New multi-use platform coming to Philadelphia City Hall courtyard

Live performances may be coming to a new stage in the courtyard at Philadephia City Hall, thanks to a grant from an airline serving the city.

Southwest Airlines is providing the $100,000 grant and another $100,000 in consulting services as part of a program designed to help cities that the carrier serves. Alan Urek, deputy commissioner for planning at the city's Department of Public Property, says they want to improve on the temporary stage that's been in the City Hall courtyard over the summer.

Philadelphia’s $730M meetings & convention year

From craft brewers and chemistry professionals to architects and speech, language and hearing professionals, the conventions and groups booked by the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau gave the city a robust meetings-and-conventions calendar and a huge economic boost.

Together the conventions PHLCVB brought to the Pennsylvania Convention Center generated $730 million in economic impact for Philadelphia.

Electricians boss Dougherty dodges racketeering suit - for now, at least

A nonunion electrical contractor who hit labor leader John J. Dougherty with a racketeering lawsuit after a caught-on-video job-site fistfight this year has quietly withdrawn his federal court claim.

But lawyers for Joshua Keesee, 37, said Wednesday that they intend to refile if they can find more evidence to bolster their case.

"We are anxious to strengthen our RICO claim against Mr. Dougherty," said lawyer Clifford Haines. "That's lawyer talk for: We're looking for more victims who are willing to come forward and say, 'Mr. Dougherty and his union have intimidated me, too.' "

Dougherty was named as a defendant in the case along with Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

PRA inks deal with Philadelphia firm for Eastwick planning study

It’s been one year since the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) gave the Eastwick community and environmental advocates new hope. On a rainy afternoon, two days before Christmas of 2015, the Redevelopment Authority's board voted unanimously to officially end the largest urban renewal project in the country, ending a process that started in 1961, encompassing 2,500 acres of land and four stages of development.

The Eastwick Friends and Neighborhood Coalition had been fighting since 2012 to stop redevelopment plans for more than 100 acres, including a new 722-unit apartment complex proposed by New Eastwick Corporation/Korman, a 1,000 car parking lot, and additional acres transferred to the Philadelphia International Airport.

Pa. finanical woes cause KOZ rejections in Philadelphia

The Keystone Opportunity Zone program appears to be in jeopardy after the Governor's Office rejected multiple KOZ applications – including one from Philadelphia – as the state struggles with its budget.

Philadelphia sought a KOZ designation for more than 80 properties around the city, aiming to entice developers to challenging parcels through the program's tax breaks.

But the Wolf Administration rejected the application, and others, with a spokesman for the governor telling Philly.com the decision was simple.

Shorter tower now envisioned for last major Rittenhouse Square-area development site

A condo-and-apartment tower proposed for the last sizable piece of undeveloped property in the Rittenhouse Square area will be downsized,  part of a deal between the developer and neighbors that also includes preserving two historic buildings at the site.

Current plans for the project, known as 1911 Walnut, call for an approximately 47-story glass-and-precast-concrete building on a cut-limestone base, rather than the previously intended 55-story tower of mostly glass, officials at developer Southern Land Co. said late last week.

The revised proposal preserves  the Rittenhouse Coffee Shop and Warwick apartment buildings, built in 1855 and 1903 on Sansom Street, company founder and chief executive Tim Downey said in an interview. Southern Land plans to redevelop those structures into low-income supportive housing to be operated by Project Home, he said.

Einstein nurses ratify 3-year pact, here's what they got

Registered nurses at Einstein Medical Center voted last week to ratify their first union contract.

About 98 percent of the nearly 1,000 nurses at the North Philadelphia hospital, who joined the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) earlier this year, voted in favor of the three-year agreement.

 “We are more unified than ever,” said Peg Lawson, a registered nurse who works in Einstein’s emergency department. “We stood up for ourselves and our coworkers and our patients when it mattered most. I’m thrilled that we were able to ratify this agreement with such strong support throughout."

Brightline Construction accused of not making monthly contributions to labor funds

PHILADELPHIA — Labor funds are suing Brightline Construction Inc., an employer, citing alleged breach of contract.

