Andrew Bank of Strong Place Partners presents his firm’s plan for the future of the old West Philly High School building during a community meeting Saturday.

The old West Philadelphia High School building will be converted into loft apartments aimed primarily at graduate students and junior faculty from nearby universities, the leading bidder told residents during a meeting Saturday.

The New York-based Strong Place Partners, whose purchase of the building will likely be approved next week, plans to build about 300 apartments in the building ranging from small studios to a few apartments as big as 1,600 square feet. The firm’s president, Andrew Bank, said the tentative design will attempt to retain much of the 100-year-old school’s existing infrastructure, including one of the school’s large theaters and its gym.

“Our intention is to preserve the history and in some way preserve the character of the high school,” said Bank, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia and whose grandmother attended West Philadelphia High School.

Bank was speaking to community members during a public meeting at the new West Philadelphia High School. Those in attendance included members of the board of the West Philadelphia High School Alumni Association.

“We would hope that the tenants would be residents of West Philadelphia,” said Alumni Association president Paula McKinney-Rainey.

But Bank said that most of the tenants, who he expects to be associated with universities, would likely be transient. None of the units will be for sale. He said no allowance would be made for subsidized housing or housing aimed at senior citizens. He did add, though, that he believes the rents would be “comparatively affordable” to other housing options in the city.

The development plan calls for the preservation of as much of the building’s historic character as possible.

The ground floor of the building will house about 15,000 square feet of retail space and include businesses “geared toward enhancing the lifestyles of the building’s residents.”

Bank said the target demographic for the project included residents in their mid 20s to mid 50s associated with the universities. The project would be the largest private residential building aimed primarily at university-associated tenants west of 47th Street.

Bank said he expected rents to start at $800-$850 per month for a studio of about 400 square feet and that new residents will likely be able to move in by 2016.

“Renovation is much more difficult than new construction,” Bank said of the lengthy construction timeline, which includes zoning changes.

The development also calls for the scaling back of the wide sidewalks along Walnut and Locust streets and a “massive improvement of the streetscape” around the building.

The project will also impact the future of the empty lot on the southwest corner of 48th and Walnut, where the Windermere Apartments stood before fire destroyed that complex in 2011. Bank said the owners of that lot have been waiting to see how the old West Philly High would be developed before they made any decisions.

Parking for the building’s projected 400 or so residents was a concern repeatedly raised by those attending Saturday’s meeting. Bank said his firm will hire a parking consultant to devise a plan. He projected that roughly 10 percent of the residents would own cars, a guess he said that is consistent with other projects he has worked on near universities. If the consultant’s number is larger, he continued, the plan will expand parking.

“Parking is a revenue source, so I have no problem adding it,” he said.

Strong Place Partners’ bid is expected to be approved during a meeting of the School Reform Commission on Nov. 15. Bank would not comment on the bid amount or the expected cost of the renovation.

Once the firm’s bid is accepted, it will negotiate the agreement of the sale with the District before developing a construction timeline and beginning the zoning process, which is when residents will have more opportunities to comment on the plan.

The old West Philadelphia High School on Walnut between 47th and 48th.

The School District of Philadelphia will be asking for input on the sale of the old West Philadelphia High School (47th and Walnut) during a public meeting Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. at the new West Philadelphia High School (4901 Chestnut St.).

The District has received bids from private contractors interested in converting the building to apartments on the upper floors and mixed uses, including commercial operations on the ground floor, according to a recent report in the Philadelphia Public School Notebook.

District officials will not talk about bid specifics, but an official told The Notebook that several of the dozen recently shuttered District properties have received competitive bids. The bids have come from private developers and charter schools interested in the properties. The District has placed a $6.5 million price tag on the old West Philadelphia High School.

The very last public input session for the Bartram’s Mile planning process will take place this Saturday (Nov. 10) at the Garden’s Coach House. Everyone is welcome to come to an engaging design workshop and help brainstorm design and programming concepts for the park and trail space. Each group will be facilitated by Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, PennPraxis, or Andropogon Associates.

