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The Westview brings housing and new retail to Mt. Airy

Every day after school when he was growing up in Mount Airy, Jared E. Pontz spent the afternoon until closing time with his mother, Leslie, at her Germantown Avenue art studio.

Developers Max Berger (left), Bob Elfant (center), and Jared Pontz (right), in front of the Westview. The complex has 5,000 square feet of retail space and 28 apartments, 17 of which are leased.
Developers Max Berger (left), Bob Elfant (center), and Jared Pontz (right), in front of the Westview. The complex has 5,000 square feet of retail space and 28 apartments, 17 of which are leased.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

Every day after school when he was growing up in Mount Airy, Jared E. Pontz spent the afternoon until closing time with his mother, Leslie, at her Germantown Avenue art studio.

The Avenue, as everyone here calls it, might have been his daily destination, but in the 1980s through the late 1990s, Pontz didn't have to share the sidewalks with many others.

That has been changing, of course, led by Mount Airy USA, the community-development corporation, and a growing number of small and mid-size developers - including Pontz and his partner, Bob Elfant, who on Oct. 2 take on a new name, Elfant/Pontz Properties.

Pontz emphasizes that they are not exclusively Mount Airy developers, and that he and Elfant are looking for opportunities elsewhere, too.

As a very big example of that, the two are partnering with Green Lane Realty Association in the conversion of the former St. Lucy's Church and School in Manayunk to residential units.

Yet both men feel a special kinship with Mount Airy: Elfant was a founding partner with Louise D'Alessandro of Elfant Wissahickon Realtors and recently handed off its presidency to Paul Walsh; Pontz, who lives in Center City with his wife and two children, grew up there.

The latest product of that kinship with Mount Airy is the Westview, a mixed-use building with 28 apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail space at 6656-62 Germantown Ave. that was completed on July 31, Pontz said.

Winner of Mount Airy USA's Project of the Year award for 2016, the Westview is perhaps the first major construction of its kind in the neighborhood in 40 years.

Expected to be in hand shortly, Pontz said, is the signed lease for the first commercial tenant at the $5 million project.

There is another ground-floor retail space, as well as a basement that likely will be used for storage, said Pontz, whose other partners on the project include Max M. Berger of MBA Equities in Narberth and Gary Jonas of HOW Properties in Conshohocken, whose firm built it.

What's more, he said, 17 of the 28 one- and two-bedroom apartments, or 60 percent, have been leased.

One-bedrooms rent for $1.75 a square foot, or $1,100 to $1,300 a month, while the two-bedroom units are $1.60 a square foot, or $1,500-plus a month.

Behind the building, tucked beneath the residential units, is off-street parking as well as dedicated space for bicycles.

The push to bring more retail businesses to the Avenue, along with apartments and for-sale housing that would create foot traffic, sits well with many residents.

"The Westview project is a game-changer for Mount Airy," said developer Ken Weinstein.

As the first new mixed-use project situated along Germantown Avenue in many years, the Westview shows that the numbers finally work for new construction, he said.

While Pontz and Weinstein both said the change did not come overnight, more developers have been drawn to Germantown Avenue because of the Westview.

"There is a lot happening here," Pontz said, listing new restaurants, shops, and a growing number of special events.

The Westview, so named because it is at Germantown Avenue and Westview Street, stands on the site of a building described as Romanesque Revival style that was built in 1904 by Ashton S. Tourison, a Mount Airy native and builder.

The old building formerly housed a kidney dialysis center that relocated to Chestnut Hill in 2012, and the institutional-investor owner didn't want it.

"We thought about single-user retail for the building, but 2012 was a tough year for commercial in Philadelphia, so our strategy changed in about 2013, and it became a mixed-use new project," Pontz said.

The building was not a city-designated historic property, and the partners had the right to demolish it, he said, "but we reached out to everyone, holding three community meetings" to get feedback on the plan.

After all, he said, "we're from Mount Airy."

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