Manayunk Beer Garden Site Could Become 73 Apartments, Neighbors Fight Back

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's pop-up beer garden on Jamestown Avenue has become a summer fixture in Manayunk since it opened in 2020, but its days appear numbered. A developer wants to replace the site with a 73-unit apartment building rising 60 feet, and residents are organizing against it ahead of a city zoning board hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The proposal, submitted by developer Dan Greenberg and Norristown-based architecture firm Barton Associates, would require the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment to grant a use variance and a height exception, according to 6abc Philadelphia. The 106 Jamestown Avenue property carries ICMX, or Industrial Commercial Mixed-Use, zoning, which prohibits residential use by-right and forces the developer to seek Zoning Board approval, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. City filings for zoning application ZP-2026-001178 describe a 66,862-square-foot building that would trigger a mandatory Civic Design Review because it exceeds 50 dwelling units near a residential zone.

A Height Limit Meant to Protect the Neighborhood's Scale

Beyond the use question, the project runs into a local overlay that City Council enacted in 2012 to cap building heights at 38 feet around Manayunk's neighborhood core, specifically to preserve the low-rise character of the historic downtown. A 60-foot building would need a variance from that limit as well, the Inquirer's report notes. City Councilmember Curtis Jones visited the site in June to discuss the proposal directly and, per 6abc, concluded the location was not a good fit for this type of development.

“Outdoor space helps people and communities come together,” Jones said, according to the same report. Several hundred people have signed a petition asking the Zoning Board to intervene, per the outlet's account, and neighbors have asked for direct dialogue with the developer and architects before the project moves forward. Both the developer and the architecture firm did not respond to 6abc's requests for comment.

Parking and Retail Concerns Drive Opposition

Local objections center heavily on parking and the loss of ground-floor commercial space. The Manayunk Neighborhood Council's zoning committee has argued the plan falls well short of the neighborhood's preferred one-to-one parking ratio, offering just 36 spaces for 73 units, the Inquirer reported. Resident Rhiannon Smith said the project would take away viable commercial space and rezone it for residential use, and she urged the Zoning Board and local council member not to support zoning exceptions without careful consideration, per 6abc.

Smith suggested the building's bottom floor include an actual business rather than pure housing, telling 6abc she opposed turning the pop-up garden into luxury apartments that provide nothing to the neighborhood. Fellow resident Annie Schuster said she came out against the proposal after seeing its plans, while resident Franki Jupiter, who described the pop-up garden as pet-friendly, people-friendly, and pollinator-friendly, urged developers to talk with the community and determine what residents actually want.

A Site With Industrial Roots and a Temporary Lease

The Jamestown Avenue lot has a longer industrial history than its current life as a beer garden suggests. The property once served as a Reading Terminal Line coal train drop-off point where local families collected coal from bins, and the surviving historic train shed was later converted into the pop-up garden's bar, according to ManayunkMag.com. Revenue from the Manayunk pop-up helps fund the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's year-round urban greening programs, and the venue reuses plants and trees from the annual Philadelphia Flower Show, per Metro Philadelphia.

PHS signed its lease for the site in 2019 and opened the pop-up garden in September 2020 with the organizational understanding that the property would eventually be sold and redeveloped, the Inquirer reported. That lease is set to expire in December, and PHS has said the site was always understood to be temporary, according to 6abc.

Part of a Wider Pattern in Manayunk

The Jamestown Avenue fight is unfolding against a broader backdrop of rapid multi-family development across Manayunk. The Inquirer's reporting notes that several recent multi-family projects lacking ground-floor retail have won Zoning Board approval in the neighborhood despite local opposition, suggesting this case may follow a familiar pattern. Just weeks ago, Hoodline reported that developers advanced plans for an 807-unit Venice Island complex, the neighborhood's largest residential project to date, replacing the former PaperWorks mill along the canal.

Whether the Zoning Board sides with residents or with the developer, Wednesday's hearing marks a pivotal moment for the corner of Manayunk that has, for the better part of six years, hosted string lights, repurposed flower-show greenery and a bar built inside an old coal-train shed rather than an apartment tower.