In a message dated 10/24/2007 1:31:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
As I understand it, when the property was purchased in 2004, no one involved knew that the building was on the local register, so they weren't anticipating renovation costs for the Italianate house. And I've been told that they paid "roughly $1.8 million" for it, and that renovation costs for the house are expected to be over $3 million. So I think we can take "restore it as a single family house" off of the list of possible options for it. The BRT data base lists the owner as OAP Inc. According to the Penn Almanac (Almanac, Vol. 46, No. 22, February 22, 2000 -- lest I be accused of making this up), "University City Associates, Inc. and OAP, Inc., both formerly for-profit subsidiaries of the University have recently been converted to not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporations with Penn as their sole member." So Penn owns it. Surely, the brilliant folks at Penn wouldn't have bought this without knowing little details like it's being on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. They are the Real Estate mavens of the neighborhood, after all. And, knowing this, they certainly would have known that changes so gross (in both senses of the word) would bring people on the neighborhood out to protest. Let's go a step further. Penn seems to have plenty of money to "invest" in its well-touted "partnership with the community." And another step, great liberal (in the classic sense) institutions -- especially those whose charters explicitly or implicitly confer on them the obligation to inculcate in the emerging generation a sense of moral and ethical responsibility -- should be the entities that accept this responsibility themselves. So, having purchased the property, it wouldn't be a stretch to believe they intended to treat it as something of a treasure -- to find some way to utilize it in a way that enhances its original design. Melani's right. It's unlikely that some private individual would spend $1.8 million to buy the property and another $3 million to restore it. Maybe some developer would buy it and create condos with the same sensitivity to outward appearance as seems to be being done with the Isenlohr estate (42nd & Pine). But the university itself might think about its place in the world and find a use for it that also preserves or enhances its appearance. Always at your service & ready for a dialog, Al Krigman -- 36-year local resident, housing provider, curmudgeon, and all-around crank, ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
