Manayunk : Development News

Although it was once an economically booming section of Philadelphia's Manayunk neighborhood, the thin strip of land known as Venice Island, which sits between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River, is today something of a desolate place. And yet according to representatives from the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) and the Manayunk Development Corporation (MDC), things are about to change on Venice Island, thanks to a $45 million improvement project that is being paid for by the PWD, and that will transform the now-crumbling Venice Island Recreation Center into a place where creativity, the arts, and good old fashioned child's play will be taken very seriously.

According to Kay Sykora of Destination Schuylkill River, the project to improve and partially remake the recreation center came about due to the fact that "the Water Department is (federally) mandated to rectify a situation which currently allows sewage to get dumped into the river. So they're building a tank." But as Sykora explains, "the community wasn't wildly enthusiastic about having a (sewage) tank," and so the two organizations began discussing ways in which the PWD could contribute to the community. A vastly improved recreation center was the compromise they settled on.

A 250-seat performing arts theater will likely be the jewel of the island's new recreation center, which will also house a multi-purpose recreation building where community meetings and after-school events for children will be held. The area will also house athletic fields; a kid's spray pool; small stations that will educate visitors about rainwater recycling; an all-green pumping station; and a 25,000-square-foot park that's being designed by the Manayunk-based Andropogon, an ecological landscape architecture firm. "All of this," says Sykora, "because we'll have a tank."

The project is expected to break ground this July.

Source: Kay Sykora, Destination Schuylkill River
Writer: Dan Eldridge

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or being renovated, a park in the works or even a cool new house being built in the neighborhood? Please send your Development News tips here.

With multiple local train stops, boutiques, restaurants and entertainment all within walking distance, Manayunk seems to have everything a walk-happy city resident could want. So why does it seem everyone in this Northwest Philadelphia nightlife destination drives? Turns out, the neighborhood was missing one important necessity: a nearby grocery store. This week marked the opening of Main Street Market, a full-service corner grocery providing 'Yunkers access to local coffee, meats and cheeses, and more upscale products than you are likely to find at your average city bodega. Owner Rob Nydick says his inventory walks a fine line.

"We realize there is a very wide demographic in Manayunk, from young professionals to people who have been living there their entire lives so we didn't want to alienate or exclude any of those demographics," says Nydick. "We do have some higher end stuff, imported products, some higher end cheeses. But we also have groceries and staple items. We didn't want to pigeonhole ourselves as being a gourmet shop or a quick stop, we wanted to be as well-rounded as possible."

Nydick and business partner Richard Rivera are no stranger to food sales in Manayunk. The pair own Belvedere Restaurant Group, the company responsible for Terrace Tap Room, Agiato and Agiato Bread Company, all in the Manayunk area. Like many Manayunk properties, the building at 4345 Main Street used to be a retail store. Now, the L-shaped space utilizes two entrances and bifurcates the deli counter from the dry goods, creating an easy flow for foot traffic.

"The building allows us to have entrances on two streets, which gives us great visibility," says Nydick. "There aren't many buildings on Main Street that are that size and that shape so it was a really good fit for us."

Source: Rob Nydick, Main Street Market
Writer: John Steele

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey announced last Tuesday that Pennsylvania would receive $47 million in federal transit and infrastructure grants as part of the Federal Transit Administration's State of Good Repair program. As SEPTA updated its hybrid bus fleet two years ago, the lion's share of the funding went to Pittsburgh's Allegheny County Port Authority for a clean diesel fleet of their own. But SEPTA didn't come away empty handed, receiving $8.1 million for two infrastructure improvements a long time coming.

The first grant will revamp SEPTA's Parkside Bus Loop, helping reconnect this West Philly neighborhood. But the second, more universal improvement will aid in future upgrades. Using $6.4 million, SEPTA will install an asset management system to aid in record-keeping as many of Philadelphia's transit assets come up for repairs.

"A lot of our infrastructure dates back to the early 1900's and were taken over from other private companies," says SEPTA CFO Richard Burnfield. "What the FTA was trying to focus on is knowing what you have out there in the field before you can make an assessment as to what your overall needs are, coming up with a plan for when things should be replaced."

The system will help SEPTA keep better records so when funding is available, the authority can make a more organized, more compelling case for further federal dollars as the fleet is upgraded.

"Right now, we do a very good job of managing our assets so while the records are not as computerized as we'd like them to be, we have so much knowledge within our engineering staff that I feel we make excellent decisions," says Burnfield. "But I think this will help us going forward so we can do a second check on things as our staff reaches retirement."

Source: Richard Burnfield, SEPTA
Writer: John Steele

In science fiction novels and books about the future, a few technologies are boilerplate: flying cars, meals in pill form and the ability to teleport instantly from place to place. National commuter rail company Amtrak took another step toward teleportation on Tuesday with its announcement of a high-speed rail vision plan. In Tuesday's news conference from University City's 30th Street Station, with Governor Ed Rendell on hand, Amtrak officials laid out their goal to create a line with average speeds well over 130 mph, saving passengers between one and two hours on average.

"Amtrak is putting forward a bold vision of a realistic and attainable future that can revolutionize transportation, travel patterns and economic development in the Northeast for generations," says Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman.

The plan, entitled A Vision for High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor, proposes a full build-out to be completed by 2040. Its construction, Amtrak says, would create more than 40,000 full-time jobs annually over a 25-year period, building new track, tunnels, bridges, stations, and other infrastructure. Predictably, the cost for such a project is high, $4.7 billion annually over 25 years. But Amtrak's feasibility studies peg the Northeast as a "mega-region" capable of drawing the type of rail traffic to make such an investment profitable. And with some premier legislative voices like New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg and Massachusetts' John Kerry already voicing their support, we may be teleporting out of 30th Street Station sooner than we think.

"Amtrak's High Speed Rail plan will create jobs, cut pollution and help us move towards a modern and reliable transportation system network in the Northeast," said Kerry in a recent statement. "As countries around the world continue to build out their transportation systems, we
cannot afford to fall further behind. This is an important down payment on the massive commitment necessary to bridge our infrastructure gap." 

Source: Joseph Boardman, Amtrak
Writer: John Steele

When former Library of Congress researcher Ann Tetreault decided to open a book store in Manayunk, she knew she would have to create an environment people can't get at Borders or on the internet. Tetreault created the Spiral Bookcase (112 Cotton St., Philadelphia), a new take on the neighborhood book store, where she is currently featuring a collection of rare and out-of-print books from the 19th and 20th century. When she and her fiance bought their first house, they fell in love with the Manayunk neighborhood and wanted the Spiral Bookcase to play on their varied literary interests, as well as a love for their new-found neighborhood.

"Since we both have different backgrounds--he did electrical engineering and I did the arts--the spiral was common to them both. From science and math to the arts and religion," says Tetreault. "But also Manayunk is the coming together of a lot of different people from locals to students to people from the suburbs who come and visit and we want to be inclusive to everyone there, allowing them to share their love of books."

Tetreault hopes to offer a neighborhood feel by expanding her hours, creating book clubs and participating in community events like last Saturday's EcoArts Fest. While a bookstore may seem like an old-fashioned idea in today's world, Tetreault believes that the feeling of holding a book in your hand is something that will never go away. It is that joy of first cracking a book that Tetreault hopes to bring to Manayunk.

"If you sit down with your kid with a Kindle, you lose that intimacy of having the child flip the pages and have that kind of closeness," says Tetreault. "It is a different experience browsing a selection of books than knowing what you want and going online and getting it. You can't recreate the bookstore experience with an online store."

Source: Ann Tetreault, The Spiral Bookcase
Writer: John Steele