A 170-unit apartment project is moving forward in Port Richmond after its developer locked down $35.8 million in construction financing. Riverwards Group is building Somerset Station's second phase, adding studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms with garage parking to a site that's already home to a completed first phase of the same development.
The financing package includes a $19.9 million senior construction loan from Silver Heights Capital and $15.9 million in C-PACE debt from Nuveen Green Capital, according to Commercial Observer. Riverwards Group is also putting in $10 million of its own equity to round out the deal, the outlet reports. The project sits at 2202 East Somerset Street, about four miles northeast of Downtown Philadelphia, per the same account, though a separate Bisnow report on the project's earlier phase listed the address as 2200 East Somerset Street.
Urban Renewal Builders will serve as general contractor on the build, which is slated for delivery in early 2028, Commercial Observer notes. The second phase will bring 76 studios, 38 one-bedroom apartments and 56 two-bedroom units, along with on-site garage parking, rounding out a project that PHILADELPHIA.Today describes as adding 170 total homes to the neighborhood.
A Second Act for Somerset Station
Somerset Station's second phase doesn't exist in a vacuum — it's part of a larger master-planned community that shares its site with a completed first phase. That earlier phase, built with 220 apartments according to Commercial Observer, was sold outright to the Philadelphia Housing Authority in May 2025 for $58.1 million, a sale also confirmed by the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Not every account of that first phase lines up neatly. The Philadelphia Tribune described the Somerset Station Apartments as holding 187 residential units, plus 11 adjacent townhomes with three units each — a different tally than the 220-unit figure cited elsewhere. Neither the exact unit count nor the discrepancy has been resolved in available reporting.
Financing Reflects a Slower Building Climate
The deal lands at a moment when new apartment construction across Philadelphia has been notably sluggish. The city issued its fewest residential building permits in 11 years in 2024, according to D2 Capital Advisors analyst Jack Cortese, as cited by Commercial Observer. First-quarter multifamily deliveries across Greater Philadelphia in 2026 fell to their lowest level in several years, per Northmarq.
Northmarq's analysis projects roughly 7,000 multifamily units will be completed across the Philadelphia market in 2026, with urban projects accounting for close to three-quarters of that total. The same report notes that Greater Philadelphia employers added roughly 5,000 jobs year over year entering 2026, with healthcare remaining the primary source of housing demand, even as first-quarter deal count outpaced the same period in 2025 despite a decline in overall dollar volume.
Riverwards Group managing partner Mo Rushdy has pointed to the broader value of building in neighborhoods that haven't seen much historical development, saying it can help keep rents in check, according to PHILADELPHIA.Today's reporting on the project. Port Richmond, long a working-class pocket of Northeast Philadelphia, is now positioned to absorb 170 new apartments as part of that strategy.
