Vader Home Open House

Chad at the excellent 100khouse (an attempt to build a house for $100,000 in Kensington) notes that the nearby “Vader Home” rehab is having a an open house on Wednesday, June 18th, at 8 p.m. No Star Wars costumes, please.

Housing Market As Swell As Ever

A reader passed along this link to an ad for a place on Cherry Street in Old City — open house next Tuesday! — and the little bonus you get if you happen to buy it.

Seller will present to buyer as a gift a brand new Series 3 BMW at closing. And you will have a deeded parking space for your great new car!

The tipster writes, “Back in the late 80’s the same strategy involved the 190 Baby Benz.” (Hey, it’s retro and ironic!) $975,000 will get you the condo/BMW package. But chances are, if you’re buying a $975,000 condominium, you already have a few nice cars.

Old City Cherry Street

Be Sure To Look For The ‘Authentic St. Joseph’ Label

Holy Fannie Mae, Batman!

Having trouble selling your home? Why, you definitely need some sort of good-luck charm or witchcraft, like a rabbit’s foot or a spell that turns prospective buyers who decline to bid into a newt. Or you can go for that time-tested superstitious charm, the St. Joseph statue.

Or, if you really want to sell your home, you can buy the authentic St. Joseph. Yes, the item at right has been given out by New Jersey realtor Pat Ciervo, who bought a box of statues last year and (assuredly) told his sellers to bury the statue in the backyard, as is the tradition. (St. Joseph handles the intercessions for the home when you’re trying to vacate it. When you lose something, St. Anthony is the one to call. And if you are in danger of being attacked by pirates, St. Albinus of Angers gets those prayers. He’s not as busy anymore.)

But it’s Abbott Church Goods owner Daniel Castonguay who sells ‘em in individual packages, and not just to Catholics or even Christians:

“When things get bad, people get religious,” said Daniel Castonguay, who runs Abbott Church Goods on Route 38 in Cherry Hill and also operates ourfather.com. “When the real estate market gets soft, people hear about it from friends and Realtors. We’ve even had Jewish people come in for them and joke that they’ll convert if it works.”

More »

The End of Franklin Mills?

The story that’s been kicking around on Phillyblog for a while now finally hits the newspapers today, in the Northeast Times no less: Is Franklin Mills for sale? Specifically, is the Mills Corporation going to sell it to a developer who’s looking to turn it into a residential site?

We assume everything on the Internet is fake, even when it doesn’t involve Wikipedia, but the Mills Corp. official Northeast Times writer William Kenney contacted don’t comment on the rumors — “I’ve seen the blogs, and I’m not going to comment on that.” — which can only mean that, well, hey, maybe it is for sale.

This would seem like an odd move, especially since Mills Corp. once touted the Northeast Philadelphia shopping mecca as Pennsylvania’s largest tourist attraction, but the company is in the middle of an upheaval. And, hey, if you can’t build condos (or townhomes) across from a school for kids with run-ins with the law and a giant bus depot, where can you build them?

The main fun in the Times story, though, is its extensive quoting of posts on Phillyblog. For example:

The blogs Douglass was referring to are “topic” discussion threads in the “Northeast Philadelphia” and “Business” sections of the PhillyBlog site. ¶ A “blogger” identified as “robot” started the first major topic on the subject on March 1 under the heading, “franklin mills closing?” ¶ In his post, the author stated that he didn’t believe the rumor, but he was curious to know if anyone else had heard the same thing. Also, he claimed that his wife’s family considered it a done deal.

The “writer” of the Northeast Times (a “newspaper”) story goes on to “say” that, while another “thread” speculating about the “sale” of Mills has been “posted” on Phillyblog, a store in the “Steve & Barry’s chain” recently moved in to the formerly “vacant” anchor spot at the “east” end of the “mall.”

Will this be the end of the ESPN Skatepark, the movie theater John Street frequents and a giant Ben Franklin head in the center of it all? Will the white kids with baggy, low-riding jeans have to go to (gasp) Neshaminy Mall? If there’s a developer interested in the Mills site, wouldn’t it be cheaper (and more sensible) to go after the almost-vacant Knights Road shopping center just down the street? Only time will tell.

Is Franklin Mills Mall on the market? [Northeast Times]
Related editorial: Franklin forever! [Northeast Times]

Blogicized: Blogs Gone WIld

• Oh no! Frank Fitzpatrick makes an offhand joke about bloggers! An unfunny columnist doesn’t like us, guys? Oh no! Let’s get him! He’s not relevant anymore! And so forth! This is what you’re supposed to do when the mainstream press mentions blogs in a negative light, right? I lost the handbook. [Shallow Center]

• Another side of the baby seal in the Delaware: It this a sign of Philadelphia offering amnesty to seals that could have been clubbed in Canada? Developing! [Badminton Stamps]

• Milkshakes, naah, not that big of a deal. But has Wawa changed its coffee roast? [Life, Family Et Al]

• Congrats to Prep grad Jason Mulgrew, who has approximately 45 projects other than his blog in the oven right now. [Blinq]

• I’ll just pass on this rumor without comment: Did Jay-Z just buy a block of South Kensington? [Philebrity]