An artist’s rendering of the apartment complex proposed for 4601 Market St.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier is once again calling on residents to push developers of a 1,240-unit apartment complex at 46th and Market Streets to include affordable housing during a meeting scheduled for March 27.

The meeting is part of the Civic Design Review process for “Mill Creek Station,” an upscale cluster of five seven-story buildings, one 19-story building and courtyards that will have “outdoor kitchens, lounge spaces and a pool for the residents,” according to the plan. The apartment complex would be adjacent to the city’s juvenile detention center at 48th and Haverford.

You can review the recent history of 4601 Market Street across a couple municipal administrations – from its designation as the new police headquarters and morgue to the current proposal – here. Continue Reading

Last month, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell halted a vote in City Council on the sale of the former Provident Mutual Life Insurance building to local real estate developer Iron Stone, who had proposed to convert the site at 46th and Market into a public health campus. This Thursday, Jan. 17, Iron Stone representatives will talk about the future of the site at a zoning meeting organized by the Walnut Hill Community Association.

Community members are invited to attend the meeting and voice their opinions.

The meeting will take place at the Enterprise Center (4548 Market St), beginning at 6 p.m.

Residents criticized developers and city officials for a lack of transparency in the proposal to convert the city-owned Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building and surrounding land at 46^th and Market into a campus focused on mental health services and child care during a public meeting on Tuesday night.

About 125 residents gathered in the auditorium of West Philadelphia High School at 49^th and Chestnut for presentations from the developers, a city official handling the deal, and proposed tenants, which include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania and the YMCA.

The city chose that plan earlier this year after a call for proposals. The call came after a long-anticipated plan proposed by former mayor Michael Nutter to move the police headquarters and related offices to the 13-acre site was scuttled by Mayor Jim Kenney, Nutter’s successor. The police headquarters, the Medical Examiner’s office and the 6th and 9th police districts will now move into the old Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad St..

That change and the city’s subsequent choice of this new proposal caught many residents off guard.

“People aren’t mad, they’re just tired of hearing a lot of things that they didn’t have any say in,” said one resident. “The process is defective.”  Continue Reading

The SHCA monthly board meeting will be held this Tuesday, Sept. 11 at the Spruce Hill Center (257 S. 45th St.). Community members are invited to learn more about the proposal for the development of the Provident Mutual Life Insurance building at 4601 Market Street, which will be presented by Andrew Eisenstein, founder of Iron Stone Real Estate Partners.

After the Kenney administration cancelled plans to relocate Philadelphia police headquarters into the building last year, the city began seeking other potential developers for the 15-acre property. Iron Stone was selected as a developer for the building, and their plan is to transform the building and the surrounding land into a public health campus, according to a recent report by Philly.com.

Iron Stone, a Philadelphia-based developer, will partner with the Public Health Management Corp. health institute on this project.

The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m.