North Philly development will bring 129 affordable rentals to Temple University area

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A New York developer is working to bring a 129-unit affordable apartment building to 11th and Berks streets in North Philadelphia, directly across from Temple University’s campus.

The six-story project from Jonathan Rose Companies represents the final phase of a yearslong effort to redevelop the site of Norris Homes, a traditional public housing complex that was demolished between 2011 and 2019.

This is the company’s third development in the area. In 2021, it completed work on NC Five, a mixed-income project on West Berks Street overseen by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. The company is also behind Paseo Verde, a mixed-use development near SEPTA’s Temple University Station.

The latest project is another partnership with PHA, which owns the land and will contribute capital dollars and subsidies that will keep rents affordable. No one at the site will pay more than 30% of their monthly income.

“In that area, we saw a lot of increasing market rate activity, especially around student housing. And we put a fork in the road and said that we wanted to maintain our assets in the neighborhood, essentially because we wanted to make sure to maintain affordability,” said PHA President Kelvin Jeremiah.

The $68 million development is part of an ambitious plan to remake and expand PHA’s real estate portfolio. The project is primarily backed by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, which will keep the units affordable for decades. In exchange for the subsidy, these apartments will be offered to households earning between 20% and 60% of the area median income, a measure that includes places outside of Philadelphia.

For a one-person household, that translates to earning between roughly $17,000 and $51,000 a year.

The building is expected to have 60 one-bedroom apartments, 60 two-bedroom apartments and nine three-bedroom apartments. It will also contain a community room, fitness center and other shared amenities on the ground level.

Rental and homeownership opportunities

On the same site, the housing authority plans to develop 15 affordable townhomes, which will be sold through the city’s Turn the Key program. There will also be a new basketball court and playground.

Homes built through the program start at $280,000, but buyers can obtain up to $75,000 in mortgage buydown assistance, which is often paired with funding from Philly First Home to further bring down the sale price.

Turn the Key participants typically pay around $1,400 a month for a three-bedroom house, which is considerably less than the median rent for a similar apartment.

“There are people at Temple, who work at Temple, who might want to be able to purchase a home,” Jeremiah said.

When everything is completed, the site will have 446 rental homeownership units — triple the total that comprised Norris Homes. Roughly two-thirds of the units were built across five phases between 2014 and 2021.

The work also included the construction of a new community center. The one it replaced will be demolished during the final phase of the project.

Construction on the apartment building is expected to start early next year and take 18–24 months to complete. Work on the homeownership units is slated to get underway before the end of 2026.