Northern Liberties Flag Warehouse to Become 79 Apartments

PHILADELPHIA — The Northern Liberties warehouse wearing a giant American flag, a familiar sight to anyone who has driven I-95 or Columbus Boulevard, is finally being converted into apartments.

Developer Roman Ovrutsky paid $3.15 million for the historic building at 500 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd., the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. His plan calls for 79 apartments, with 72 inside the existing eight-story warehouse and seven more in a new ninth-floor addition. He expects the project could be completed by mid-2028.

The former Philadelphia Warehousing and Cold Storage Company building dates to the turn of the 20th century and closed in 2019. It was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 2021 after years of stalled redevelopment proposals.

The building is best known for its south wall. Artist Meg Saligman painted the 6,000-square-foot “Our Flag Unfurled” mural in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Meant to be temporary, it became one of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s most visible works.

Ovrutsky, who owns Omega Home Builders, is betting the building’s industrial character will set it apart in a crowded Northern Liberties rental market. “Our advantage is having that industrial feel, which makes it a little unique with beams and bricks exposed. It’s more of a Philly style,” he told the Business Journal.

He also owns an adjacent parking lot at 501 N. Front St., where he is developing a separate 97-unit building on the site of the complex’s former boiler house. “The view of the river, the bridge and the city is going to be just phenomenal,” he said of the warehouse project.