Cement Masons' Union Local No. 592 Pension Fund, Cement Masons' Union Local No. 592 Welfare Fund, Cement Masons' Union Local No. 592 Joint Apprenticeship Training Fund, General Building Contractors Association, Inc. Industry Advancement Program, Cement Masons' Union Local No. 592 Political Action Committee, Cement Masons' Union Local 592 of Philadelphia, PA; and Bill Ousey filed a complaint on Dec. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Brightline Construction Inc., alleging that the employer failed to pay monthly contributions to the plaintiffs.

Delayed opening: Is Pa.'s $400M prison '1st Class' or 'Struggling?'

Pennsylvanians wondering when the $400 million, concrete State Correctional Institution Phoenix will finally open can wonder a lot more, after reviewing the denunciatory letters exchanged by the prison's builder and the state's private agent monitoring the work. 

The largest prison ever built in a state whose incarcerated population has lately declined, Phoenix will house nearly 4,000 Philadelphia-area inmates, including its women's and death-row units, next to what Corrections Commissioner John Wetzel says is the badly outdated stone Graterford prison, in pleasant Skippack Township north of the city.

School District of Philadelphia selling Graduate Hospital property

The School District of Philadelphia is asking $3.75 million for a Graduate Hospital elementary school that has sat empty for several years.

First reported by the Inquirer, the WS. Peirce School is being marketed by The Flynn Co.

Located on the 2400 block of Christian Street, the former school is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property includes an adjacent parking lot and is zoned for residential multi-family use.

The city's school district has sold off other properties in recent years, all part of an effort to shore up money for the battered public school system.

One sale, of the Alexander Wilson School in West Philadelphia, is leading to the development of new housing for students at the University of the Sciences. Around the same time that project was announced, the conversion of the former Spring Garden School in North Philly also began.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

Bala Cynwyd Middle School seeks $11M expansion project

Lower Merion School District officials want to spend at least $11 million on a middle school expansion project that would add classroom and cafeteria space to the Bala Cynwyd Middle School.

The proposed plan includes a new 2-story wing that would hold 12 classrooms, as well as a new 30-space parking lot, according to Main Line Media News.

Located between Manayunk Road and Bryn Mawr Avenue near Levering Mill Road, the middle school has seen its enrollment grow over the past several years.

A district official told Main Line Media News she expects each grade level to mushroom to 400 kids – a number that will make the already crowded cafeteria and lengthy lunch lines even worse.

Under the schedule, the district plans to start the zoning application in January and simultaneously submit a request for a waiver of the land development plan so temporary classrooms can be put in one part of the track area by next summer to be ready for the fall of 2017.

If approvals go as planned, construction would begin in early 2018 and last through 2019.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

Nurses at another Philadelphia hospital reach tentative deal

More than 1,000 registered nurses at Einstein Medical Center have reached a tentative agreement.

The nurses are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals [PASNAP], the Conshohocken-based union they voted to join in April.

The union will hold ratification meetings on Thursday to allow all Einstein nurses covered by the agreement to vote on the proposed deal. PASNAP officials said details of the contract will be released after ratification.

SEPTA spent $423,000 on lawyers during labor negotiations

SEPTA spent $423,388 on outside labor counsel to handle negotiations with Transport Workers Union Local 234 (TWU) over the five-year contract agreed to after a six-day strike in November. The lead negotiators, Ballard Spahr, billed SEPTA $310,013 in 2016 for TWU-related matters, and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, which handled SEPTA’s failed attempt to win an emergency court injunction to stop the strike, billed $113,375.

TWU 234 mostly relied on their in house counsel, Bruce Bodner, who made $173,007 in 2015 according to an annual filing with the Department of Labor. Bodner handles most of the union’s legal matters, including representation of employees fighting their dismissal. When SEPTA tried to end the strike through a court injunction, TWU 234 also hired the labor law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson to fight the motion, paying it $20,488.

H.B. McClure acquires REMCO's residential division

Harrisburg-based H.B. McClure Co., one of the largest commercial and residential mechanical contractors in Central Pennsylvania, is expanding its regional reach thanks to a competitor.

The company today announced that it has acquired the residential division of REMCO Inc., based in Silver Spring Township. REMCO recently decided to focus solely on its commercial and industrial service and construction business.