2202 E Somerset StUnder construction

A 170-unit rental building is cleared to build at 2202 E Somerset Street in Port Richmond, part of a six-story mixed-use structure that will include ground-floor commercial shell space and an accessory parking garage. The project, owned by Somerset Street Station LLC since 2021, uses a hybrid construction approach—Type IA concrete for the base and first floor, Type IIIA wood frame above—with horizontal separations creating what the plans describe as two distinct buildings under one roof. An amendment approved in April 2026 removed the originally planned common roof deck and adjusted the layout and exterior openings, though the unit count and overall massing remain intact.

The site sits in an ICMX zone, which permits this density by right and encourages the kind of mixed-income, transit-oriented infill that has been slow to materialize along the Somerset corridor. The commercial shell will require separate fit-out approvals before occupancy, leaving the ground-floor program undefined for now. The building will be fully sprinklered and include standpipes and horizontal exits, standard for a project of this height and occupancy load.

Somerset Street Station joins a modest but steady pipeline of multifamily construction in the immediate area—more than 320 units are planned or delivered within a half-mile, including a 146-unit project at 2001 E Lehigh Avenue and smaller infills along Trenton, Janney, and Coral. The wave isn't a boom, but it's consistent, and this is one of the larger contributions. The ICMX zoning along Somerset and nearby industrial corridors was designed to absorb exactly this kind of project, and the fact that a 170-unit building can move forward without variance or fanfare suggests the framework is working as intended.

The surrounding blocks still hold plenty of underused industrial parcels and vacant lots, many of which carry the same permissive zoning. If Somerset Street Station delivers as planned, it will test whether this stretch of the neighborhood can support the kind of density that has taken root closer to Frankford Avenue and Lehigh. The amendment trimming amenities like the roof deck hints at cost pressures, but the core program remains ambitious for a corridor that has seen more demolition than construction in recent years.