Port Richmond site considered for halfway house

A 21-acre parcel in an isolated industrial section of Port Richmond is under consideration as a potential site for a halfway house.

The parcel at 2121 Wheatsheaf Lane, near the I-95 exit to Aramingo Avenue, is owned by Joseph Verne and Louis Vernekoff, brothers who used the site for a furniture business, Homeline Industries, until it closed several years ago, former City Councilman Frank DiCicco said.

While on Council, DiCicco said, he advised Verne, a friend, to explore selling or leasing the property to a big-box firm, similar to the Lowe's and Walmart outlets at the nearby Aramingo Crossings shopping center.

In 2004, DiCicco sponsored legislation to change the zoning on the parcel to commercial, but a deal fell through. Now, DiCicco said, it makes sense to change the zoning back to industrial, which would allow a halfway house to operate.

DiCicco is now a lobbyist but said he was handling the issue free for Verne.

DiCicco said he was "not at liberty" to disclose the status of negotiations with several potential users of the Wheatsheaf property, but acknowledged that one is the Kintock Group, which runs prisoner reentry facilities at D Street and Erie Avenue in Philadelphia and several locations in New Jersey.

Kintock has corporate offices in King of Prussia but might be interested in moving as many as 30 jobs to a small office building on the Wheatsheaf site, DiCicco said.

DiCicco's successor in Council, Mark Squilla, has sponsored a bill to rezone the parcel as industrial. The bill is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday in Council's Rules Committee.

The city Planning Commission endorsed the rezoning last month, describing the bill's purpose "to permit [the property's] reuse as a reentry facility."

Squilla said he was aware of interest in the site for a potential halfway house.

"If you're going to have any type of use similar to that, this would be the right sort of area, isolated and an industrial area," Squilla said. "If the project went forward, we would then get into the details."

The nearest residential area is in Kensington, several hundred yards away and blocked off by a major Amtrak right-of-way.

"Actually I think that location is a perfect place for something like that," said Ken Paul, president of the Port Richmond on Patrol and Civic Association. "It's off the beaten path and nobody would know it's there, only the people who get put into it."