A likely buyer for vacant, blighted YWCA

The city is close to completing the sale of a vacant, decrepit Center City building to a developer who would demolish it and build 110 apartments, with space for retail and a charter-school expansion.

If the sale of the building - which once housed a YWCA Annex - goes through between the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and Aquinas Realty Partners, a significant source of blight would be removed from the block.

The building, at 2017-23 Chestnut St., was the subject of a Philadelphia Daily News article in March 2010 that detailed how mold, asbestos, rat feces, and pigeon droppings in the space had generated outrage among neighbors.

Aquinas president Leonard S. Poncia proposes knocking down the four-story building and replacing it with a 12-story structure with bay windows, 110 apartment units, 4,834 square feet of ground-floor retail space, an interior courtyard, bicycle storage, and 9,600 square feet of expansion space for the Freire Charter School, a high school that occupies the building next door.

"It's a fantastic location in a neighborhood where demand is very strong for residential rental, retail, and restaurants," Poncia said. "It's in an area that continues to blossom."

The building would be close to Rittenhouse Square and restaurants owned by Stephen Starr and Jose Garces. In the summer, the Shake Shack, a famed New York hamburger joint, is scheduled to open at 20th and Sansom Streets.

Aquinas has executed a development agreement with the Redevelopment Authority but has not settled it yet. Aquinas agreed to pay $800,000 for the property and said its development costs would total $32.7 million.

The project will require several zoning variances because of density and because the only parking at the site would be for two car-share vehicles. Poncia said he believed the project did not need tenant parking because the area has many lots and garages.

The Redevelopment Authority has owned the four-story property since 1993. Over time, the roof began leaking, causing water to collect in the YWCA's old pool, which encouraged mold to spread throughout the building, according to the Daily News. The problems with mold, rats, and pigeon droppings became so bad that Freire, which has 500 students, eventually spent its own money to install a cinder-block wall to seal itself off from the annex.

The Redevelopment Authority has had exterminators at the building monthly but recently changed the schedule to quarterly, a spokesman said, because there was less need for the service.

Ed Covington, who became executive director of the Redevelopment Authority after the article was published, said he was excited a problem property would be replaced with one friendly to the environment.

The building will be designed to qualify for silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - LEED - program of the U.S. Green Building Council.

City Planning Commission members Nancy Rogo-Trainer and Patrick Eiding encouraged Aquinas representatives to use good-quality materials so the building would not look cheap among its stately, older neighbors.