A Spring Afternoon Stroll Around Brewerytown

Today I needed a break so I took a late afternoon walk from the MM Partners HQ at 2621 W. Girard Avenue around the neighborhood and down to Kelly Drive. I snapped these images along the way of the Parkway, Fairmount Park, Art Museum, Kelly Drive, Pennsylvania Avenue.

Shepard Fairey MayDay Exhibit At Deitch Project

On May 1, Shepard Fairey has an exhibit of new works opening at the Deitch Projects in NYC. Here is a link from Cool Hunting.

Cycling Rises 28% Year Over Year In NYC

This seems to be a nationwide trend, we have seen a similar trend in philadelphia and elsewhere. See full article on Infrastructurist, here are some quick highlights.

* 236,000 New Yorkers are riding bikes every day.
* 51,000 New Yorkers started biking in the just last year alone.
* One out of every 24 vehicles in motion on city streets is a bicycle.
* New Yorkers travel 1.8 million miles by bicycle every day.
* Bicycling is New York City’s fastest-growing mode of transportation.

Video Of Modular House Being Built In Brewerytown

Here is a short video we put together on the modular modern house we are building in Brewerytown off W. Girard Avenue. We will include new videos as the house nears completion. This house was pre-sold before we even broke ground.

Mural Arts Program + Shepard Fairey = New Mural In Brewerytown

Here is the official press release from Mural Arts announcing the murals Shepard Fairey will be doing in Philadelphia this Friday. One of them will be on Brewerytown at MM Partners' offices located at 2621 W. Girard Avenue. Feel free to swing by after 4.30pm this Friday if you want to watch him in action.

Big Day! Modular Boxes Delivered

For those who have been following on the MM Partners Blog or Facebook Page or Twitter, we have been building a new construction modular house at 924 N. 27th Street. After weeks of preparation the modular boxes arrived today and were set on the foundation. We are putting together a short video which will show the boxes being placed and more and will post it when it's done. In the interim enjoy these photos (the shot of the skyline is from the living room)

Shepard Fairey Mural Coming To Brewerytown

MM Partners is pleased to announce that Shepard Fairey will be painting a mural on our office building at 2621 W. Girard Avenue this Friday, April 23rd. Shepard is probably best known for his iconic Obama Hope image. We can't thank Mural Arts enough for making this happen.

He will be painting after 4pm this Friday, feel free to stop by.

Megawords Project On Kickstarter.com - Check It Out

Some of you may know about Megawords, it's a locally produced magazine featuring very cool photos of Philly and its surrounds. They are looking to raise funds on Kickstarter, it's a great magazine and worth supporting. Megawords participated in Art + Soulfood 2009 with a space at 2621 W. Girard Avenue.

Show them your support and donate some loot.

Temple Issues $150 Million In Bonds To Finance $1.2 Billion Neighborhood Development

Temple University recently sold $150 million worth of bonds to begin work on a decade long $1.2 billion dollar neighborhood redevelopment project designed to make North Broad Street a 24/7 vibrant urban area. Temple is taking a similar approach to what University of Pennsylvania undertook in University City and Columbia University did in Morningside Heights. Here is a link to a story on Philadelphia Business Journal.

Great Piece on Urban Farming For Ecnonomic Development of Cities

Here is a great article from The Infrastructurist on urban farming as a tool for urban redevelopment. As we have posted before we strongly believe small and medium scale urban farming would work great in Philadelphia as the city has lots of vacant lots which are ideal for urban farming as a way to land bank for future development, improve fresh food options in inner city neighborhoods, create jobs and community and support of the buy local movement.

The article mentions Greensgrow Farms here in Philadelphia which is an amazing operation.

Philadelphia Commercial Corridors Getting 440 More Big Belly Solar Trash Cans

Using a combination of stimulus money and city funds, Philadelphia Commercial Corridors will be getting 440 more solar powered Big Belly trash cans - for those that don't know these are the new trash cans all over Center City with built in compactors. They are great as they run on solar power, require fewer pick ups and hopefully less littering as they don't fill up like the old school trash cans. Here is hoping W. Girard Avenue in Brewerytown are getting some.

See article here from the Inquirer.

Philadelphia Parks Commissioner Calls For 300,000 New Trees

The City of Philadelphia wants to plant 300,000 trees in its goal to be the greenest city. We like this. As a small part of this initiative MM Partners is planting 14 trees this Spring along W. Girard Avenue, 1200 Block of N. Taney Street and 1300 Block of N. 29th Street in Brewerytown. We will send post photos once they are planted.

