment buildings. 

That act inspired the civic group, West Mount Airy Neighbors, to form a Historic Preservation Initiative. They were successful in securing Historical Commission protection for both the Cresheim Valley Apartments and Wood Norton. They later expanded the project into the Northwest Apartments Thematic District, including 30 buildings throughout Northwest Philadelphia. That project has since been approved by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. 

It was a sudden move that surprised and upset residents. MGMT Residential, who managed the Wood Norton apartments in Germantown, sent a November 1, 2021, notice to the residents that the buildings were being demolished and they had to vacate by the end of January. 

MGMT Residential did not respond to requests for comment.

A changing corridor

MGMT Residential’s two projects will join a rapidly changing block. Ken Weinstein is developing the former New Bethel AME Church at 6149-53 Germantown Avenue. Across the street is the recently completed Sparrow House Apartments, a 50-unit mixed-use building at 6144 Germantown Avenue. Lastly, the former Rite Aid will become a senior primary care facility run by ArchWell Health. 

The CDR process is advisory and the developer is not required to adhere to suggestions made by the public. 

Interested residents can join the CDR meeting for 6225-27 Germantown Ave. by Zoom using the meeting ID 847 6000 3655 and the password 12345.  Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.