Parkway affiliate virtually controls block near former porn theater on W. Market

Parkway Corp. has paid $2.8 million for vacant land on the 2200 block of Market Street, giving it control over nearly the entire block where Center City's last porn theater once operated.

Market West Associates, a Parkway affiliate, bought parcels totaling 5,250 square feet on June 9 from Richard Basciano, who had owned the Forum Theater, according to records filed with the city.

The land sandwiches an additional 1,340 square feet purchased on May 11 from the estate of Anthony Trombetta, who had operated the Forum and the nearby Basciano-owned Les Gals strip club, records showed.

Parkway chief executive Joe Zuritsky said Monday that the company planned to develop the property, but that it had not yet decided what would be built there.

The newly purchased parcels encompass an expanse of land toward the middle of the block that extends from Market Street south to Ludlow Street.

Parkway already owns the western portion of the block along 23d Street, where it operates a parking lot.

Several buildings at the southwest corner of 22d and Market Streets remain under separate ownership.

The transaction is the latest to come to light involving Basciano, whose holdings once dominated several blocks of West Market Street infamous for their seedy businesses.

Basciano's STB Investments Corp. also recently sold much of the block to the east to Brandywine Realty Trust. That purchase included the site of the building at 22d and Market Streets that collapsed in 2013, killing six people and injuring 13.

Another property a block to the west was sold to PMC Property Group and the investment firm Lubert-Adler.

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