A Wonderful Concept Coming to Former Penn Fruit Market
The curved Frankford facade will be demolished, with a health center, grocery store, and mixed-income housing coming
The Penn Fruit company was a staple in the area back in the middle of the 20th century, with their curved facades serving as a Mid-Century beckoning of the promise of fresh produce to those passing by. One such store still exists at 5129-35 Frankford Ave. today, though the building has long been empty and boarded up. Given the cost of reuse, the Historical Commission gave the OK to move forward with demolition, though there have been no firm plans since then for what had become something of an eyesore directly next to the Frankford Transportation Center.
After receiving $1.5 million back in 2022 thank to some RACP funding from the state, a recent posting to the Civic Design Review shows us some exciting new plans. The curved roof and all of the existing building will indeed be demolished, along with a smaller ancillary building next door, with a grocery store and new public health center taking up the ground level on the five-story project. Thanks to the Inquirer, we know that the project is being co-developed by the Frankford CDC and Mosaic Development Partners and will also feature 60 income-restricted units to go with 74 market rate units (134 total) - a huge win for this transit-adjacent, CMX-3 zoned spot.
Dubbed Frankford Plaza, the look from Wulff Architects is quite contemporary, with gray brick on the lower level and paneling with pops of color on the upper floors. The most striking design feature is the gateway between the two commercial spaces, offering a grand entrance from those arriving by transit. While fairly straightforward in approach and materials, the building reads extremely nicely overall - especially in an area that isn’t swamped with development currently.
Few people are more into preserving Mid-Century architecture than yours truly, and I could not be happier with this outcome. The building was long past its functional life sadly, making the cost to fix up prohibitively dear, leading to this giant hole that was helping exactly no one. To add functional commercial services immediately adjacent to transit in a neighborhood that needs it is just the icing on the cake. We hope that this one moves through the CDR process quickly and this goes up ASAP, as this type of community-focused project should be popping up all across the city.
