Philadelphia Gets $3.5M For Former Tenants And Land For New Affordable Housing In Zoning Settlement
Philadelphia has reached a deal to preserve some affordable housing on a University City site that has been the epicenter of local battles over racial equity and the legacy of historic discrimination.
IBID Associates is free to sell the plot of land it owns at 3900 Market St., currently the site of University City Townhomes, except for a nearly 24K SF parcel it will transfer to the city, per the terms of a court settlement reached between IBID, the city and District 3 Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, the city announced Wednesday.
IBID, an affiliate of the Altman Group of Cos., had let the 70-unit UC Townhomes' 40-year affordable housing contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development expire in 2021, clearing a path for it to sell the nearly 3-acre site situated in the middle of Philadelphia's most popular corridor for life sciences development.
The city will use the parcel for the development of a new 70-unit affordable housing project. IBID also agreed to pay the city $3.5M to be distributed to the former residents of UC Townhomes, many of whom experienced difficulty in finding new landlords that would accept the HUD vouchers they received to help pay rent at the complex, WHYY reports.
After IBID informed UC Townhomes residents that they would need to find new places to live, public outcry prompted Gauthier to introduce a zoning overlay and demolition moratorium for the parcel in question. When the overlay was signed into law a year ago, IBID sued the city and Gauthier in federal court.
The settlement reached this week avoids a trial and exempts IBID's remaining parcel from the overlay, the city announced. It also secured key concessions aimed at appeasing housing advocates and local residents of color, who remembered UC Townhomes' original conception as an acknowledgment of the systemic erasure of the Black Bottom neighborhood by local institutions to develop what is now the University City Science Center.
The city has tasked United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey with distributing the monetary settlement to the 70 former tenants of UC Townhomes — $50K for each, the announcement stated.
When IBID announced its intention to sell the 3900 Market St. parcel, it saw an opportunity in a wave of announcements, plans and groundbreakings for major life sciences projects in University City, especially on Market Street. But in the time it took to reach a settlement, both the life sciences funding environment and the commercial construction pipeline have softened dramatically.
