Good Food Flats: A Foodie Utopia is Under Construction in Powelton Village

A new apartment facility is under construction in Powelton Village, and let’s just say the experience will cater to a very distinct type of resident.

Cross Properties announced that Good Food Flats, a 44-unit, 175-bed complex at 4030 Baring Street, will be marketed to students participating in Drexel’s Hospitality and Sports Management (HSM) program, and featuring a pop-up restaurant/entrepreneur incubator space, a food lab with a commercial kitchen and even dedicated urban garden spaces on the roof and backyard where students can grow their own fruits and veggies.

Kevin Michals, co-founder of Cross Properties, that University City has always featured cheaper “mom and pop” rentals where students can rent a room, and recently, luxury apartment towers have priced students out of quality, modern housing.

“People who are paying tuition can’t afford those,” said Michals. “We’re going to be priced at $750/month per bed. That’s slightly more expensive than the mom and pops, but professionally managed and a fraction of what the towers cost.”

Michals, whose company recently restored the former Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood into a luxury apartment community, said that while there is a natural fit with the HSM program, the concept is “broader” than Drexel: “We narrowed our focus to the foodies or food geek-type of people that appreciate talking and learning about it.”

In addition to the tricked-out food spaces, Good Food Flats will invite chefs to come to the commercial kitchen space to teach residents about the ins and outs of the craft and the business. “Take Garces and Vetri and Nick Bayer of Saxby’s,” explained Michals, “if you put them in the wayback machine when they were going to school, this would have been the place where they would love to learn and live.”

The project will be built offsite using modular construction, which Michals said is currently underway, with the aim to be ready for residents in August.