West Philly Residents - Your Attendance IS REQUIRED - WED FEB 15 7:00PM

[seand]

Well that might be part of the strategy of no big announcement / celebration on the part of Iron Stone. Just quietly going ahead with your business, like its no big deal (which in theory it shouldn't be), doing what you can to improve relations with your nearest neighbors, ignore the self-appointed rabble rousers. Sounds like a sensible approach to me for someone who wants to be a long term positive presence in the neighborhood, not a constant lightning rod.

The other thing is probably even for many gentrification-fretters, the Bucks Hosiery fire is reminder that you can't leave these hulking old industrial sites unused and slowly falling apart forever. Its better to get these turned around and contributing to the neighborhood instead of being a drag on it.

Leaving that building empty is not helping anyone, giving anybody jobs.

[thoth]

30 day extension for you too?

No they keep pulling junk info, like funding levels for playgrounds from last year. I said, "this isn't even remotely like what I asked for" and they just gave me a shrugging "well that's what they sent" type response. Should have known they'd intentionally fumble this. I'm filing two RTKs on Monday and this will be one, I'm done dealing with the controller's office.

[seand]

Blackwell and Butkovitz are political allies. They were the two elected city politicians who stood together in arguing for keeping the BRT's bad old arbitrary property assesment system forever. He's always been on her official ballots.

After Thommy Blackwell was ousted by Vanessa Brown as state rep when he botched his signatures, he was almst immediately offered one of those jobs in the Controller's office that comes out of the school district's budget. Now he works for Chaka Fattah.

[seand]

So as a reminder/point of clarification, while conversion to residential has been greenlighted, the councilwoman has made approval conditional on the developer keeping the commercial space on the ground floor empty for a year while she tries to find city funding and an agency to operate a senior center on the ground floor space facing 52nd St.

[daveydoo]

So as a reminder/point of clarification, while conversion to residential has been greenlighted, the councilwoman has made approval conditional on the developer keeping the commercial space on the ground floor empty for a year while she tries to find city funding and an agency to operate a senior center on the ground floor space facing 52nd St.

So if after a year she doesn't find the funding are they free to put a tenant in there?

[the_wza]

So as a reminder/point of clarification, while conversion to residential has been greenlighted, the councilwoman has made approval conditional on the developer keeping the commercial space on the ground floor empty for a year while she tries to find city funding and an agency to operate a senior center on the ground floor space facing 52nd St.

It's funny, based on that wording (not sure if that's yours or hers) it sounds like the objective is for it to be empty. She knows the building isn't move-in ready, right? Seems like now (pre-construction) is the appropriate time to seek/secure said funding, setting the goal for the opening of the senior center to coincide with the opening of the lofts. But maybe I just misread.

[seand]

Supposedly conversion/construction could take less than a year to complete and I would imagine that normally one would try to secure a retail tenant well in advance because said retail tenant would give you immediate steady income while you filled the units upstairs and also be a potential attraction to tenants. "Look there's even a restaurant/small grocery/deli right downstairs".

I'd also imagine that the sort of open floor plan you would use for retail is significantly different from a sernior daytime activities center. A lot of the talk/thinking about seniors in the neighborhood has been about housing, both as something you can raise Federal dollars and tax credits to build new with and also because it addresses at least some of the issues of seniors in the neighborhood having a permanent place in the neighborhood even when maintaining a house becomes a hassle and the housing values go up so much its worth cashing it in and passing the property tax bill on to someone else. An activities day center is a different proposition entirely, I would imagine, one with its own set of issues (ongoing funding for services, where do you park the bus you use to gather up the seniors in each day, etc.)

It doesn't sound like the idea is being driven by careful planning for whether this is the best way to provide these services but more what sort of vaguely "for the community" use can we tack onto the project in a half-thought out way, even though it might not do any good in terms of addressing people's more emotional fears of "them taking over" anyway. Or at least no better than say a retail use that also appealed to tne existing neighborhood might anyway.

I don't know. Maybe the real objective is for it to be empty on the thought that people will find something new to yell about by the time the building is full of tenants, that those tenants will likely be a lot more mixed and not exclusively "those people" and the whole senior center thing is just a way to say "I tried" as a form of political cover. The councilwoman is famously inscrutable on stuff like this.

[John Goodman]

have they started work on this yet?

[seand]

have they started work on this yet?

Well thats an interesting question. The word from Blackwell's office was that zoning was approved, though I never directly confirmed that with ZBA. Supposedly Blackwell is still looking for someone to operate a senior day center as the ground floor tenant.

No signs of work being done on the building whatsoever. And its not listed on the Iron Stone website.
Iron Stone – Real Estate Development – 215.508.2210

I've heard the developer has quietly picked up a couple of abandonned row houses in the area that they have started to rehab, as have some other folks, but on the main building itself from what I can tell - nothing.

