2640-48 E Lehigh AveUnder construction

A four-story mixed-use building with 36 apartments and office space is under construction at 2640–48 E Lehigh Avenue in Fishtown & East Kensington. Cleared to build in December 2024, the project spans a 10,413-square-foot lot and is being developed by 2640 East Lehigh LLC, which acquired the site last year. The building is being sprinklered throughout—amenity spaces under NFPA 13 and residential areas under 13R—and has already undergone multiple amendments to adjust floor layouts, cellar design, and truss drawings.

The site carries CMX2 zoning, which allows this scale of mixed-use construction by right. That puts it squarely in the neighborhood's current development trajectory, where mid-rise residential projects have been filling in underused industrial and commercial parcels. Within a half-mile radius, only about 15 units are in the pipeline nearby, including a 15-unit building at 2976 Richmond Street, suggesting this stretch of Lehigh is still relatively untapped compared to denser corners of Fishtown proper.

The inclusion of office space alongside residential is a less common move in the area's recent wave of apartment construction, which has largely leaned toward pure multifamily or ground-floor retail. Whether that points to a broader mixed-use shift along this corridor or simply reflects the developer's own needs remains to be seen. Either way, the project is one of the larger infill plays to advance recently in this slice of the neighborhood.

With a lot this size and zoning that supports density, the project may set a template for other oversized parcels along Lehigh Avenue. The corridor still holds a fair number of aging industrial and commercial buildings that could accommodate similar mid-rise development, and this one's progress will offer a useful read on how the market absorbs new supply this far from the Frankford Avenue core.