The former West Pagoda Chinese takeout on the corner of Carlisle and Oxford streets was torn down during spring break to make way for a four story apartment complex with retail space.
The building will include 12 apartments and a balcony on the fourth floor with the plans showing the building rising roughly 10 feet taller than neighboring buildings, according to the City of Philadelphia. Additionally, the first floor is to be retail space.
On Aug. 21, 2013, an appeal by Michael Mattioni, a local real estate, estate planning, corporate and taxation lawyer, was approved by the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Appeals in order to construct the building, which is planned to be much taller than the one floor West Pagoda building that preceded it.
The property was bought in December for $250,000 by J.B. Richards Construction, LLC, a company with offices in Northeast Philadelphia, according to property records. The property’s 2013 estimated market value, prior to the new construction, was $30,000.
The owner of the property is Huang Hui Qiu and the licensed contractor is CRP Builders 2 LLC, according to a building permit posted at the construction site and approved by the Department of Licenses and Inspections on March 13.
Neither Qiu nor the overseeing inspector from Philadelphia L&I returned multiple calls for comment.
The architecture firm that designed the building is Harman Deutsch, which has offices located on the 600 block of 12th street.
Additionally, an attached structure is planned to be constructed adjacent to the building. This attached structure will be three stories with apartments in each of the floors including the basement, according to the City of Philadelphia website.
This construction takes place across the street from the new bar and restaurant, Masters, which is still in the process of renovating a previously abandoned building. Masters’ property estimated market value jumped from $18,000 in 2013 to $187,200 in 2014, according to property records.
The Temple News reported in February that Masters is planned to be a two-story establishment with a bar and restaurant on the first floor and a study lounge on the second floor.
Temple announced at a Board of Trustees meeting this past October that it would demolish the nearby buildings that used to house Temple Garden and the Gateway appliance store.
Marcus McCarthy can be reached at marcus.mccarthy@temple.edu or on Twitter @marcusmccarthy6.
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