The West Park Apartments towers (Photo by West Philly Local).
The city is selling two public housing towers in the West Park Apartments complex near the 46th Street El stop, renovating a third and building new low-income homes on the site.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) will use proceeds from the sale of two towers and an undisclosed amount of “increasingly valuable land” to fund the renovation of the third tower and build more modern homes (low-rise apartments and townhomes) for low-income residents, according to a statement.
“Because we have open space on the site we will be able to replace every one of the outdated and deteriorating high-rise apartments with modern homes that we believe our residents will be proud of and that will enhance the entire neighborhood,” said PHA President and CEO Kelvin A. Jeremiah. “We think taking advantage of the property’s rising value to help meet our need for affordable housing is an ideal solution.”
Built in 1964, the three towers include 109 units each. The complex is isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and increased street and pedestrian access will be part of the renovations, according to Jeremiah.
Current residents will be moved to other public housing in the city and will be offered units in the new PHA complex.
The PHA hired the CBRE Group and the CVA Commercial Group, a minority owned firm, to market and sell the property. Marketing materials suggest possible uses could include student housing, athletic dormitories, multi-family apartments and senior housing. An asking price has not been disclosed.
Development has been encircling the complex for years and stepped up in recent months with the approval of a health care campus at the site of the Provident Insurance complex a block away.
“It is excellent that PHA is tapping into the energy of the very hot University City and West Philadelphia real estate market for the benefit of West Park residents,” City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell said in a statement.
October 14th, 2019 at 2:01 pm
I was born and raised in West Park in the 400 building (The one furthest away from Market Street) they were built in 1962 and opened in 1964.
October 14th, 2019 at 2:02 pm
Towers sold = towers gone. Developer is gonna chop that site up like steak and max out density. 218 units? Ha, try 600. And where will they park? On street. But I’m SURE the PHA will replace 218 units at a 1:1 ratio, just like they are doing at Sharswood….oh wait…
October 14th, 2019 at 2:56 pm
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!!!
October 14th, 2019 at 3:15 pm
Will they Be Turning West Park into, Senior Housing?
October 14th, 2019 at 3:23 pm
Y’all should be glad it’s coming down! The elevator never works and it’s a eye sore beside, it smells like weeks old urine 🤦🏽♀️ It’s just awful …. Whats so great about it ?
It’s not about forgetting where you come from but moving on some things you just HAVE to let go !!!
This is definitely on.
October 14th, 2019 at 7:08 pm
This is exactly something I thought might happen with West Park Apartments for years now. The PHA will keep one building, probably for senior housing (especially with new family-style housing being built on the property), and sell the remaining towers to Drexel or a private developer, or one tower to each. Using one tower for a dorm for student athletes makes a lot of sense with Drexel’s Vidas Athletic Field right next door. And it makes sense to keep and renovate these buildings. These are post-1960 buildings, so the construction quality was probably better than other, now demolished, PHA high rises and the design was probably more modern than the other high rises, too. All in all, it sounds like a positive redevelopment for the neighborhood.
October 14th, 2019 at 7:18 pm
Why do you never cite the source(s) of your stories??
October 14th, 2019 at 7:27 pm
Hi. Our sources are the PHA and the company that is marketing the property. Do you want like a footnote or something?
October 14th, 2019 at 9:52 pm
Why is Jannie Blackwell mentioned in this article?
October 15th, 2019 at 10:16 am
This looks like a good idea. It’s next to high volume transit (and also there’s the Aldi supermarket next door), and it’s a short walk to the Walnut/40th area.
October 15th, 2019 at 1:39 pm
I’m gald to hear that those pjs are coming down people should not have to live so cramped up and unsafe conditions.
October 15th, 2019 at 2:53 pm
Sounds more like more gentrification to me. Where are all those people going to live ?
Once completed, we all know the prices will be to high.
October 15th, 2019 at 5:46 pm
@Lisa – Vive la gentrification! People should be glad to have these crime-ridden eyesores removed regardless of whom ultimately occupies them.
October 15th, 2019 at 5:56 pm
In other words, people with more money and status can do anything. People with less can get out of the way. The magic of the market does much of the dirty work and some people will profit greatly from the dehumanization of others.
October 15th, 2019 at 7:06 pm
@ American Dream – really empty rhetoric. I lived in North Philly projects as a kid. Thankfully they were imploded long ago. I don’t wish project living for anyone. We still live in a country where those who have less have great opportunities. Keeping them in the system in substandard housing isn’t the answer.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:16 pm
The point though is that the people with the bread get all the privileges. The people without get sent wherever there are openings. Shady developers and slippery city officials collaborate and it never seems to center on the concerns of those they say they’re intending to help.
This is America, when we say Democracy, we mean Business…
October 16th, 2019 at 12:26 pm
My family moved in Holden St in 1964 lived there for 18 years of my life lots of memories. I am who I am am today because of the Families I grew up with. So sad to set it go😞
October 16th, 2019 at 1:28 pm
Those same slippery characters gave themselves a WHOLE LOT of wiggle room:
“Public housing agency to sell off West Philly towers to fund redevelopment at aging complex”
…The agency does not yet have a budget for the redevelopment project, which will be designed to restore the isolated complex’s connection to Philadelphia’s street grid, Dorn said.
