QV History

from QV Crier - Summer 2022

by Queen Village Neighbors Association

Out and About

Going, Going … Gone?

A Queen Village landmark goes on the market. Piers 38 and 40 are listed for sale—and nominated for historic designation.

In Queen Village, a piece of Philadelphia maritime history has gone on the market: Piers 38 and 40, located on Columbus Boulevard between Queen and Christian streets. In October, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (aka PhilaPort) named the Binswanger commercial real estate firm the exclusive agent for the sale.

The 8.8-acre parcel of land houses a pair of two-story warehouses, each of which measures 180,000 square feet. Offered as a single lot, the site is zoned CMX3, which allows large-scale commercial and retail uses and multifamily residential use. According to Binswanger Senior Vice President Chris Pennington, local and national developers expressed interest in the piers. Councilman Mark Squilla’s office reports that a letter of intent to purchase the property is on record.

A potential complication for development of the site is a bid to the Philadelphia Historical Commission (PHC) for the two piers to be listed on the city’s register of historic places. The nomination cites them as “distinctive landmarks that inform the city of Philadelphia’s architectural, civic, cultural, developmental, economic, social, and visual heritage.”

Key to the historic designation is the piers’ Beaux-Arts architecture. That style was typical of the City Beautiful movement, a turn-of-the-century city planning philosophy that promoted the beautification of American cities not only for the sake of beauty but also to encourage civic pride and virtue. In Philadelphia, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was its bestknown product.

Piers 38 and 40 were constructed between 1914 and 1915 as part of a municipal program to enlarge the Port of Philadelphia. They were built as “doubledeckers”: Once the ship unloaded Philadelphia-bound cargo at the top deck, outbound cargo was loaded from the bottom. In the 1950s, the site was retrofitted to accommodate container shipping. But containerization finally rendered the piers obsolete.

Without a historic designation, the buildings could be demolished. Both are, however, structurally sound enough for redevelopment, and historic designation would not mandate height restrictions.

According to PHC Executive Director Joseph Farnham, the nomination proposing the historic designation of the piers was postponed at the request of the property owner. The nomination will be reviewed at a public meeting of the advisory Committee on Historic Designation on June 15 and at a public meeting of the Historical Commission on July 8. During the postponement, the property is treated as though it is designated as historic.

PhilaPort, an independent agency of the Commonwealth, aims for the sale to raise additional capital for expansion plans, including more warehouses near the Packer Avenue and Tioga Marine Terminals and a new Southport Auto Terminal, a deepwater berth south of the Packer Terminal. Unlike the City of Philadelphia, the agency is not required to meet typeof-use or diversity or community-benefit conditions for the property. ■