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

The major redevelopment project of converting the long-vacant former Provident Mutual Life Insurance building site into a public services complex, including headquarters for the Philadelphia Police Department, has been going on for about a year and a half now. Recently we checked on the site and saw that the 88-year-old building’s facade was already partially renovated.

According to this sign posted at the site, the work on the building’s facade and roof improvements is expected to be completed in December 2016.

As we reported earlier, the whole complex, which will also house the Department of Public Health and the Medical Examiner’s Office and Morgue and will include a plaza with public art installations, is expected to be completed by 2018. The complex will stretch from 46th to 48th Street and from Market Street to Haverford Avenue.