Bartram’s Mile is an exciting project to convert one mile of currently vacant riverfront property into public green space and public input is essential to its success. To read more about the project, click here.

Bartram’s Mile Design Workshop
Saturday, November 10
12:00pm-3:00pm
Bartram’s Garden Coach House, 54th and Lindbergh Boulevard

A screen shot from the Philadelinquency map (see full map below).

Philadelphia has a lot of tax deadbeats. As West Philly-based journalist Patrick Kerkstra wrote, there is a “culture of non-payment” that has cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. One brand of delinquent is the landlord who allows tax bills to pile up while still charging tenants rent. Christopher Sawyer has created a helpful way to identify them.

Sawyer, an “anti-blight activist” in Kensington, has produced a very useful tool over at his site, Philadelinquency, that has taken delinquent tax records and matched them with rental property licenses to produce a database of delinquent landlords. To make this information more helpful, he has plotted all of the delinquencies on a clickable Google map. When you click on a pin you get the Office of Property Assessment account number, contact information, Licenses and Inspections history and amount owed.

As you might have guessed, no section of the city has more delinquent landlords than West Philadelphia.

Across the city more than 4,500 properties have a delinquent balance of more than $100 and 1,178 property owners owe enough in back taxes to be brought to sheriff’s sale. The total amount owed is about $13.36 million.

We’ve embedded the Philadelinquency map below. The map is movable and clickable. To see West Philly properties grab it and drag it to the right, then click the + in the upper left to zoom in to a specific area.

Be sure to keep an eye on Sawyer’s site for more future info and data crunching.

View Larger Map

A conceptual drawing of what The Cedar Works will look like when finished.

The Cedar Works, an empty warehouse at 4919 Pentridge Street, just south of Baltimore Avenue, is undergoing a major overhaul. The 15,000 square foot property, which dates back to 1910, is being converted into community-oriented work and meeting space. One of the property owners and project managers, Andy Peifer, is a long-time Cedar Park resident who lives just around the corner from the building. The project is planned to be completed by the end of this year.

Here’s what The Cedar Works looks like now.

The building has an interesting history, from being a home to a garage to a roller skating rink to an electrical equipment manufacturer. Peifer was told that at one point it was a Studebaker automobile dealership. Iron Men, Inc., a metalworking shop, was the last occupant.

When finished, the main area of The Cedar Works will include 15 to 20 artist workspaces and professional offices, ranging from 300 to 1600 sq. feet. The building will also have a community meeting space, a multi-use room for meetings, workshops, and other activities. The common area of the building will be fitted with couches, a full kitchen and bathrooms and will have access to a landscaped outdoor garden patio.

Studios cost $1/sq. foot per month and the lease allows for up to two primary users who have full access to the building. Any additional primary users will cost an additional $50/month.

To get acquainted with this project, Andy and his partner Linford Martin are inviting neighbors and friends for a Mid-Construction Preview Party on Saturday, Oct. 20, from 4 to 8 p.m. (or later). If you are interested in becoming a future tenant at The Cedar Works, you are welcome to submit an online application. For more information about The Cedar Works visit their website.

The interior space of The Cedar Works, a former warehouse, is currently undergoing renovation.

An “Available” sign now hangs on the Apple Storage building, again bringing into question the building’s future. (Photo by Mike Lyons)

Months of neighborhood drama accompanied the sale and re-zoning of the Apple Storage building to a developer who pledged to turn the hulking shell near 52nd and Baltimore into apartments. Now, six months after the plan won zoning approval, the building is back on the market.

Real estate developer Iron Stone proposed to convert the seven-story warehouse into 112 studio, one- and two bedroom apartments and retail space. The neighborhood group Cedar Park Neighbors, many business owners along Baltimore Avenue and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell supported the project. Meetings were held with neighbors who live near the building and feared their property taxes would increase as a result of the development. Iron Stone successfully navigated the often tricky zoning process.

Now the project appears to be on hold indefinitely. Continue Reading