Mayor Michael Nutter revived plans yesterday to renovate West Philadelphia’s landmark Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building at 46th & Market into a new, “state of the art” police headquarters. The sprawling 86-year old building, which sits on 15 acres, has been partially vacant since 1983 when the company abandoned it and was featured on the endangered properties list.
“This is a smart consolidation which will allow us to sell existing assets, create new opportunities for development at those sites, and revitalize part of West Philadelphia much in need of investment,” Nutter said during his annual budget speech during a City Council meeting yesterday.
Under the plan, the building would also host the City morgue and Health offices.
The move would leave the current headquarters, the aging “roundhouse” near 7th and Race streets, empty. Its sale could help offset the renovation of the Provident building.
The plan, which would have cost about $70 million, was originally proposed in 2008 but was shelved due to the recession, Philly.com reports. The cost of the current renovation project will be determined during the design process in the next year. The building renovation may take up to two years.
The city is also building a juvenile detention center on five acres at the site.
March 9th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Wow! I ride by that building every day and wish it were renovated and useful. Hope this goes through.
March 9th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
What a nice idea!
March 9th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
i’m not sure having a veritable penal colony in our neighborhood is a “nice idea”. this part of the neighborhood is quickly becoming the receptacle for the drug addicted and homeless: kirkbride center and now the criminally involved: juvenile detention and police headquarters. and lets throw in the morgue and the holding cells from the old round house. this is progress? this is going to increase property values and attract businesses?
March 10th, 2012 at 11:22 am
I love how everyone agrees that we need police, addiction and mental health treatment centers and juvenile detention programs but all seem to be under the impression these centers should all be somewhere ELSE NOT HERE. Maybe this stuff is what we could put on Newt’s moon colony. You realize one of the new constructions is a CHOP medical center or are you against the neighborhood becoming a receptacle for doctors and RNs?
And yes, active professional use for this building will increase property values and absolutely attract businesses. I for one, am excited about having more professionals (staff, attorneys etc.) riding the El to the HQ. Have you ever taken the El during the day after morning rush hour? Its riders largely seem to belong to those other two things you don’t want anywhere.
March 10th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
“anonymous”, you have a point about the ridership and the potential for increased safety. i don’t see the need to attack me personally, though. you don’t know who i am or anything about me.
for example, you did not know that i worked alongside sister mary spungeon of hallowed “project home” fame in the 80’s and was on the executive board of CHAT- Consider Homelessness A Tragedy. Or many, many other things about my cv.
i have always thought it prudent to NOT ghettoize social service agencies and their clients by embedding them within stable communities. there was a model in the netherlands i drew upon when writing a social policy position paper on homelessness and substance abuse treatment for my first graduate degree.
pumping the major social service populations in one place is the opposite of what i saw to be a more wholistic and healthful approach to these complex issues.
the proposed juxtaposition is a recipe for conflict and a poor outcome. i’m hoping it all works out.
and, “anonymous”, i had the courage to own my statements by including my name. how cowardly to attack me under the cover of anonymity. shame on you.
March 10th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
People need to get off their high and mighty horse. Seriously. It is not “a fact of living in the city” to have a detention center a few blocks from your house. it’s just not. The fact that someone doesn’t think that the Police HQ so close to their homes is a bad idea does not imply that they are classicists, racists, or anything else.
When these things are proposed (just like the Subway issue–I don’t want to get into that) the community should act if they have opposition. The decision will be made one way or another but if there is opposition it should be voiced and it should be heard.
What a terrible thing to assume the worst about someone because they have an opinion. We live near a site that was proposed for a prison off of Grays Ave. We opposed it. Does it mean that we are evil, elitist people? No. And anyone who assumes it is a fool themselves.
I would love to meet the people who are so gung ho about all these ideas so I can send them all to move into your block. Could be nice to have Police HQ, Subway, Juvenile Center, and a prison all on your block, eh?
I hate to break it to “Anonymous” but putting the Juvenile Justice Center and Police HQ on that block will not increase property values and cause professionals to move into the area. Know why? Because the neighborhood schools are underfunded, falling apart, and there are no decent private schools there. You want property values to go up, support a subsidized, multiuse, education center in that space that hosts a substation.
March 10th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
I’m feeling more positive about the HQ aspect than the Juvenile Detention Center.
I would hope that we are trying better interventions with our youth than simply warehousing them once they are already far gone.
There are a lot of large projects for this corridor, but hopefully there will also be some growth for smaller businesses, more in the Baltimore Avenue vein.
March 10th, 2012 at 9:39 pm
*sister mary scullion. not spungeon. i betrayed my “sid & nancy” obsession with that slip.
