A 124-year old building in East Frankford where Sno-Caps and Raisinets were invented has been transformed into a sprawling center for social service, childcare and healthcare nonprofits.
After years of standing vacant, the three-story, 66,000-square-foot Chocolate Factory Community Hub at 2201 Margaret St. opened Thursday, Sept. 17, after a roughly two-year-long adaptive reuse project by architect ISA. Concilio, a social services organization geared toward Latino families in the region, leased 46,000 square feet of the building in August 2024. Other tenants include the Madden School childcare center; Gateway Community Action Partnership and BAYADA Home Health Care center.
“This building asked us to work with what was already there — the light, the structure, the memory of the place,” Alex Gauzza, principal at ISA, said in a statement. “The Chocolate Factory shows what’s possible when adaptive reuse isn’t just about preserving a facade, but about giving a building back to the neighborhood it was built in — this time as a home for the organizations that serve it every day.”…