Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is often the leading hospital for children in the nation, according to U.S. News and many other rankings. It is an amazing treatment and research institution that attracts patients from all over the world and develops ground-breaking treatments and technology that are used to treat young patients all over the world, or should be. The hospital is constantly growing on its main campus in University City, occupying several acres in several buildings, and counting, along Civic Center Boulevard. But, Children’s Hospital brings its world-class care and technology to other parts of the region with outpatient clinics. One important clinic of this type, also known as a pediatric care center, is the Karabots Pediatric Care Center that has recently opened up at 48th and Market Streets in the middle of West Philadelphia.
The Karabots Pediatric Care Center is a two-storey outpatient clinic and encompasses 52,000 square feet. It is named after philanthropists Nicholas and Athena Karabots, who gave several million dollars to complete it. The clinic has 56 examination rooms and other rooms for radiology, vision and hearing testing, and a laboratory for phlebotomy, or blood work. The Karabots Center has the capacity for 45,000 patient visits a year. It replaces the Children’s Hospital outpatient clinics at 36th & Market Streets and 39th & Chestnut Streets, which have moved their operations to the Karabots Center. The clinic is set on a slight hill overlooking Market Street and underneath the Market/Frankford El. It is just two blocks from the 46th Street El Station. The building has a large, colorful glass curtain wall in front and a large lawn and a brick and stone plaza on the corner of 48th & Market, and parking on the other side of the building, on Market Street.
The new Karabots Pediatric Care Center will provide valuable services to the community. It will be used to provide world-class care to children from low-income families, often through the federally funded Medicaid program, and to children from lower middle class families, often through the federally funded Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and it will be popular with upper income families as well, who may be more likely to live in the neighborhood with this kind of facility there. Children’s Hospital has been opening these clinics all over the region, as well as, continuing to expand their large main campus on Civic Center Boulevard (one of the new buildings there will be the coolest looking hospital building in the world). The neighborhoods surrounding the Karabots Center, Walnut Hill and Mill Creek, have been experiencing significant development over the last few years. In Walnut Hill, that development includes renovation of The Croydon, an eight storey apartment building at 49th & Locust Streets that had been vacant for many years, and soon the renovation of the former West Philadelphia High School building, at 48th & Walnut Streets, into more apartments. In Mill Creek, the new development has been more extensive, practically rebuilding the neighborhood. North of Market Street, along 46th Street, the Nehemiah Homes were built in the mid-1990s and further north the Blackwell Homes have replaced the large Mill Creek housing project. Also, Mill Creek is experiencing new market rate development, including the large West Village Apartments complex at 4801 Brown Street, and a smaller renovation of a vacant warehouse at 4800 Brown into apartments, as well as, the renovation of the vacant Aspen Village Apartments, at 49th & Aspen Streets, up the street from The Croydon.
What’s more, the area around the Karabots Pediatric Care Center is becoming an important civic and institutional district for West Philadelphia and, indeed, the whole city. Across 48th Street from the Karabots Center, some vacant red-brick buildings are soon to be renovated into offices for City health agencies and just to the east of those buildings, facing 46th Street on the same campus, the large former Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building is slated to become the City’s new Police Administration Building (the police headquarters). Down the street from the Karabots Center is the new West Philadelphia High School building, at 49th & Market, and in Mill Creek the large new Lucien Blackwell Community Center is soon to be built at 47th & Brown Streets. Also, The Enterprise Center, a community empowerment group based in the former studios of WFIL (which housed the studio for American Bandstand for ten years), plans to build a large office, studio, and retail complex, called Enterprise Heights, at 46th & Market Streets. As if that isn’t enough, the City has built a large new district health center, called the New Spectrum Community Health Center at 52nd Street and Haverford Avenue, that will be opening this summer.
If you are considering buying or selling a home or investment property in the surging West Philadelphia, or anywhere else in the city, please contact me at Gabriel.gottlieb@lnf.com or check out my Long & Foster agent portal, here, or our Long & Foster Philly Center City office, here. You can, also, check out my Facebook realtor page, Gabriel G. Philly Realtor, and my twitter page, @GabrielGPhilaRE. And, you can find out more about the Karabots Pediatric Care Center on the Children’s Hospital website, here, and look at my pictures of the new Karabots Center and its neighborhood, below.
Nicholas & Athena Karabots Pediatric Care Center
Karabots Center, from the southeast corner of 48th & Market Streets
Karabots Center front view, from across 48th Street
Front of Karabots Center
Sign outside Karabots Center
Sign on the stone wall outside the Karabots Center
The lawn and glass curtain wall of the Karabots Center
The Market/Frankford El above the Karabots Center and Market Street
The El, at 48th & Market, with street signs
Looking west down Market Street
Looking east on Market Street
These red brick buildings, across 48th Street, could be renovated into City health offices
The Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building is almost across the street from the Karabots Center
46th Street El Station
The Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building, from the front on 46th Street, may become the police headquarters soon
Walnut Hill Farm Stand is being built at 46th & Market Streets
The Enterprise Center, in the former studios of WFIL and American Bandstand
Looking east down Market Street, towards Center City, where the El turns into the tunnel under the street
Site of the future Enterprise Heights, to be built by the Enterprise Center, at 46th & Market Streets
Nehemiah Homes on 46th Street, north of Market Street
The Blackwell Homes, with the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building in the background
Site of the future Lucien Blackwell Community Center, at 47th and Brown Streets
West Village Apartments at 48th and Brown Streets
Warehouse at 4800 Brown Street
Aspen Village Apartments, at 49th and Aspen Streets
New Spectrum Community Health Center at 52nd Street and Haverford Avenue
Sign announcing the New Spectrum Community Health Center
52nd Street El Station, at 52nd and Market Streets
Walnut Hill banner on Walnut Street
The new West Philadelphia High School building, at 49th & Chestnut Streets
The Croydon, under renovation, at 49th & Locust Streets
The old West Philadelphia High School building, at 48th & Walnut Streets
The Children’s Hospital main campus, on Civic Center Boulevard, in University City
New ambulatory care center, under construction on Civic Center Boulevard, will be the coolest looking hospital building in the world
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