The marketing brochure — prepared by Vincent Jolly of CVA Commercial Group, and Michael Kane and Les Haggett of global real estate firm CBRE — touts the complex’s proximity to West Philadelphia’s universities and research institutions and to new developments such as Schuylkill Yards and uCity Square.
It also highlights its location in a Qualified Opportunity Zone, through which investors in the project can get big tax breaks.
The brochure suggests that the southern towers site can be revamped into “multifamily apartments, senior housing, student housing, or a mixed-use development.”…
https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/commercial/west-park-apartments-towers-sale-pha-university-city-redevelopment-20191011.html
October 16th, 2019 at 3:27 pm
“Where are all those people going to live?”
According to the Inky, PHA will use undeveloped land on the site to “build new rowhouses and low-rise apartments to replace the units that are sold … Residents of the to-be-sold towers will be relocated to other public housing and will have first dibs on the new and renovated West Park units when they are complete.”
So they will move out during development, and then move back into new housing.
It would be interesting to see this ‘brochure.’
October 16th, 2019 at 3:47 pm
SOME of the residents may receive new housing there, *someday*, if they’re good candidates and ready to move again from whereever they’ve been placed. So better behave.
Meanwhile, it’s just spend a buck to make a buck…
October 16th, 2019 at 5:48 pm
“Let’s keep everyone poor and living in squalor.”—American Dream
If you have the citizen app, you’ll get notices every day about this address.
Today’s was, “Group Assaulting Person”. Sounds great!
October 17th, 2019 at 11:39 pm
Here is some background on the gentrification history:
https://whyy.org/articles/west-philly-gentrification-means-upheaval-for-these-longtime-residents/
https://philly.curbed.com/2013/7/11/10221368/the-long-and-troubling-history-of-penntrification-in-west-philly
https://www.34st.com/article/2017/10/penns-complicated-relationship-with-gentrification-in-west-philadelphia
October 18th, 2019 at 10:16 am
I have been looking at those deathtraps they call apartments for years. I see the hungry child asking to take your cart back at the Aldi’s supermarket for the past 5 years.
Yes, it is part of gentrification, which is never good for those hard-working low-income families who cannot afford the inflated prices. I hope those who want to come back, pay the same price as when they left and were displaced. And, hope there is parking for low-income families. Low income is a family of 4 with a total of $30,000 a year.
October 18th, 2019 at 11:05 am
Chances are… that will never be. Although given the bad situation, it may be the best thing we can imagine.
October 19th, 2019 at 8:12 am
HIP HIP HOORAY!!!
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:40 pm
Neighborhood is changing for the worst, black folks are losing everything, culture, identity, lives, communities, and schools . Its a shame
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:26 pm
We have the power to organize, to fight back, now. Never let your opponent tell you what the rules are, what your strategy should or should not be.
October 22nd, 2019 at 11:44 pm
Those projects are horrible, should’ve never existed. PHA owns them, not the people who are occupying them (can’t lose what you never had). To think they have anything to do with Black culture is down right humiliating. Save your energy and fight for something worth fighting for.
October 23rd, 2019 at 2:48 am
The fight generally centers on what tenants want- you know the people who don’t “own” anything. When people are evicted sometimes they want to stop the eviction, sometimes to have say in where they go from there (in some places tenants can get a pay out), or sometimes just to demand accountability and participation in the process of deciding. No matter what, it should always go beyond fiat rule by the owners and their pals in government….
October 23rd, 2019 at 4:15 pm
They’re not getting evicted, they are being displaced, I believe it said to various PHA sites around the city maybe to return once new homes and or apartments are built. Hopefully all works out for everyone involved, especially happy to hear that one building will be renovated for the elderly. *GOOD TIMES*.
October 23rd, 2019 at 4:29 pm
Great, wait till somebody relocates you out of the neighborhood. We’ll see if you care where you and the family are sent to!
October 23rd, 2019 at 6:37 pm
We’ll be okay, and I won’t be relocated because of “somebody”. I will always care where my family lives that’s why I pay for options. Hopefully all works out for everyone involved.
October 23rd, 2019 at 6:54 pm
Owners don’t get relocated. But they do tend to screw over other people. Sometimes they rationalize too much.
October 27th, 2019 at 10:37 am
In the early 70s, me and my family lived in the Holden building. So I know and enjoy the opportunity of living low cost housing. There are many wonderful memories built from the families and friends whom also resided there.
High rise building are idealistic for business environment not family. Also, prison are built with the format of residing as many people as possible, with low to moderate comfort level. WEST PARK was built with same environmental and economic developmental ideas.
Although sad, tearing down the towers is a sign progress. Through the former residential families and friends, the memories of West Park will live forever.