The developers of the sprawling former Provident Mutual Life Insurance property at 46th and Market Streets began a series of stops at neighborhood groups last night at the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) monthly board meeting to garner support and input for its proposed health campus.

A partnership between Philadelphia-based commercial developers Iron Stone and the Public Health Management Corp. (PHMC) will develop the 13-acre site, once slated to be the new home of the Philadelphia Police Department.

PHMC will run three programs at the site, including a federally funded health center that will provide primary care and dental services, a public health office and a 20- to 30-bed overnight site. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) plans to operate a children’s mental health services center from the site and several day care providers, including the YMCA, are interested in opening a large (some 120 children) facility, Andrew Eisenstein of Iron Stone Real Estate Partners told the SHCA board.  Continue Reading

Mayor Jim Kenney told the audience gathered for the Spruce Hill Community Association annual meeting last night that the city would likely to have a handful of serious proposals for the old Provident Mutual Insurance building at 4601 Market St. by early January.

His administration cancelled plans in May to move the police headquarters to the building, opting instead for the old Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad St. Those plans were devised during the administration of Michael Nutter.

The city has received several requests for quotation (RFQ) on the property. These are narrative proposals of what would be done with the property. Those proposals range from commercial and retail to medical and educational. All propose a mix of uses for the property. Kenney said the RFQs are private and he could not provide specific details on any of them.  Continue Reading

The Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) Board of Directors invites the community to our Annual Meeting.

This year we will have two keynote speakers!!!

First, Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney will address the future of the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building at 4601 Market (the former Police Department redevelopment site).

And second, Drexel University’s Sr. Vice Provost for University Community Partnerships, Lucy Kerman, will discuss and answer questions about Drexel’s education initiatives in West Philadelphia, including Drexel’s plans for a new public school in University City and the Promised Neighborhood Grant, through which Drexel is working with 7 local schools, including West Philly High.

There will also be updates on SHCA’s activities over the last year, and election of officers and board members. All five officers and 10 board members will be chosen, with bios of all the candidates available at the meeting.

The meeting will take place at the Penn Alexander School Cafeteria (43rd St, between Locust & Spruce).

All are welcome!

Former Provident Mutual Life Insurance building at 4601 Market St (archived photo).

Three West Philly neighborhood organizations have written to Mayor Jim Kenney to express their disappointment with the decision to pull the plan to move police headquarters to the old Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building at 4601 Market St, calling the decision “stunning.”

In May, the city canceled plans devised during the Nutter administration to relocate the police headquarters. Instead, it will reportedly move to the former Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad St. The city has spent about $50 million to purchase and renovate the 90-year-old Provident building.

The community associations of Garden Court, Spruce Hill and Walnut Hill neighborhoods also asked that the city continue to renovate the building and include the community in decisions about its future use.  Continue Reading

Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration is rethinking the much publicized move of the police headquarters to 46th and Market, despite the start of $250 million in renovations and plans for an art installation and possibly even a new Police Athletic League branch.

According to reports first in Phillymag.com and then Philly.com, the Kenny administration is assessing the feasibility of moving police headquarters from its current location at 750 Race St. to the old Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad, leaving the future of the sprawling 87-year-old Provident Mutual Insurance Co. campus at 46th and Market in question. Kenney told Philly.com that the plans to move to West Philly are now “up in the air.”

In a proposal devised by Michael Nutter’s administration, the Provident campus was planned to be renamed the Public Safety Services Campus and would include the Department of Public Health and the Medical Examiner’s Office. But Kenney told Philly.com yesterday that the Provident campus might be better for “health-related” services and that moving police to the Inquirer building would place it near City Hall and other downtown offices.

The City Council approved more than $250 million in funding to complete the renovations at the Provident, which were scheduled to be completed by December.

Work on the new police headquarters at 46th and Market has officially begun, with a groundbreaking ceremony taking place on Monday.

The 87-year-old Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building, will undergo renovation and will host the Philadelphia Police Department headquarters, which will move from their current Center City location at 8th and Race. The building will also be home to the medical examiner’s office, morgue and the Department of Health public laboratories.

“[It] will be known as the Philadelphia Public Safety Services campus,” mayor Michael Nutter said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The building renovation will cost about $250 million. Two bills were introduced earlier this year by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell that allowed the city to borrow this sum. The building is expected to open in 2018.

The Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building was included in the endangered properties list by the Preservation Alliance of Philadelphia in 2010. After Provident left the building in 1983 it was occupied by various non-profits for many years, but has been vacant for the past six years.