Apartments to be built at Vietnam Palace site in Chinatown

The owner of Chinatown's Vietnam Palace plans to close the restaurant for the construction of a seven-story apartment building at the site and to reopen about a year later on the new structure's ground floor. A closing date has not yet been set.

Lau agreed to set aside two of the building's 18 apartments for lower-income renters in exchange for permission to include more units in the project than otherwise would be allowed under the area's zoning, according to Sarah Yeung, planning director for Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp.

The agreement required a variance from the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment since the proposed building — like most in densely built-up Chinatown — does not have enough street frontage to qualify for the mixed-income-housing density bonus under existing regulations, said Yeung, whose group advocated for the exception.