The West Park Apartments towers (Photo by West Philly Local).

The city is selling two public housing towers in the West Park Apartments complex near the 46th Street El stop, renovating a third and building new low-income homes on the site.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) will use proceeds from the sale of two towers and an undisclosed amount of “increasingly valuable land” to fund the renovation of the third tower and build more modern homes (low-rise apartments and townhomes) for low-income residents, according to a statement.  Continue Reading

City Council formally approved the sale of the sprawling Provident Mutual Insurance Co. building and surrounding land on Thursday, clearing the way for the long-anticipated development of the site.

Iron Stone Real Estate Partners has been shopping its plan to develop a healthcare campus on the site in collaboration with Public Health Management Corp. and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia around to neighborhood groups and public meetings since September 2018.

Last year, the city selected the proposal, which included an approximately $10 million sale price, after a bidding process that began in 2017.  Continue Reading

Last month, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell halted a vote in City Council on the sale of the former Provident Mutual Life Insurance building to local real estate developer Iron Stone, who had proposed to convert the site at 46th and Market into a public health campus. This Thursday, Jan. 17, Iron Stone representatives will talk about the future of the site at a zoning meeting organized by the Walnut Hill Community Association.

Community members are invited to attend the meeting and voice their opinions.

The meeting will take place at the Enterprise Center (4548 Market St), beginning at 6 p.m.

The proposal to convert the Provident Mutual Insurance Co. site at 46^th and Market into a healthcare campus hit a major roadblock on Thursday when Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell halted a vote on legislation that would have allowed the city to sell the property.

The move followed a contentious public meeting in West Philly on Tuesday where several community members spoke against the proposal, which the city selected this summer after a bidding process. Criticisms included the low sale price of $10 million and a lack of transparency in the bid selection process.  Continue Reading

Residents criticized developers and city officials for a lack of transparency in the proposal to convert the city-owned Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building and surrounding land at 46^th and Market into a campus focused on mental health services and child care during a public meeting on Tuesday night.

About 125 residents gathered in the auditorium of West Philadelphia High School at 49^th and Chestnut for presentations from the developers, a city official handling the deal, and proposed tenants, which include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania and the YMCA.

The city chose that plan earlier this year after a call for proposals. The call came after a long-anticipated plan proposed by former mayor Michael Nutter to move the police headquarters and related offices to the 13-acre site was scuttled by Mayor Jim Kenney, Nutter’s successor. The police headquarters, the Medical Examiner’s office and the 6th and 9th police districts will now move into the old Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad St..

That change and the city’s subsequent choice of this new proposal caught many residents off guard.

“People aren’t mad, they’re just tired of hearing a lot of things that they didn’t have any say in,” said one resident. “The process is defective.”  Continue Reading

West Philadelphia residents are invited  to discuss the proposed development of the former Provident Mutual Life Insurance campus at 46th and Market this Tuesday, Dec. 10, at West Philadelphia High School (49th and Chestnut). The meeting has been organized by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who has expressed her concern over the way the City, which owns the 15-acre property at 4601 Market, is handling the campus’s sale and proposed development.

Iron Stone was named as a future developer of the building a few months ago after a selection process that took approximately a year. The Philadelphia-based real estate company is planning to transform the building and the surrounding land into a public health campus.  Continue Reading