OVERVIEW

The end-product will feature Le Baobab, a long-time neighborhood restaurant with cuisine and roots from Côte d'Ivoire, that is expanding its business model into catering and shared kitchen operations to create economic mobility pathways for food entrepreneurs from the neighborhood. The project also features two units of affordable housing on the upper floors – providing additional housing choice within the neighborhood ecosystem. 

SYNOPSIS

The property will be the fresh new home of the Le Baobab, a long-established and loved restaurant in the Southwest Philadelphia community. The restaurant will occupy the ground floor with a shared kitchen in the rear to be made available to subscribed members. Members will also have access to shared cold storage facilities in the cellar.

The upper floor will house two affordable residential units – one studio and one 1-bedroom apartment at 60% AMI levels.

The renovation will preserve the existing exterior shell of the building, including the upper story bay window that is characteristic of the Woodland Avenue commercial corridor, but will demolish and rehabilitate the interior. The renovation will reopen an entryway on the 54th Street side of the building for access to the residential units and will also expand the ground floor towards the rear of the property.