Here is a link to an article in the Inquirer about this initiative.

New Septa Trains Debut - Pretty Pretty Nice

Septa has spanky new trains that debuted today, check them out here:

Next Installment In the Temple Philadelphia Neighborhoods Series On Brewerytown

Here is the latest article in the ongoing series being written by Temple Journalism students on Brewerytown as part of the Philadelphia Neighborhoods project. This story focuses on economic development along Girard Avenue, something MM Partners strongly supports. Enjoy the photo of Aaron and Cooper who work with MM Partners.

The Hidden Costs of Non-Walkable Housing

An Urban Land Institute study in the Boston area found that:

“What we have too frequently thought is that you can get an affordable house if you drive until you qualify, but if you then overlay the costs of transportation, they get very high,’’ said Henry Cisneros, secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration and a board member at the institute, a research group based in Washington, D.C.

There is a reason walkable neighborhoods are more expensive...

Foundation Just About Done - Modular Boxes Arrive Next Week

Here is a progress photo of the house we are building at 924 N. 27th Street, the foundation will be complete in the next two days. Early next week the modular boxes will be delivered and erected on site. Stay tuned for more photos and video.

Brewerytown Clean Up Project - Philly Spring Cleanup 2010

MM is proud to have participated in cleaning up the playground/ball field at 31st and Thompson Streets in Brewerytown as part of the Philadelphia Spring Cleanup Project. Mr. James Carter of the Greater Brewerytown CDC coordinated the event and did a great job getting neighborhood residents and kids to chip in. We were blown away by the sheer number of cleanup projects throughout Brewerytown.

Sick ESPO (Steve Powers) West Philly Handrawn Map On Philebrity

Check it out on Philebrity:

Modular House Being Erected On 27th and Cambridge

This house is being erected next door to a house we are building . Cool photo of the boxes being placed yesterday.

Metro Philadelphia Article Today - "Brewerytown Next Hot Spot"

We of course are biased, so surprisingly we agree with this article in today's Philadelphia Metro that Brewerytown is a great place to live and invest. The article discusses the development along W. Girard Avenue including new retail coming like Mugshots Coffee Shop and the campaign to get a Mexican restaurant restaurant up to the avenue.

Nice quote by Mr. Roller btw.

What Is The Future of Urban Retail?

Great think piece about urban retail in the internet shopping era by Greg at Urban Direction. Here's a sample:

...I would argue that cities still have the strongest chance to keep small, diverse, and privately-owned retailers open, but it depends on their ability to understand the new market forces brought on by online shopping, and the necessity of centralizing their major retailers so as to create the critical mass of shoppers needed to provide the kind of retail we have traditionally come to expect from urban shopping. Small commercial corridors can certainly stay relevant based on the perpetual need for place-based, Internet-resilient businesses. However, downtowns and larger urban commercial corridors continue to need anchors....

Awesome Mid Century Urban Photography - Detriot

courtesy of the great blog Cool Hunting - Follow the link below for some fantastic photos of Detroit in the 1950's.

Mid-century Motor City images from Robert Frank's iconic American road trip.

Brownstoner Real Estate Blog Launching Philadelphia Version

The awesome real estate blog Brownstoner which covers real estate and the like in Brooklyn is launching in Philadelphia tomorrow. We can't wait to start following it and we suggest you do the same. Hopefully they will cover all the development taking place in Brewerytown.

Philadelphia Neighborhoods - Revitalization in Brewerytown

Here is the new installment from the Philadelphia Neighborhood Series by Temple University Journalism students. The story focuses on bringing new retail up to W. Girard Avenue with a focus on Mugshots opening at 2831 W. Girard as the catalyst to drive additional new retail.

Here is a link to the story, enjoy the video where Aaron Smith kills it. He is really using up his fifteen minutes of fame fast.

Plan Philly Chronicles Rise of Retail In Center City

Over on Plan Philly there is a great article talking about the continued retail renaissance in Center City Philadelphia which date has gone unnoticed. Here is a link to the article

This is a trend MM Partners is pushing in Brewerytown to bring interesting service oriented retail to W. Girard Avenue and are working diligently to bring businesses like Mugshots up to the Avenue. We are currently working on a Mexican Restaurant and have some other interesting retailers are in the works.