1633-43 Ridge AveUnder construction

A 17-unit mixed-use building cleared to build at 1633-43 Ridge Avenue brings another five-story project to the densifying ridge between Fairmount and Poplar. Ridge View LLC, which picked up the 4,755-square-foot site in 2019, is erecting a Type III-A structure with ground-floor commercial shell space and residential above, topped by a roof deck. The construction is using fire-retardant-treated wood framing on the exterior walls, and the building will be fully sprinklered with standpipes in the stairwells. Recent amendments tackled tricky underpinning work—complicated by a high water table—along with reconfiguring the basement to add a laundry room and installing horizontal exits that required upgrading wall and floor assemblies to two-hour fire ratings.

The lot sits in CMX2.5 zoning, which makes the five-story, by-right envelope fairly straightforward along this stretch of Ridge. One complication surfaced mid-construction: a CMU stabilization wall had to be built to shore up the adjacent structure at 1632 Poplar Street, addressing violations tied to an unsafe condition next door. That kind of adjacent-property headache isn't uncommon on infill parcels where older rowhouses lean on each other, and it's now been addressed with a dedicated amendment.

This project slots into a steady wave of mid-rise residential hitting the immediate area—1638 Ridge Avenue (12 units), 1630-32 Ridge (11 units), and 1822 Ridge (12 units) are all within a short walk, while a 49-unit building at 918 North Broad and a 13-unit project at 1435 West Girard Avenue round out nearly 300 new units landing within half a mile. The pattern is clear: Ridge Avenue's commercial corridor is doubling as a residential spine, taking advantage of zoning that encourages mixed-use and walkable density without the political friction of rezoning battles.

The commercial shell space on the ground floor remains unbuilt—it'll require a separate fit-out and certificate of occupancy down the line—but the flexibility built into the CMX2.5 framework means future retail, office, or service tenants have options. As more similar-scale projects deliver along Ridge, the question isn't whether more parcels will turn over, but how quickly owners of the remaining single-story commercial strips decide to cash out or build up themselves.