City Council bill would ban housing from former Hahnemann University Hospital area
Councilmember Jeffrey Young said the goal is commercial preservation and creating jobs in that part of his district.
Philadelphia Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young introduced legislation at the last City Council meeting of 2025 that would ban residential development from the area that once housed Hahnemann University Hospital.
The bill would create a new zoning overlay — a hyperlocal patch on the code — covering the area “bounded by the north side of Race Street, the east side of North 16th Street, the south side of Callowhill Street, and the west side of North Broad Street.”
That covers the area where developer Dwight City Group plans to convert two former Hahnemann University Hospital patient towers into 288 apartments, and other related properties including those owned by Drexel University and Iron Stone Real Estate Partners.
The project does not yet have building or zoning permits. The legislation would make the project impossible unless the developer could convince the Zoning Board of Adjustment to make an exception, if the law is passed.
Young pitched the bill as an employment-generating measure in the long term.
“It is for commercial preservation in that part of our district,” Young said last week. “We want to make sure that area keeps producing jobs for our city.”
Dwight City Group declined to comment on the legislation.
The developer is known for redeveloping old and underutilized buildings into moderately priced apartments.
In an interview earlier this year, the company’s CEO Judah Angster said the apartments planned for the Hahnemann University Hospital patient towers would be moderately priced one- to two-bedroom units.
“We stick with middle market apartments, not super high end,” Angster said at the time. “We like to believe that there’s a lot of space for affordable luxury product in the area. That’s the only thing we do.”
But he also cautioned that the redevelopment would take a while, saying the buildings might not be leased up until 2030.
City Council returns on Jan. 22. The earliest Young’s bill could be enacted is February. If Young proceeds with the bill, the tradition of “councilmanic prerogative” would likely guarantee its passage because other Council members are usually unlikely to vote against a district member’s bills that only affect their territory.
Developers, good government groups, and housing advocates frequently decry City Council’s use of zoning overlays to create custom land use tweaks to specific corners of City Council districts, especially when they seem designed to help or hurt a particular project.
“Choking housing supply isn’t the direction that our city should take,” said Mohamed “Mo” Rushdy, who is managing partner of the Riverwards Group and chair of the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp.
“Overlays that prohibits housing units is generally a bad idea,” Rushdy said. “Overlays that targets a ‘specific’ project is, let me be politically correct here, is simply unwise and not right.”
Young said his bill is simply meant to preserve the possibility of jobs, especially as a new 20-year tax abatement is considered next year for the redevelopment of old commercial, industrial, and public buildings into housing.
“Next year, we’re going to be facing, potentially, a bill that will allow abatements for underutilized commercial properties,” Young said. “We want to make sure that those benefits that the property owners can reap, that Philadelphians see those benefits with the creation of jobs in those locations.”