March 10th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Happy Curmudgeon owes an apology to the actual classicists who live in the neighborhood.
March 10th, 2012 at 10:00 pm
There’s a great deal of irony in someone dictating how our neighborhood should be run telling others to “get off their high and mighty horse”(sic).
Remember when someone was bludgeoned to death on the property grounds a few years ago? Ah yes, the good old days.
Let me say frankly, “Thank you Mr. Nutter for taking an empty building in a crime-ridden area and making something fruitful out of it.”.
March 11th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Yeah, you’re right, Happy Curmudgeon, the sold-out new Lucien Blackwell homes with young families including some highly-educated (though of moderate-income) must be a mass hallucination. Same with the families on the other side of Farragut that I smile at on my way to the El. I never said it would attract yuppies but it’s interesting that’s where your mind went.
And Suzanne, I’m tickled that someone posting under such a common first name is offended by my anonymity. If I posted under Rita, which is not my name, you’d feel better? Do you not understand how the Internet works?
March 12th, 2012 at 10:53 am
I LOVE the idea! I hope it comes through!
March 12th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
I dont buy the “its gotta go somewhere” or the “its better than nothing” approach to land/building usage. What ever happened to the “get the city to incentivize high quality usage” approach? It happens elsewhere, why not here?
Activists side with the anti-casino crowd but when you poopoo the idea of a PDHQ and JJC you’re the bad guy? Okay. I just don’t agree with that.
I mean, c’mon, that JJC was what EVERYONE thought that Jannie Blackwell would get lame duck Mayor Street to oppose on his way out. Instead she got a playground. Playground.
March 28th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
I hope mayor Nutter is successful at acquiring the Provident Location for Police Headquarters. I would beg for a new contract without concessions too, but Mayor Nutter the location is a beautiful choice.
March 28th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
I think a Juveile detention center located on the grounds of a new police headuarters should bring comfort to neighbors in my opinion. The police prescence in conjunction with the staff of the juvenile detention center will bring the neighborhood hundreds of law enforcement eyes moving about the area. I think the effect would be a safer neighborhood despite how it might sound or appear to have such a detention center near their homes. I also want to say that juvenile detention centers are not at all prisons. Am I right on that? Don’t kids who get cuahgt cutting school sometimes go to juvenile detention centers?
March 28th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Not to mention, the kids breaking the law are going to try to be as FAR AWAY from the detention center as they can!
March 29th, 2012 at 9:03 am
I live in West Philadelphia, and see the proposed location every morning on the SEPTA El. My concern is that the mayor suggests moving offices of Health Center #1 to this location, this according to the Philly.com article. HC1 is currently located on Broad and Lombard Streets, and the City’s main site for STD treatment and control (just in case you’re unfamiliar with the site). I believe placing HC1 in the same location as the police headquarters would be an awful mistake. I think this would discourage some people from seeking the proper medical care needed, and unfortunately further facilitate the spread of preventable and non-preventable/life-threatening diseases. This is not an endorsement of the City’s Health Surveillance program (also located in HC1). But in order for them to operate effectively and efficiently they need to be “housed” in an environment that people associate with safety. Unfortunately, the police/criminal justice system may not always be seen this way. This proposed move, recent anti-homeless feeding rules, and rising STD rates should make us all wonder about the City’s strategy to protect and promote public health. [Plus, there’s a Health Center located blocks away at/near 44/Haverford, and there are parts of the City that could use a Health Center…hmm]
March 30th, 2012 at 11:02 am
First off people who study ancient Greek and Latin texts are classicists and not the same as “classists” who would be people who believe on economic class is superior to another.
This property is already publicly owned and in danger of further deterioration due to non-use and maintenace neglect. A rehab that puts this striking building to productive use is a good thing for West Philadelphia. Hundreds of jobs being moved to West Philadelphia along the El transit corridor is a good thing for West Philadelphia.
People who complain about the “its gotta go somewhere” argument seem to be skipping over the fact that indeed it really does. Consolidating city services to share resources and make references and interconnection between those services cheaper and easier is a good thing for everyone.
The “ick” factor of juvenile detention centers and police headquarters reminding people that we as a society still need juvenile detention centers and police stations does not negate the fact that the area around those types of facilities tend to be very, very low in actual crime, for sort of obvious reasons.
You are not an awful person if you disagree with me on that, but you are probably wrong.
So this will ensure a wonderful building, already publicly owned is preserved, relocate hundreds of jobs to West Philly, make the 46th St. El stop much safer. Those are a huge number of upsides.
March 30th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Shazooooo, great point. I draw a positive view of placing The new POlice HQ etc., from people I have talked to that live close to Police districts. All I have ever heard is they love it.