and this is the rear yard and there's a set of steps underneath these steps leading to the basement
my front door again there's our placards posting all right so here are the plans um
let's start go to the left side
so here's the lower level here's the front of the building where you can go down the steps
and into the studio in the front.
And again, you know, we drew the bed in.
There's no beds depicted in the photographs,
but the kitchens and the baths and the standalone closets are.
So then if you want to get into the rear unit,
you would come into the rear steps and down into the basement,
or you can come in the front door and then switch back into the bottom.
But there's a means of egress for both studios in the basement.
So then you'd walk up, again, switch back steps.
You'd go to the front studio, and then there's an entrance to the rear studio.
And then you have an exit to the rear yard on the first floor.
Continue going up the steps.
Then you're on the second floor front, second floor rear.
And I can blow this up and show you the square footage.
The smallest ones are going to be in the basement.
So this is 278 and 357.
Oh, here's, excuse me, the smallest are the basement and first floor front.
The other studio here is 278, and then rear is 408.
Second floor, 332, 401.
and then third floor, 330 and 401.
There's no rooftop deck in this facility.
The other documents are what you would typically see in a presentation such as this,
the application, the PIP form, the tax information indicating that taxes are due,
zoning map it is a large lot it's 82 feet deep the house itself is about 62.
the deed indicating ownership in april of 2024
this is a notice letter to the community for the community meeting
uh so i just want to get into these zoning records so again i said in the beginning that
This zone is a two-family.
So it's a 2010 property, as of right, two-family dwelling.
And I couldn't find, you know, anything other than a site plan for this property and the front elevation.
So the front elevation is basically what's there.
I think they took some liberty maybe with the front porch, but it's basically laid out that way.
Now, I found the rental license from 2012.
Well, it's inactive.
It says two units, which would have been legal.
This is now we jump up to 2021.
All of a sudden, it's eight units.
Again, this is inactive because it went inactive as of 2023.
And, you know, Odin Properties is a well-known company, and they operate many, many apartments in the city.
so again my client looks at it does a little research on odin figured all right if they
have eight units it's eight units uh then 2023 again there's a new owner eight units
Then 2023, again, there's a new owner, eight units.
My client purchased it, was able to get a rental license for eight units, and it's active.
So then I went and started to look at the building permits.
So I see in 2011, there's suppression system.
There are sprinklers in the building, plumbing permits, mechanical and electrical.
So when I looked at them, these elite fire protection, again, they do annual inspections, which is now expired because there's nobody in there.
But I'll show you that at the end. So here's a plumbing permit from 2011.
Somehow this contractor got a plumbing permit for eight water closets, you know, eight toilets, eight bathtubs, two washing machines and 14 laboratories.
Then the mechanical was able to install eight wall-mounted heat pumps in each of the rooms, one in each of the eight rooms.
This is 2011.
Electrical, eight 20-amp, 200-volt outlets, and they have it listed as a duplex apartment,
which we know that it either was then or became eight in 2012 or shortly thereafter.
are so these are just some other records i pulled to show you that there's a sprinkler certification
so there are sprinklers there which has since expired
expiration date 9 25 of last year and this is the administrative notice of the violation
indicating that you need a uu new use because they the city classified this as a rooming house
Even though technically a rooming house would be just rooms with maybe a common bathroom, here I'm arguing that these are basically studio apartments, which they are.
That's why I showed you all the photographs.
Again, a sprinkler certification.
And we also have central alarm monitoring by Frank Gentile of Elite.
All right.
So, again, my client had a problem.
It's empty. He doesn't know what he's going to do with it. The community doesn't want students.
So Mr. Chaudhary went and found a company called One Year Health Matters, LLC.
We have a signed lease agreement for a three year term, master leasing these eight apartments to this company.
And they have ready, willing and able seniors, 60 years and old, older ambulatory, where they this company coordinates the tenant services.
and it's a triple net lease.
