Falling Up

by Amy L. Webb

Not too far from the tony hotels and grand architecture on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was, for nearly five decades, a blighted, broken neighborhood called East Falls. Old rowhomes suffered from dilapidation. Abandoned five-and-dimes became havens for drug dealers. Local taps ran dry after residents fled to other parts of the city.

That's all changing -- quickly -- at the hand of former East Falls resident-cum-developer Mark Sherman. "We're creating a village for people of all income levels," says Sherman, principal and founder of Philadelphia-based Sherman Properties. "I'd like to see this community return to the vibrancy it had in the 1950s."

Sherman's group is now completing phase one of renovations to Dobson Mills, a 260,000-square-foot, 31-building compound used during the 1800s to manufacture textiles and yarn. The project, called The Mills at East Falls, includes 60 lofts with monthly rents ranging from $1,250 to $2,500 and 150 artist studios with rents starting at $350.

Lofts and artist studios occupy the upper floors of all the buildings, while the first floors have been reserved for phase two of the plan: development of commercial space. So far, the Mills includes a yoga studio, health spa, furniture maker and several galleries. Next month, Sherman will open a new bakery cafe.

Within the next year, three new restaurants will be open in and around the Mills, including Verge, which will feature an outdoor terrace; a tap called Catfish Dolan's; and a Southern comfort restaurant called Maybellene. Eventually, Sherman hopes to build a coal-and-propane-fueled train that will run throughout the complex.

To be sure, the Mills is accessible from Chestnut Hill and Manayunk -- but it isn't right off the highway. Instead, the complex sits at the intersection of Midvale and Ridge avenues.

Before he rehabilitated sections of West Philadelphia and University City, Sherman grew up in the Schuylkill Falls housing projects. "At the time, the projects were there to help people who weren't making a tremendous amount of money," Sherman says. "But somehow it turned into a place where people fell into a black hole because the poor were so isolated. But even then, I saw great untapped potential."

Sherman estimates that 72,000 people pass by the area every day commuting to and from the city. "This is the only residential community with a river, and it's near the art museum," he says. "So it's an ideal place to live, and next year at this time it'll be an ideal place to shop and eat."

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