Philadelphia Gas Works union rally in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia chapter of Utility Workers Union of America staged a rally Thursday morning to stop the proposed selling of city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works. Approved by Mayor Michael Nutter in March, the $1.86 billion sale to Connecticut-based energy company UIL Holdings still must be OK’d by City Council and the state Public Utility Commission.

City Councilwoman Marian Tasco, chair of the Philadelphia Gas Commission, was there to lend her support.

“I said no from the very beginning,” Tasco told a large crowd gathered outside the north end of City Hall. She added that the Nutter administration had been examining the possible sale for four years, and now “they want to give us eight weeks to look at the material and say ‘yes.’ Well, we say ‘no.’ ”

“Just say ‘no,’ ” was a common theme of the hour-long protest. Former Mayor John Street, who was in attendance as well, started off his speech with the familiar chant. He later said safety was a major concern with the selling of PGW.

“I don’t want a minimum wage, poorly trained worker coming to my house when I call and say, ‘I smell gas,’ ” he said. “People die when those decisions are made. …This is a matter of life and death.”

Street is seemingly playing up the idea that UIL Holdings, the winning bidder of PGW, would fire current PGW employees and hire contractors instead.

“[The workers] need to be professional, need to be in a union, need to be well-paid, we need to be able to trust them,” he said.

UIL Holdings and the Nutter Administration alike have repeatedly said current PGW employees’ jobs are guaranteed for a minimum of three years.

Street’s take is that “they’re campaigning.”

“A smart lawyer and a good accountant can make any deal look good,” he said. “The people who make the deal won’t be the people that implement the deal.”

He concluded his speech by referencing two apparent failed attempts at privatizing a water company and parking meters in different cities. “We don’t have to go there,” he said.

“It’s ours,” Street said. “It’s not losing money, it’s providing quality service for the people of this city. It’s not broke, why would we try to fix it?”

Nutter’s press secretary Mark McDonald wrote in a tweet that it was ironic that Street was sighted at the rally. He said Street proposed to sell PGW when he was mayor, but failed.

Street told Philadelphia Daily News City Hall reporter Sean Walsh otherwise. (Read more here.)

Joe Schulle, local firefighters union president, present for support, said PGW has proven financial stability.

Nearly 20 years ago, PGW was unsellable. Now it’s worth nearly $2 billion to sell, with the city netting a reported $400 million, he said. The "direction is right," Schulle said, but “to lose and give up an asset for [upfront money] that you’re never going to see any return afterward on … just defies logic.”

The local gas workers union president Keith Holmes claimed PGW as the city’s best asset. “Let’s take advantage of it, let’s not just throw it away and give the money to Connecticut,” he said.

He claimed jobs would be lost, customers’ bills would increase and that low-income individuals and senior citizens would suffer, too.

James Runckel, the lawyer for the Philadelphia utililty workers union, said if this sale goes through, it’s going to be a “pretty dark day for Philadelphia.”

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

West Chester shopping center sells for $35.7M

New York Life has acquired Bradford Plaza, a shopping center in West Chester, Pa., for $35.7 million.

The 161,000-square-foot center at 700 Downingtown Pike is anchored by Giant and also has Petco and Walgreen as tenants. It was 88 percent occupied at the time of sale. The 22-acre property has an undeveloped pad site that can accommodate a 4,300-square-foot structure.

The seller was not disclosed. The sale was arranged by Karen Iman and Gary Gabriel of Cushman & Wakefield.

Bradford Plaza, because it is a grocery-anchored center, was highly sought after, according to Cushman & Wakefield in a statement. The pool of potential buyers included private entities, funds and real estate investment trusts.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal