MM Partners to invest $60 million in Brewerytown

Over the next two years, MM Partners plans to invest roughly $60 million in Brewerytown, a Philadelphia neighborhood where it has already invested more than $45 million in just over a decade.

The focus of MM Partners has been across five blocks in the heart of Brewerytown where it has already amassed more than 50 residential, retail and mixed-use properties and created a critical mass that is helping to reshape and revitalize the neighborhood.

Some of the projects MM Partners is working on include:

    The Braverman Building, which is currently under construction at Girard Avenue and Taney St. and is expected to be completed next spring. The project involves 16 residential units and two retail spaces.

    Girard27 is a new development at 27th Street and Girard Avenue and will include 15,000 square feet of retail, 68 apartments, 60 parking spaces, and 10 townhouses. MM Partners is joint venturing with ADCO American Development on the project and expects to break ground in the spring.

    The Hat Shop at 2841-43 W. Girard Ave., an existing building, will have four apartments and five retail spaces.

    A.F. Bernot Dye Works, a 75,000-square-foot building at 1626-44 Fairmount Ave. will be converted into 18 loft apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail. It is under construction and scheduled to be completed next spring.

Close to Fairmount Park and the Philadelphia Museum of Art and with good access to public transportation, other developers have taken a liking to Brewerytown and done projects there but the neighborhood has become somewhat of a passion for MM Partners. The inroads MM Parters has so far made in helping to transform the neighborhood underscores how some small developers can have a big impact on a community.

Though the Philadelphia real estate firm, which was formed by David Waxman, Jacob Roller and Aaron Smith, has been doing projects in Brewerytown since 2001, it wasn't until the throes of the recession in 2008 that it solidified its commitment to the neighborhood.

"We decided that we really should go all in here," Waxman said.

Unlike many in the real estate business at the time, MM Partners was on solid footing during the financial crisis. That position gave it the confidence to go all in and the time to formulate a plan for how it would proceed.

"We kept our heads down, methodically built and created an environment that projects could get done," Waxman said.

Concentrating on a single neighborhood also enabled MM Partners the ability to have its work feed off of itself. The partners figured new development could enhance the value of the projects it had already completed as well as attempt to control what got built in and around its properties.

While renovating existing residential buildings and constructing others from the ground up was a big part of its strategy, MM Partners decided retail would also become a focus. It wouldn't wait for retail to organically follow roofs but would force the issue by concentrating on West Girard Avenue and attracting new retailers to it. So far, it has brought about a dozen new businesses to the area.

"The retail corridor is very important to us," Waxman said.

MM Partners also uses another holistic tact to bolster Brewerytown. It organizes community events under its "Brewerytown Living" moniker as well as finances murals and other public art installations throughout the neighborhood.

"I think we've set the tone and feel up here," Roller said.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal