The Goldenberg Group and E-Z Park Inc. have teamed up in
hopes of purchasing the city-run health-center building at Broad and Lombard
Streets, an acquisition that would give them near-complete control of a full
city block in one of Philadelphia’s most active areas of real estate
development.
The Blue Bell-based developer and Philadelphia
parking-lot operator plan to bid on the District Health Center No. 1 at 500 S.
Broad St., an aged — but some say historically significant — building that the
city is seeking to sell in a move to consolidate its medical-service functions.
Goldenberg and E-Z Park are the first development team to
confirm interest in the mid-20th-century glazed-brick building in a
section of southern Center City that’s seen a recent spate of hotel,
residential and retail activity.
Combining the medical center site with properties that
they already own would give E-Z Park and Goldenberg a 2.5-acre development
site comprising most of the block bounded by Broad and 15th Streets,
between Lombard and South Streets.
Goldenberg acquired the now-closed World
Communications Charter School, just south of the health center building,
last year. It also has under agreement the two-parcel property west of the
charter building that recently housed the Loft Bar and Coco’s Chicken and
Waffles, according to current owner Frank Funaro.
The bar and restaurant were destroyed in a fire in
March, NBC10 reported at the time.
E-Z Park and its affiliates, meanwhile, own the parking
lot that occupies most of the rest of the block, along with three rowhouse
properties between the lot and 15th Street.
The block’s only properties that would be missing from
the companies’ assemblage — if it purchases the medical building — are the
strip of rowhouses facing Lombard Street along the block’s northwest.
Health center at 500 S. Broad St. (at upper left) and
surrounding properties as seen from overhead facing east.
“We are very excited about the things we’d be able to do
with the combined parcel,” Goldenberg chief operating officer Seth Shapiro said
in an interview this week. He and E-Z Park co-owner Harvey Spear declined to
share further details about plans for the site.
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which
is handling the sale of the health center on the city’s behalf, said last month
in a solicitation seeking developer interest that it would like to see “active
uses at the ground-floor level, such as retail and restaurants. Upper stories
of the building may include residential, hotel, or commercial space.”
Development at the site would build on projects
recently completed and underway along a strip of Broad Street centered on the
blocks south of City Hall known as Avenue of the Arts for its concentration of
performing-arts venues, such as the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music.
At Broad and Chestnut Streets, Washington-based MRP
Realty finished converting a dormitory building at Chestnut Street last
year into the high-end Griffin apartments.
A few blocks south, at Locust Street, Choice Hotels
International Inc. is finishing work on a 14-story Cambria Hotels &
Suites property that the Rockville, Md.-based company has characterized as a
flagship for the brand.
Plans are also being mulled to redevelop the Merriam
Theater property, between Spruce and Locust Streets, to accommodate a tower of
as many as 32 stories, most likely of apartments or condos.
“The availability of this key site provides a rare
opportunity to create a unique, new destination along one of Philadelphia’s
most prominent commercial cultural corridors,” the PIDC said in its solicitation,
which sets a Sept. 22 deadline for developers to apply for placement on a short
list of potential purchasers.
Current uses of the 500 S. Broad St. building
include a medical lab and a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases.
James Garrow, a spokesman for the
Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said in an email that those
functions are being moved by the end of 2018 to place them in locations where
the agency’s units can “work more closely together.”
The department is seeking nearby new locations for the
building’s clinics to preserve neighborhood access, Garrow said.
Whether the building itself is preserved, however, is
another matter.
Days after the PIDC posted solicitation seeking
developers for the site, the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia
nominated the building for
protection as a historic asset, describing the 57-year-old structure as a
“distinctive and intact example of Mid-Century Modern architectural design.”
Shapiro said that Goldenberg would be willing to consider
designs that incorporate the building’s facade or other elements if it is the
winning bidder for the property.
“If we are successful, we look forward to having a dialogue
with the preservation community about the best way to handle the building,” he
said.
Source: Philly.com
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