Unspent borrowings from jilted W. Philly Police HQ project eyed by city for other repairs
The money comes from a $65.2 million bond issue in 2014 that was to have financed the department’s move to the former insurance company building at 4601 Market St.
Mayor Jim Kenney’s office wants to pay for repair and maintenance projects at public properties around the city with the roughly $12 million that’s left over from debt assumed for an abandoned plan to move the Philadelphia Police Department’s headquarters to West Philadelphia.
City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, whose district includes the historic Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building, which was to have become the police department’s new home, introduced legislation late last week to direct the unspent funds to “additional projects” designated by the city’s finance director.
The money comes from a $65.2 million bond issue in 2014 that was to have financed the department’s move to the former insurance company building at 4601 Market St.
The city spent more than $52 million to buy and renovate the 325,000-square-foot former insurance company building on 13 acres of land before deciding to relocate police to the former Inquirer Building at 400 N. Broad St. instead. It expects to earn $10 million from the sale of the property for conversion into a public health and social service campus.
The $65.2 million bond issue will cost the city $117 million, including interest, if repaid through the debt’s final maturity date in 2044, according to the deal’s documentation on the city’s investor relations website.
City spokesman Paul Chrystie said in an email Monday that the legislation to redirect the remaining funds from the bond issue to other capital projects was initiated by the mayor’s office.
The projects to be financed with those funds “include the designing, planning, acquiring, constructing, expanding, renovating, improving and equipping of interior and exterior projects” at police, fire and prison facilities and other city-owned properties, according to the text of the bill.
The work may include parking-lot paving, as well as projects at City Hall, the city courthouse at 1301 Filbert St. and the One Parkway Building at 1515 Arch St. Also named in the legislation is the Municipal Services Building and its Thomas Paine Plaza at 1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd.