Permit Watch

A sign permit issued September 28 at 7133 Germantown Ave covers a marquee with animated illumination, three wall signs and a projecting sign, which is the most visible thing to happen to the Sedgwick Theater in years. Also this week: 45 apartments taking sprinklers on Germantown Ave, a change of use to a building supply store in Chestnut Hill, a Type 1 kitchen hood at Andorra, and ten make safe permits, some resolving violations five years old. 119 permits, September 21 to 28, 2026.

Nine houses permitted on the old Dodge Estate service yard in Germantown, a STEM lab and a podcast room turning up in the Simons Recreation Center rebuild, a new restaurant being plumbed at Andorra, and a Ridge Avenue guitar shop nearly finished becoming four apartments. All 157 permits issued across Northwest Philadelphia between September 14 and September 21.

Ninety-two permits across the eight Northwest Philly ZIP codes, September 8 to 14. The former Germantown High School is now permitted for 106 apartments, answering a question our very first issue could not. Plus the Sedgwick Theater restoration, 53 new units permitted in East Germantown in seven days, and a birthing center on E Johnson Street.

Seventeen permits across the eight Northwest Philadelphia ZIP codes over the Labor Day weekend, the quietest window we have logged. The rebuild of Simons Recreation Center in West Oak Lane picked up another permit on Labor Day Monday, a fire damaged mixed-use building on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill took another step back, and a make safe permit landed on a three-unit Germantown apartment building.

Sixteen new apartments on one block of East Chelten Avenue. A Germantown lot becoming nine, after neighbors lost a two-round fight to save the Dodge Estate service buildings. And the first electrician inside New Ridge Brewing since the fire. One hundred and sixty eight permits, August 27 to September 3.

A theater is being built inside the former Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church, the fire damaged brewery on Ridge Avenue has a permit to rebuild, and 93 other permits the City issued across Northwest Philadelphia last week.