Walnut Hill residents got a chance on Thursday to ask the proposed developers of the Provident Insurance Co. building at 4601 Market Street what benefits the neighborhood would get from the healthcare campus planned for the site.
Iron Stone Real Estate Partners execs presented their plans for the building at a Walnut Hill Community Association meeting aimed at finalizing a “community benefits agreement,” a contract that would reflect community requests on everything from hiring practices to parking to the use of green space in development projects that get public subsidies.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell asked Iron Stone officials to meet publicly in Walnut Hill. Blackwell halted a City Council vote on the project last month.
The draft agreement between Iron Stone and the Walnut Hill Community Association includes:
• An advisory council made up of community members and the project’s main tenants.
• Agreement to hire local construction and permanent employees.
• Community rooms available for public use inside the building.
• 2-hour parking on the streets around building.
• Financial support from developers of the University City District and a request from developers that UCD expand its boundaries north of Market Street to cover the project.
• Financial support of the Walnut Hill Community Association’s annual Turkey Giveaway, Toy Giveaway and Black History Month Essay Contest.
• Green space that includes a playground that would be open to the public.
More stipulations are likely to be added over the next few days before a final benefits agreement is ratified by the association in exchange for a letter of support for the project.
January 21st, 2019 at 11:49 am
It was interesting to see that support for Turkey Giveaway, Toy Giveaway, and Black History Month Essay contest are obligated by agreement. I guess it was silly of me to think corporate support for charity was voluntary given the day and age, but it still burst my bubble a little bit to know that developers/corporations don’t care about the community unless they are bound by contract.
January 21st, 2019 at 2:38 pm
Does it bother you that a business has to be strong-armed into donating to “select” organizations to get a contract that should be open to the free market?
This is nothing more than codified extortion. Sorry, not codified, counselmanic extortion. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme
January 22nd, 2019 at 5:58 pm
She should be ashamed i went to the meeting with a friend and the meeting was a sham, the community doesn’t want this plan, and Jannie appears to sit back and collect. To give that firm that building for anything under $80 million should be criminal, then $50 million went into it, and to get a 10 yr tax abatement also while the neighbors real estate taxes go sky high including mine. [This comment has been moderated. – WPL]
January 23rd, 2019 at 10:05 am
The fallacy of sunk cost. Textbook. Unfortunately how much money the City spent has no bearing on how much others will pay for this place. Perhaps this alone is a sign how badly things are run.
January 23rd, 2019 at 11:38 am
The city chose to stop construction of the building being built for a new Police Headquarters to replace the Roundhouse and to buy the former Inquirer Building on North Broad Street for use as a more centralized police headquarters with access up and down 611 (Broad St) and 676 Vine Street Expressway to I-76 and I-95. I know that 50M was sunk into the construction and abandoned once work stopped and since the city made the decision at its convenience, it was not realistic to expect anybody to compensate the city the 50M sunk in construction costs. Were the city to float such a requirement, I doubt any developer would have swallowed that bait. That is why the city sent our a RFP to all interested parties and got Iron Hill as the best bidder.
Since the community got a benefit and use plan from the developer, it appears to be a go and everybody in the community will benefit once the building is put into operation as a medical center.
January 24th, 2019 at 10:41 am
Is there any insight into how many developers responded to the RFP, what they offered, plans, etc?