Spring Check-in Along the Manayunk Canal Towpath
We stroll a 200-year-old piece of infrastructure along Manayunk's changing Main Street
Spring has sprung, the Phillies are already inducing cardiac issues, and we are bursting out of our winter hibernation, nearly desperate to get out of the damn house. A dose of sunshine and some newly budded trees are just what the doctor ordered this time of year - and we mean literally. Since we hadn’t been to Manayunk in a minute, we decided to traipse our way along the Manayunk Canal Towpath a stone’s throw from the Schuylkill River. And wouldn’t you know it, there just happens to be several major projects in the works right along this stretch. Funny how that happens!
And while the path is indeed lovely, there is plenty just off the trail that caught our eye, too. We’re going to start at the western-most project, 4436R Main St., which mostly sits on Venice Island where an auto detailing shop and parking once ruled. This project from ROCK Urban Management and designed by JKRP has gone through many design iterations over the years, finally settling on 181 units across the two residential buildings. These will be connected to a two-story building along Main St. that will also serve as the parking entrance to the complex. While work hasn’t started yet, recent zoning permits and some legislation from December indicate we’ll see this moving ahead soon in all likelihood.
We next jump to two side-by-side projects at 4045-61 Main St. and 11 Shurs Ln., just a block or so past the end of the towpath’s eastern terminus. The site is currently a collection of historic industrial buildings that were once a wool dyeing plant, but the flooding from Hurricane Ida decimated the Manayunk waterfront, including the structural stability of these buildings. As such, the company sold a majority of the block to Urban Conversions, who are working with CBP Architects to bring a mostly new construction build. 163 units and 162 parking spaces will join the fold, while also utilizing a tiny portion of the existing facades. Similarly at 11 Shurs, Boyding Smith will develop the site, also reutilizing a portion of the existing facade materials. The rendering from DesignBlendz shows a 42-unit proposal, so we expect this block to be much busier soon - though TBD on when.
Right across the street from these 205 new units will be the reinvention of a historical building which dates back to the 1800s. Another casualty of Ida, several rowhomes were damaged next to 4050 Main St., but the two-story stone structure you see today was able to stick around. And while you may have anticipated some mixed-use action here, this will actually serve as the new homebase for Citylight Church, with Bright Common handling the updates to the building.
Finally, we head to 3900 Main St., which is a tree-lined surface parking lot. While we somehow did not get a photograph, it appeared some sort of staging was taking place, perhaps in anticipation of construction? After numerous iterations prior to a previously proposed three-building concept, it appears plans have changed again. 115 units will rise across two building, along with a 46-vehicle garage. The plans from SgRA look pretty darn good, with a public path circling the site and offering river access.
Throw on some classic Levi’s for the walk, because that’s 501 units coming your way along just this stretch. Main Street’s activity can begin to taper out as one continues eastward from the commercial corridor, so we hope that these projects offer a little activity for these few blocks.
But that won’t come from much ground floor commercial activity, as these projects are well within the flood zone here. As such, much of the first floor will be taken up by parking, with much less commercial space than one would normally anticipate for a walkable, retail-heavy area. While certainly not something we’d want here, we understand that if one is to build this close to a river, one should try to minimize the impacts on those who could otherwise live or work here. With past evacuations still embedded in the mind of the neighbors, we hope that a future flood won’t wipe out this next chapter in Manayunk’s riverfront history.