187-unit residential new construction, zoned ICMX.
A 187-unit mixed-use building has been delivered at 2230 E Somerset Street, marking one of the larger multifamily completions along the Port Richmond and Kensington border in recent years. The six-story structure includes shell commercial space on the ground floor and an accessory parking garage, with a common roof deck and penthouse amenities. The building employs a dual-construction strategy—Type IA for the basement and first floor, Type IIIA for the upper residential floors—connected by horizontal separations and a horizontal exit, a configuration that allowed the developer to maximize density on a relatively compact footprint in an ICMX zone.
Phadc Somerset LLC, the owner of record, took control of the site in 2025, though the project was cleared to build in late 2021. Two subsequent amendments adjusted the building layout, exterior materials, and structural systems, with the most recent changes in March 2025 adding accessible restrooms in amenity spaces and acoustic ceilings in the commercial shell. The commercial tenant lineup remains to be determined, as use registration and fit-out work will follow separately.
The project lands amid a modest but steady multifamily wave in the immediate area. Within a half-mile, roughly 304 units are either planned or recently completed, including a 146-unit building at 2001 E Lehigh Avenue and a 47-unit development on Janney Street. Somerset Street itself has seen sporadic infill, but nothing approaching this scale, making the building a test case for whether deeper investor appetite exists for mid-rise density in a corridor historically dominated by rowhouse conversions and smaller new-builds.
The delivery suggests that ICMX parcels near transit and industrial edges can pencil at nearly 200 units when assemblage and by-right zoning align. If leasing performs, similar sites along Somerset, Lehigh, and the surrounding grid—many still occupied by low-slung commercial or vacant industrial shells—may draw fresh attention from developers willing to pursue comparable scale and construction complexity.
As this density arrives, InvestPHL is tracking 25 under-built parcels within a half-mile that a developer could still acquire and build — each carrying a builder's max bid. Addresses and figures are members-only.
Unlock the 25 nearby opportunities →Major (8+ unit) new-construction projects filed within a half-mile since 2022 — the density gathering around this site.