A year ago, Priya Brown spent many weekday afternoons sitting in traffic, inching home to Northern Liberties from her job in the Navy Yard.
Since moving into the new apartments at South Philly’s converted military base in January, the 27-year-old said her daily routine has gotten much more relaxing — with far fewer brake lights. An assistant buyer at Anthropologie, Brown walks 10 minutes to her office at Urban Outfitters’ Navy Yard headquarters.
“My life is so much easier,” Brown said last week as she walked her tiny basset hound, Momo, around her building, AVE Constitution. The air was quiet, save for an occasional bird chirping and the steady hum of planes making their descent into Philadelphia International Airport.
“I’m not a city person,” added Brown, an Annapolis native who moved to Philly for work. In Northern Liberties, “I missed grass a lot.”
Brown pays about $2,400 a month for her one-bedroom, she said, and takes advantage of the free and abundant street parking, a rarity elsewhere in the city.
AVE, the national apartment brand run by Korman Communities, is calling its neighboring Navy Yard complexes, Constitution and Normandy, “Philadelphia’s newest neighborhood.”
Constitution opened late last year as the first new private-sector housing complex on the 1,200-acre property at the city’s southernmost edge. The naval base was decommissioned in the 1990s and has since become an office and laboratory hub, with more than 150 companies that employ 16,000 people.
It also includes more than 20 acres of parks and miles of walking paths, some along the Delaware River, as well as a restaurant and hotel.
Now, it is also home to a small but growing number of residents.
More than a third of the 347 units in Constitution are leased, according to Sam Korman, AVE’s director of operations. Next door at Normandy, which opened this spring, more than 20% of the 267 units are leased, according to Korman. Normandy includes unfurnished apartments for tenants, as well as furnished ones that are marketed to business travelers. Lease-ups for buildings of this size typically take about 18 months, a spokesperson for the company said.
“We are extremely pleased with the reception to AVE Navy Yard through our first few months of operations,” Korman said last month in a statement. “This past month has been our most successful for both furnished and unfurnished leasing, a positive trend that we expect to continue throughout the summer,” a busy season for rentals.
Navy Yard stakeholders eventually want the property to have 4,000 apartments, along with more retail space and a second hotel, according to its 2022 redevelopment plan.
Some Navy Yard residents love their ‘secluded spot’
As cars drove by from the Navy Yard office complexes, headed toward I-76 and I-95 on a recent afternoon, only a handful of people were out and about near the apartment buildings.
Several food couriers dropped off orders in the Normandy lobby. Nearby, in front of floor-to-ceiling windows, someone walked on the treadmill in an otherwise-empty gym. On an outdoor deck above, people could be heard splashing in the pool.
Otherwise, passersby were few.
Brown said she enjoys the suburban-esque solitude, though she’s glad more tenants are moving in. This winter, it felt like only a handful of other people lived in the building, she said, but now her floor seems like it’s almost full, making it “less spooky.”
Across the street at Normandy, resident Integra Feliciano has picked up a similar vibe.
“I have the sense that I’m definitely one of the earlier tenants,” said the 29-year-old, who moved in April and was drawn to the area’s tranquility after living near Passyunk.
Feliciano commutes to her job at a life sciences company in West Philly. She looked at apartments in Center City but couldn’t find anything as quiet and luxurious — without “ridiculously expensive” parking.
At her last apartment, she said, she paid more than $300 a month for parking, a rate that was set to hit $500 around the time she moved. Like Brown, she now parks on the street for free.
The Navy Yard is “a secluded spot, a little gem,” said Feliciano, who pays $2,510 for her one-bedroom. “I like being in proximity to the city, but I don’t like being right in it.”
The Navy Yard itself is “still up-and-coming in terms of having more restaurants and stuff,” Feliciano said, but there’s plenty to do.
In the spring, she said, she and her boyfriend bought last-minute tickets to a Sixers playoff game and walked over to Xfinity Mobile Arena. While out for a run one day, she discovered the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park.
She swims in her building’s pool whenever she can, she said, and often invites family and friends over. And she said her guests love that they don’t have to “circle the block for an hour” to find a parking spot.
“I had a friend come over, and she just parked right in front,” Feliciano said. “She said, ‘Oh, that’s it?’”
Why the first resident was drawn to AVE Navy Yard
Gokul Krishnan is glad more people are discovering the Navy Yard apartments. The 51-year-old, who works as the chief sourcing and global trade compliance officer for URBN brands, was the first person to sign a lease and move into Constitution last November.
“It feels like home,” said Krishnan, who moved to Philly from the San Francisco area. “It’s so calm.”
He enjoys taking walks around the Navy Yard, using the gym, and spending time in the building’s lounge and outdoor courtyard. The AVE staff is kind and communicative, he said, and he, too, enjoys a 10-minute walking commute to his office at the Urban Outfitters headquarters.
While he does drive or use a delivery service for groceries, he said he has walked to the Navy Yard’s Gatehouse restaurant or to the Courtyard by Marriott hotel lounge for a bite to eat.
Krishnan signed an 18-month lease, he said, and pays about $3,000 a month for his one-bedroom, plus parking in the complex’s covered garage. He may upgrade to a larger unit next year, he said. His wife plans to move from California once their son graduates high school, and she’s bringing the couple’s 6-year-old goldendoodle, Simba.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information about leasing plans.
