Mayor Kenney wants Washington to take another look at
renovation plans for the old Family Court building after they were rejected by
federal officials.
Kenney has written to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell,
asking to meet with her after a subsidiary agency's decision not to qualify the
project for tax breaks under a historic preservation program.
The request comes as the developer Peebles Corp.
approaches its deadline to have permits and funding in place to convert the
city-owned building at 1801 Vine St. into a hotel about two years after it was
awarded the job.
"The mayor has reached out to the Secretary of the
Interior," Kenney spokeswoman Ajeenah Amir said in an email Wednesday.
"The request is under consideration."
Interior Department spokeswoman Leah Duran said that
Kenney's letter had been received and that the department would respond
directly to the mayor.
The Interior Department oversees the National Park
Service, which ruled in May that Peebles' plan for the 75-year-old building
would "severely downgrade" the structure's historic character. That
decision disqualified the project from getting support through the Federal
Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program.
City officials described the renovation as a vital step
toward further enlivening the Benjamin Franklin Parkway when Peebles was
awarded the project in 2014 after a competitive bidding process.
The Coral Gables, Fla.-based developer's $85 million plan
for the vacant Beaux Arts court building envisioned 199 guest rooms, a
3,500-square-foot ballroom, meeting and board rooms, a spa and fitness center,
and a restaurant and bar.
The bid originally called for the building to be
developed as part of the Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, which operates
the Monaco and Palomar hotels here. But Kimpton spokeswoman Kristin Huxta
Bradley said the company never formalized an agreement with Peebles for the
property and has no connection to the proposal.
Peebles has until the end of November to secure its
building permits and the tax credits under its deal with the city, said
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. president John Grady.
The company is "actively pursuing all channels to
secure the necessary approvals to move this project forward," Peebles
spokeswoman Nicole D. Goldberg said in an email.
The tax credit would knock $14.6 million off the
project's development costs, according to Howard M. Pollman, a spokesman for
Pennsylvania's State Historic Preservation Office.
The Preservation Office administers the tax-credit
program with the National Park Service, accepting applications and recommending
to the federal agency whether to certify projects as eligible.
Preservation Office staff recommended certification for
Peebles' plan in October 2015, but the Park Service rejected the developer's
application on grounds that it would demolish or reconfigure too much of the
building's interior.
Preservation Office executive director James M. Vaughan
argued in a March letter appealing the Park Service decision that the second-
and third-floor areas where Peebles planned major alterations were
"secondary and utilitarian spaces" that need not be protected.
But the Park Service's chief appeals officer for cultural
resources, John A. Burns, rejected that argument in a May response.
"The decision to rehabilitate this historic building
as a hotel is likely an appropriate new use," he wrote. "However, the
specific program outlined in this proposal is too aggressive for the
structure."
Andrew Benioff, a hotel specialist at the Llenrock Group
commercial real estate consultancy in Philadelphia, said the pushback from the
Park Service put Peebles in a bind.
It will be difficult to adapt what was built as a
courthouse into a hotel with sufficient guest rooms without big changes to its
interior layout, but those changes are keeping it from getting the assistance
it needs to make the project viable, he said.
"If you don't have tax credits to develop that into
a hotel, I don't think it's ever becoming a hotel," Benioff said.
Source: Philly.com
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