William "Billy" Procida, a North Jersey
developer-turned-financier who in the past has promoted project ideas in Camden
and Fishtown, hoped work would have started by now on 120 new apartments plus
ground-level stores at the Divine Lorraine, the badly-gutted, grafitti-marked,
vacant-for-15-years Victorian ex-hotel that looms above the gentrifying North
Broad St. corridor that links Center City to Temple U. That's what Procida told
my colleague Jennifer Lin in May, after cutting a deal with developer Eric
Blumenfeld (who has his own complex financial history) to pump $31.5 million
into the project.
And now? "We expect to close that early in the new
year. Have they announced the state grant yet?" Procida asked me. The
state grant of which he speaks is $3.5 million that Philadelphia Industrial
Development Corp. chief John Grady tells me has been approved under the
Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program for the Divine Lorraine (I wrote about
that in 2013.) "We are in the process of working with the developer and the
Commonwealth to complete the grant and sub-grant agreements necessary to
finalize the award," adds Grady. Procida also says work starts "this
month" for 56 units at the Thaddeus Stevens/Mural Arts building at nearby
1730 Mount Vernon St. (Mural Arts was approved for $1 million in RACP funds way
back in 2006.)
Why do these Philly apartment projects need taxpayer
money? "They want everything to be union," Procida told me, and that
means paying into worker retirement and pension plans which can add 10% to costs
(with the long-term social benefit of keeping old and disabled construction
workers off the streets.) Which might not be a big cost at New York prices, or
for buildings that command top sale or rental prices. But Philadelphia, Procida
says, "is still an emerging market. This isn't super luxury stuff. We’re
in some regards doing God’s work." And they're not gonna do it, at today's
rents, without a helping hand from the taxpayer.
Source: Philly.com
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