A $425M revamp: Bartram Village in Southwest Philly will be replaced with 500+ affordable rentals

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The Philadelphia Housing Authority expects to start demolishing Bartram Village by early July, a long-awaited milestone in a $425 million plan to rebuild the distressed World War II-era complex and the surrounding area.

The work will kickstart the next phase of the project, which will bring more than 500 new units of public housing to the 22-acre site in Southwest Philadelphia. The effort is a sizable part of an ambitious initiative to remake and expand the agency’s real estate portfolio.

“I’m excited for the community because what they will inherit will be beautiful homes where anyone, regardless of their income, would choose to live,” PHA President Kelvin Jeremiah said.

Bartram Village comprises 44 aging brick buildings dating back to the 1940s, when they were used to house defense industry workers. The troubled property along Lindbergh Boulevard has sat vacant since 2025, when the last tenant moved out to make way for redevelopment.

The site was slated for demolition last fall, but PHA had not yet completed a lengthy federal review process, required because the property was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Without that review, developers could not obtain necessary city permits.

PHA is able to move forward now because Mayor Cherelle Parker has declared a public safety emergency for Bartram Village. The decision, announced last week, enabled the agency to quickly secure the approvals that were delaying construction. It followed months of advocacy sparked by squatters moving into vacant buildings and causing extensive damage to neighboring Bartram’s Garden.

PHA tried resolving the issue by increasing security, repeatedly boarding up buildings and blocking access to the site, among other interventions. None of it seemed to work, leading to the emergency declaration.

“For too long, these vacant buildings have posed serious safety risks to surrounding residents and the broader community,” Parker said in a statement. “This action clears the way to remove those hazards and replace them with new housing, new opportunity, and new investment.”

What’s next for Bartram Village?

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes the site, said she is thrilled the property is now poised for redevelopment, adding that the project will help guard against rapid gentrification.

“It’s us putting a stake in the ground that, no matter how these neighborhoods continue to change and grow, that working class people are going to still be able to live here, and live here in the best way,” Gauthier said.

But she also questions why it took so long for the mayor to sign the declaration. The cost of the repairs at Bartram’s Garden is estimated at nearly $500,000. Vandals stole copper wiring, and damaged lighting and the trail that runs through the public park.

The bill is the city’s responsibility.

“Every day that this condition was allowed to continue was a day that we were just incurring more and more damage,” Gauthier said. She said she started pushing for the emergency declaration in February, adding that the site’s project team also lobbied for it.

The announcement came as work on the first phase of the project nears completion.

On a vacant lot just south of Bartram Village, PHA is building 64 units of mixed-income rental housing. Another 514 units will replace the demolished properties. The plan, backed by a $50 million federal grant, also involves scattered sites and homeownership opportunities, bringing the total number of units to 688.

Residents relocated from Bartram Village will have a right to return to the site.