October 05, 2026
StreetView/Google Maps
The Philadelphia Warehousing & Cold Storage, shown above at 500 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd. in Northern Liberties, features a prominent mural of the American flag on its south wall that was painted by artist Meg Saligman after the 9/11 attacks. The building's new owner is reviving past efforts to convert the warehouse into apartments.
The vacant Northern Liberties warehouse adorned with a sprawling mural of the American flag has a new owner with plans to convert the property into apartments that offer views of the Delaware River and Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
The Philadelphia Warehousing & Cold Storage building, located at 500 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd., has been eyed for residential conversion since before the COVID-19 pandemic. A past proposal failed to move forward, but the property's redevelopment prospects have been reinvigorated after it was recently acquired for $3.5 million by developer Roman Ovrutsky, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
Ovrutsky, the owner of Omega Home Builders, aims to put 72 apartments in the eight-story warehouse and create another seven units in an addition on top of the building. Ovrutsky already owns an adjacent parking lot at 501 N. Front St., where he's developing a 97-unit building that will be constructed from the ground up at the site of the former boiler house at the old industrial complex.
The warehouse, long used for cold storage and ice-making, closed in 2019 and was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places two years later. The building's mural has been a beacon in Northern Liberties for 25 years. Artist Meg Saligman was commissioned to paint the 6,000-square-foot flag in the months after the 9/11 attacks. Her work, called "Our Flag Unfurled," is visible to motorists from I-95 and Christopher Columbus Boulevard.
The historical commission deemed Saligman's mural part of the structure's significance when the property was designated, and any alterations to the exterior of the property will require city approval. The lack of many windows at the warehouse adds a layer of complication to residential redevelopment. Previous owner Aspen Equities had proposed preserving the mural by having it repainted on a different warehouse in the same complex, rather than cause extensive damage to Saligman's work.
Ovrustsky's plan calls for fewer apartments than the last proposal, which had sought to create more than 100 units combined between the warehouse and a larger addition that would have put up to six floors on top of the building's roof.
Ovrutsky told the Philadelphia Business Journal he envisions adding windows to the south-facing side of the warehouse — where Saligman's mural is painted — in a way that preserves much of her work. He expects to receive building permits before the end of the year with a goal of completing the project in 2028. The 97-unit project, which will preserve the complex's smokestack, is targeted to be finished and start leasing next year.
When Aspen Equities was pursuing its conversion project at the warehouse, the developer told the historical commission the building's structural issues made it financially infeasible to pursue the conversion without a large addition on the roof. Ovrutsky's plan calls for high-end units that will be contained to a single-story that offer the building's best views.
The warehouse complex, which includes another building now used for self-storage, sits in a section of Northern Liberties that once had robust railroad infrastructure to support the neighborhood's industrial past. The eastern edge of Northern Liberties has seen a major wave of residential construction over the past decade.
Ovrutsky's other projects in the city include a 188-unit apartment complex at 1527 Callowhill St., the Salmon Square townhomes in Port Richmond and several residential projects under development in Germantown.
