Mayor Nutter today said he hadn't seen any details on the offer a local philanthropist has made on the Boy Scouts Logan Square headquarters -- but he said the city will review the bid.
"We'll take a look at whatever Mr. Heifetz sent over," Nutter said. "It's a matter in litigation, in which there have been settlement negotiations...so it's a little more complicated than sending us a check and letter."
Real estate investor Mel Heifetz yesterday sent the city a $1.5 million offer for the building. The city has a proposed settlement deal with the Scouts to sell them the building, after a long-running legal dispute based on the national organization's ban on gay Boy Scouts. Under the deal, the Scouts would pay $500,000 for the Logan Square building and then drop a claim for up to $960,000 in legal fees.
Heifetz, who sent the offer to Mayor Nutter and the public property commissioner yesterday, said that if he successfully bought the 13,000-square-foot building at 22nd and Winter streets, he would donate it to a charitable organization that does not discriminate.
Gay advocates have urged Nutter to continue appeals in the case. But Nutter has defended the proposed settlement, saying it would end an expensive legal fight and the risk that city taxpayers would eventually have to pay the Scouts' legal bills.
The settlement will be up for Council review in the new year.