A developer from Long Island is lining up a major makeover for a car-heavy stretch of North Broad Street, with plans for a six-story, 100-unit apartment building topped by a rooftop pool. The project, at 639–53 N. Broad St., already has demolition permits in hand, signaling a move beyond the sales paperwork and into the early stages of construction prep. The plan calls for a mix of mostly one- and two-bedroom apartments, ground-floor commercial space, and a relatively small amount of on-site parking.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the site is owned by Bill Wolf Petroleum Corp., which picked up the property in late 2021 for roughly $6.9 million and has previously redeveloped smaller buildings in the city. The outlet reports that the proposal envisions a 72-foot, six-story building with a rooftop deck and pool, private balconies for bi-level units on the top floor, and about 4,500 square feet of bi-level commercial space fronting North Broad. The Inquirer also notes that in the last eight months alone, more than a thousand apartment permits have been filed between City Hall and the southern edge of Temple University's campus, as North Broad continues to draw developer attention.
What city permit filings show
A zoning permit from the Department of Licenses & Inspections lists Bill Wolf Petroleum Corp. as the permit holder and records a lot-line relocation across the parcels that make up the site. The city's paperwork, filed under Permit No. ZP-2022-012748, names the company along with the owner contact and appears in the public L&I file for the property. Those public records are part of the standard package developers pull together before any vertical construction can begin, and they trigger review steps tied to Philadelphia's CMX-4 zoning rules.
"I’ve learned to not get excited until there are shovels in the ground," Shalimar Thomas, executive director of North Broad Renaissance, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. Local organizations say they are open to new investment but remain wary after watching earlier plans in the area stall out. The site sits directly above SEPTA’s Broad Street Line Fairmount station, a location that developers see as a built-in transit perk.
How the project fits into a North Broad boom
The plan joins a steady flow of conversions and ground-up proposals along North Broad, ranging from university-owned properties to purpose-built apartment buildings. Hoodline's recent coverage of a Drexel conversion project and other nearby permits has underscored how that corridor has become a magnet for redevelopment interest. Conversations at City Hall earlier this year about potentially limiting residential projects near the former Hahnemann campus helped spur a rush of permit activity up and down the avenue.
What comes next
With demolition permits already issued, the project has cleared an initial hurdle, but a construction start date has not been announced. Key details, including final building permits, utility coordination, and subcontractor schedules, still need to be locked in. Neighbors and development watchers say they will be looking for visible site work and equipment on the ground before they treat this rooftop-pool vision on North Broad as a done deal.
