Redevelopment Authority accuses Polish Museum of ‘bullying tactics’ to win back building

Michael Blichasz of the Polish American Cultural Center attempted to mount a last-ditch effort Wednesday to reclaim the publicly owned building his nonprofit occupied for almost 40 years.

At a City Council hearing, he evoked a litany of long dead political figures who he swore had supported Philadelphia’s alleged effort to gift 308-10 Walnut St. to his organization in the late 1980s.

Blichasz name-dropped former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, Councilmembers Joan L. Krajewski and Fran Rafferty, as well as U.S. Rep. Lucien Blackwell. None of them are alive to speak to the long ago deal.

He said U.S. Sen. John Heinz, who represented Pennsylvania from 1977 to 1991, assured him that the city would buy the building for Blichasz’s group, despite an earlier understanding that the Polish Center would pay Philadelphia back the $4,687,750 that the building’s purchase eventually cost taxpayers.

“Unfortunately, our buddy John Heinz was killed in that helicopter crash, otherwise he’s the kind of guy who would definitely come and be part of this hearing today,” said Blichasz, who is president and lone face of the group.

But as the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) argued in written testimony, there is no proof for Blichasz’s claims. He and his museum were removed from the Walnut Street property earlier this year.

It is true that Blichasz ran the Polish American Cultural Center, which included a museum on the first floor, out of the property on Walnut Street for decades, and the city left the group alone, seemingly forgetting that it owned the Society Hill building.

When the Redevelopment Authority took an interest in the building again under Mayor Jim Kenney, a 2019 tour revealed dangerously deteriorated conditions that Blichasz said his group could not afford to remediate.

The Redevelopment Authority then offered Blichasz numerous compromise deals that could have left the Polish Museum in the Walnut Street building’s first floor intact, while the city reclaimed the rest of the building. The city also offered him money to relocate the museum.

Blichasz declined to compromise, arguing that he owned the building based on the supposed handshake agreement in the 1980s.

When the city eventually took him to court in 2023 to effectuate his eviction, he refused to hire a lawyer. The court subsequently ruled in favor of the Redevelopment Authority. So he has been pressing his case in City Council, just as he did in the 1980s when he sought to create a Polish complement to the city-backed African American and Mummers museums.

But this time, instead of winning a building, he only secured Wednesday’s hearing.

The Redevelopment Authority appears to have had enough, accusing Blichasz of no longer representing any meaningful constituency of Polish Americans and carrying out a quixotic crusade to no tangible end.

“Mr. Blichasz continues to attempt to improperly use political favor, undue influence, and bullying tactics to force the PRA to convey the property to a defunct corporation that does not have the financial capacity to properly repair and maintain a very valuable property in the heart of Old City,” the authority argued in written testimony.

The Redevelopment Authority says that between April and October of 2025, it sought to work with Blichasz to remove the Polish Museum’s collection of artifacts, but he declined to help.

“Instead, PACC [Polish American Cultural Center] continues to attempt to reach out to various political offices for assistance in an attempt to improperly influence the PRA to transfer to PACC a highly valuable publicly owned asset,” the authority’s testimony reads.

“PACC clearly is not entitled to ownership of the property, nor does it have the wherewithal or financial capacity to even properly maintain the property,” the authority’s testimony continues. “The PRA would not be a good public steward were it to convey the property to PACC, which appears to be in its present state, a defunct corporation that is only represented by Mr. Blichasz.”

Blichasz has sought to petition for aid from U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, Philadelphia congressional representatives, and other politicians. Only Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents the district where the museum is located, has offered assistance.

But at the end of his City Council hearing, with just Squilla and Councilmember Mike Driscoll in attendance, there was no clear avenue left for Blichasz to plead his case.

Still, Blichasz said he still believed that the agreement made in the 1980s with politicians of the day would exculpate him — even if there is no extant legal proof of it.

“All these people, these great people, came and said it was finalized,” Blichasz said. “And no one ever came for 30 years.”