Northwest Philadelphia developer Ken Weinstein sees an appetite for small working spaces in the city’s neighborhoods.

It’s for that reason that he wants to convert and expand the Olympian, an old industrial and office building on Germantown Avenue in Nicetown, into a towering space for nonprofits, start-ups, artists, and service providers, writes Jake Blumgart for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

“Everyone talks about the softness in the office market right now, and that’s certainly a reality,” said Weinstein, president of Philly Office Retail. “But we’re finding that it doesn’t exist as much with small offices as it does with large offices, and it doesn’t exist as much in the neighborhoods outside of Center City.”

The Olympian is a seven-story building with an annex on the back that once supported the trucks of a shipping company. It hasn’t been substantially reinvested in for decades.

Weinstein takes inspiration from the Bok Building in South Philadelphia, the redevelopment of a former public high school into a popular warren of small businesses and studios.

His goal is to bring 115 “flex spaces” to the Olympian, which could be used for anything from art studios or yoga practices to small nonprofits and tech startups. 

Read more about Ken Weinstein’s vision to transform the Olympian and how residents feel about the possibilities at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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