The Lofts at Brewerytown
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Leasing Information

Description

• 61 affordable loft apartments in what was an abandoned Acme Foods warehouse
• 2-bedroom apartments with commanding views of the city
• Community Development Corporation meeting rooms
• Community Computer Center

2006 Pennrose received an award in recognition of its contribution in the neighborhood transformation of the Brewerytown Community

Developer
Pennrose Properties

Architect
VLBJR Architects
Paoli, PA

General Contractor
Domus, Inc.
Philadelphia, PA

Management
Pennrose Management Company

The Challenge

When Prohibition was enacted in 1919, a thriving Philadelphia brewing industry was shut down and padlocked.   In 1922, The American Stores Company demolished two breweries and erected a 570,000 square-foot 6-story reinforced concrete warehouse for its subsidiary, Acme Markets.   When Acme left the area nearly fifty years later, it left behind a neighborhood hard hit by economic depression, suburban flight and a myriad of other deteriorating influences.   Its hulking vacant facility deteriorated for nearly two decades.   When the city government deemed Brewerytown to be blighted and included it in its spring 2002 Neighborhood Transformation Initiative,   Pennrose responded with a bold plan.

The Solution

Pennrose chose to demonstrate its commitment to social responsibility and business opportunity with an innovative design for adaptively reusing the former Acme warehouse in two ways.   To contribute to the transformation of the neighborhood, we redesigned and rebuilt two separate areas of the warehouse.   In August 2005, we relocated The Pennrose Corporate Headquarters from center city Philadelphia into the newly created state-of-the-art offices in Brewerytown.   Three months later residents began moving into The Lofts at Brewerytown, an affordable housing complex of 61 unique two-bedroom loft apartments for families.    This solid six-story portion of the warehouse is now an amazing building imaginatively renovated to bring new life to a hard-pressed neighborhood.   Within The Lofts at Brewerytown, Pennrose created rent-free office space for the Brewerytown Community Development Corporation with whom it had worked closely from pre-development through development and into residency. Pennrose gave the community a fully equipped computer center. The Lofts at Brewerytown is the essential affordable housing component that maintains the balance of a mixed-income community. With Pennrose as a catalyst, Brewerytown is reestablishing itself as a desirable place in which to work and live.

This effort underscores the development team's expertise in the total rehabilitation of   an abandoned space for the purpose of revitalizing with community cooperation a neighborhood in need.   Completed in 2005, The Lofts at Brewerytown is owned, managed, and maintained by Pennrose.

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