[annie]

Apple Lofts for Sale

DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!

[John Goodman]

So the developer didn't have the balls to follow through?

I think the market can support this project, hopefully this gets going a some point

[seand]

So the developer didn't have the balls to follow through?

I think the market can support this project, hopefully this gets going a some point

Or a promise by the councilwoman to keep dragging her feet indefinitely in every possible way makes it financially impossible to follow through.

Woohoo! Giant abandonned buildings for years to come, no potential expanded customer base for new small businesses on 52nd like Rue 52.

Thank you, Jannie Blackwell.
NAI Geis Realty Group, Inc.

[annie]

After all the drama, Apple Storage building back on the market | West Philly Local

Through a real estate agent, NAI Geis Realty Group, Iron Stone is marketing the building as a “fully approved student housing/apartment project” with an asking price of $2 million.
“They have a couple of other things in the pipeline,” said real estate agent Jack Byers from NAI Geis. “They just want to see if there is any interest.”

[seand]

If someone else actually buys it, its not a bad play for Iron Stone from a business perspective. Get it through zoning but hand it off to some other developer who hasn't been forced to make a bunch of unrealistic promises about what they have to do with their private property (like hold the ground floor commercial on hold for a senior center that has no funding or plan and will never have funding or a plan).

Its the type of move that in some circumstances can feel a tad slimey, if the pledges you were asked to make ("fix my roof for me for free") were not so often egregiously excessive.

Or they are temporarily cash poor and don't want to mess with it till the councilwoman and the entire fuss has completely blown over.

From a neighborhood perspective, it sucks however.

[daveydoo]

If someone else actually buys it, its not a bad play for Iron Stone from a business perspective. Get it through zoning but hand it off to some other developer who hasn't been forced to make a bunch of unrealistic promises about what they have to do with their private property (like hold the ground floor commercial on hold for a senior center that has no funding or plan and will never have funding or a plan).

Do you think Jannie would still hold the new buyer to putting in a senior center?

[seand]

Do you think Jannie would still hold the new buyer to putting in a senior center?

Don't know. Once you have the zoning variances really the leverage is gone and the owner can do what they want within the terms of the variance. On the other hand if the councilperson has you committed to XYZ by a verbal agreement, the councilperson will feel justified denying you all routine variances in the future as "punishment". For a new owner coming in, its probably a lot easier to say, "that just doesn't fit my bottom line, I can't afford it".

Seems arbitrary and odd but its one of those weird things about the exercise of an unofficial power like "councilmatic perogative".

How much its just being short on cash and how much is frustration with the process is something only Ironstone knows.

The end result is that at best it drags out development of a long abandonned building, at worst it kills it indefinitely.

[phillydeveloper]

It's pure frustration. Cash is available but harder to push with all of the bs surrounding the zoning, community concerns, back door promises, etc.

[MariusPontmercy]

So the takeaway is that whoever buys the building next can essentially build by right and not have to jump through all the ridiculous hoops Jannie & Co. set up for Iron Stone? I guess that's a silver lining.

[seand]

So the takeaway is that whoever buys the building next can essentially build by right and not have to jump through all the ridiculous hoops Jannie & Co. set up for Iron Stone? I guess that's a silver lining.

Whoever buys it has the zoning to convert it to residential. In terms of impact on street parking, offering the lot behind the building to tenants as off-street parking is a logical and easy upsell to tenants - why wouldn't any developer do this to make the place more attractive to potential tenants.

Councilmatic Perogative is not an official power any way, Jannie may have Iron Stone's verbal commitment to hold the ground floor retail empty while she looks for non-existant funding for a senior day-center but its not part of the zoning and its much easier for a new developer (if one comes along) to say "I didn't sign on for that deal, my numbers require that the ground floor retail is generating ASAP and a deli/convenience store for residents helps me fill the apartments. People want to know they can get their eggs and Ben and Jerry's right downstairs before they sign that lease."

But its not much of a silver lining if noone buys it.

[annie]

Apple Lofts Project on the Ropes? Or Out of Gas? | NakedPhilly

Eisenstein said there was no truth to rumors the project was stalled by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s office, and said on the contrary, the councilwoman was supportive and helped developers communicate with some of her opposing constituents.
Blackwell’s office did not return numerous calls seeking comment. When we spoke with Blackwell’s zoning officer, Marty Cabry, last month, he informed us the project was still alive.
“This is all about financing,” said Eisenstein. “It’s a hard project to finance, due to it being on the outskirts of where more development is. I believe in the project and I think it changes the neighborhood for the better but [we] need to get banks and funders on board. We are getting some traction but not enough to break ground.”