Harrowgate affordable housing project will transform industrial lot

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Construction is underway on Sepviva Lofts, a 51-unit affordable housing development set to rise on a long-vacant industrial lot in the Harrowgate section of North Philadelphia, not far from the Tioga Station of the Market-Frankford L.

The $20 million project is Odin Properties’ latest investment in the working-class neighborhood. It’s backed by low-income housing tax credits from the federal government, which ensures the development will remain affordable for decades.

“There continues to be demand from renters. So as that demand continues, we’ll meet it with new projects,” CEO Philip Balderston said during a recent interview.

Most of Odin’s developments in the area are adaptive reuse projects that repurposed vacant industrial buildings, largely for workforce housing. That includes Collins Lofts, which transformed a historic textile mill into an 86-unit apartment building.

The city-owned parcel the company bought for Sepviva Lofts has sat empty for about two decades. The four-story development, which includes 44 parking spaces, will be the first structure on the site since the building that housed the Penn Galvanizing Company was demolished.

The project, at 2201 E. Tioga St., sits in a disjointed corner of the city between Frankford and Aramingo avenues, where the community soundtrack still features the instruments of industry, including an active equipment manufacturer across the street.

“As we were doing development in the neighborhood, it just became clear to us that we had to figure out something to do with this big empty lot,” Balderston said.

The property will offer a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units. The vast majority of them will be affordable to households earning at or below 50% of the area median income, or AMI, which translates to $59,700 a year for a family of four.

Six units will be deeply affordable, available for families earning at or below 20% of AMI, a data point that includes places outside of Philadelphia.

The city’s median annual household income is now $60,302, according to Pew.

The units will remain affordable for at least the next 40 years, thanks to deed restrictions baked into the tax credits secured for the development.

Construction is expected to take 16 months.

Over the last decade, the Harrowgate area has seen fairly steady investment from private developers despite its proximity to Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s opioid crisis. Most of the projects have been either residential or rooted in creating a community asset of some kind.

Odin Properties, which also operates a portfolio of low-income apartment buildings, started developing in the area about five years ago. In May, the company cut the ribbon on Kings Highway Apartments, a group of properties the company renovated along Frankford Avenue in partnership with the city and the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

“You’ve got great access to highways, you’ve got the Tioga train stop,” Balderston said. “And so for workforce housing folks that want to live kind of close to Center City, this is still a great option.”