New apartments at 49th and Locust streets will offer shuttle service

Starting this January, students will be enticed to move further west in Philadelphia.

After a $10 million two-year renovation, 30 of the total 137 units at the Croydon Hall Apartments, located at 49th and Locust streets, will become available for lease. To make the site more enticing for students, Croydon will also offer a shuttle service with stops at Penn and Drexel’s campuses to compensate for the distance.

Croydon Hall will offer one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments. Rents range from $550 per month for a studio to $1,405 for a three-bedroom apartment.

Amenities in the apartments include air conditioning, garbage disposers, dishwashers and access to bike storage and a fitness center. Courtyards between the main building and its wings are being modeled into gardens. The developer, Orens Brothers Real Estate, is currently working to acquire a property that would give tenants access to a parking space for an added fee.

To maintain the eight-story building’s security, Croydon will put as many as 15 security cameras in place and have someone work the front desk around the clock. After the building, still filled with apartments at the time, initially closed in the late 1990s, it sat vacant for about 15 years. It became such a popular destination with squatters that it became known as “Paradise City.” The building, built in the 1920s, was also the location of a murder in 2007.

Croydon is among many apartment buildings either currently being developed or recently opening. An additional 861 units recently became available at Chestnut Square on 32nd and Chestnut streets and apartment buildings are in the pipeline at lots on 43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue as well as at 43rd and Sansom streets.

Orens Brothers Real Estate, the current owners of the building, have yet to comment on the development.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.