Germantown/West Oak Lane- What is the draw?

[Jimmy O'Connor]

I have had a growing number of investors who have previously only bought South Philly start migrating up towards the NW of Philly towards Germantown, West Oak Lane, and Mount Airy. 

Reaching out to investors to gain insight onto the draw of those specific areas. Is it because of the lack of competition? If it the price point? Are you buying and holding or flipping?

Any insight or comments would be great!

[Eleena de Lisser]

@Jimmy O'Connor Yes, NW Philly has tons of opportunity and plenty of value. If you've never been to this neck of the woods, you need to come by and drive around. Germantown and Mt. Airy have a mix of housing stock including extremely large Victorian houses, medium-sized twin homes and small row homes. Proximity to Rt. 1, Lincoln Drive, and several Septa regional rail stations make both neighborhoods an easy commute to Center City. There's also a lot of greenery and trees surrounding many parts of both neighborhoods with the Wissahickon and Awbury Arboretum nearby. 

Developer Ken Weinstein of PhillyOfficeRetail has been leading the way and making a ton of investment in the area. He's also paying it forward through his Jumpstart Germantown program by offering educational workshops for newbie real estate investors. (I'm an alum of the Jumpstart program and have witnessed first hand what Ken and his team have been doing in Germantown/Mt. Airy for several years, so I'm a fan of his.) 

Walt King, another investor who graduated from Ken's Jumpstart program about two years ago, acquired an abandoned hardware store location that had sat vacant in Germantown for decades and recently opened it up as the newest location of . Ken provided the financing for that redevelopment project. 

Ken's latest project is at Wayne Junction. It's a $20 million project that will consist of new multifamily, office, coworking space, a craft brewery, and restaurants. Other developers who are also in the NW Philly area are  and . 

Other info and resources:

Germantown's Wikipedia page

Germantown United CDC

Mt. Airy's  Wikipedia page