So I'll go through the lease.
I don't want to be overbearing,
but I think some of the clauses in there
are significant to what we're trying to do here.
And then I'll talk about the tenant background
and the tenant experience
and show you where they're doing this now
in Southwest Philadelphia.
They basically sublease 31 bedroom apartments for seniors.
The apartments are owned by somebody else,
just like this situation,
and they provide in-home care as needed.
okay wait a minute um so um our council this proviso for seniors only we can't really enforce
that that is correct we cannot do that yeah so but i i made a note because the rco um did that
and i there was a i don't know if the cba has been finalized but i know there was conversations
towards an agreement related to the provisos okay yeah i was trying to see in case i don't want
them to go all through it and we can't really like you know proviso it so i think i think it's okay
we're gonna you know trust that you just submit it with your packet in the lease
agreement we can't enforce that okay only seniors only proviso but we do
understand that you have a CBA with the RCO so right and you and mr. Graham to be
perfectly candid the RCO is not signing yet but they understand they wanted us
to do that so we signed it as an indication of good faith okay so all right
if i don't want to bring your client on to adopt your testimony sure mr tyree can you come on please
uh can you hear me yes yep okay hi can you state your name and spell it for the record
uh my name is sad s-a-a-d last name is chowdhri c-h-a-u-d-h-r-i okay do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do okay go ahead counsel all right
Mr. Chowdhury, were you on the call when I presented the project?
And did you take all the photographs that I showed here to the board today?
And are you an active participant in this project?
And have you coordinated and leased to a home health care company, a master lease?
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true, correct?
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own?
Yes. Correct. Yes.
I have no further questions. Okay. All right. I have a question.
Can you go back to your rendering and tell me how does a person get to the second, I mean, the basement rear apartment?
it should be on it might be on your plan yeah i think you're right i don't know if i passed
them or not i think you did but it's kind of i did you're right miss ma'am you're right
i know the answer but i want to show it to you
All right, so here is the lower level. This is the front where my cursor is to get into the front studio. You would enter through the front, go down the steps and into the unit.
The same thing with the, with the, the rear.
You would enter in through.
The rear and go, so you're going to the other alley. I mean, there's no, you can't do that on all sides. Like, so I think what I think what happens.
my mistake I think what happens here because I was I was in these apartments you come in through
the front and you go down the switch back steps to get into the lower level and then you can go
all right that makes okay all right questions from the board
okay um I just I not question comment this is entirely too dense um and I don't understand
And you say you're going to do this with seniors. These are a bunch of steps where you say these people are ambulatory. I guess I could call myself a senior at this point. I'm ambulatory, but a bunch of steps like that is a little hard for, I think, most of the seniors to deal with.
Plus, you say now you said you were going to contract with some service that's going to come in and help these seniors.
Is that what I heard?
Yes. Yes.
So the company, the company that we have the lease with is called One Your Health Matters.
And what they do is they have skilled and unskilled services, nursing and LPNs, and they will, I mean, it's just like seniors who are living alone at home.
You know, you can have a foot doctor come in one day.
You could have somebody from Penn Health come in one day.
The next day, you might have someone come in and bathe you, even though the family's taking care of the senior.
This is the move now where there's all services being provided in the home.
And this company has already 30 apartments in a structure in southwest Philly where they do this for 30 different individuals.
And they don't take if you're in fact in a lease, if you're on a walker, they won't take you.
If you're using a wheelchair, they won't take you.
They just it just doesn't fit their model.
Their model is ambulatory individuals over 60 years old, and they say they have a need.
So they're going to sign a master lease for three years.
And if the board is feeling uncomfortable and want to put in a sunset provision or something like that, because the lease is only three years, I'll be candid.
It's not a 20-year lease.
It's three years.
So I'm trying to give you as much flavor as what this client is trying to do.
yeah i have a question about the the operator so i understand that they have this other building in
southwest philly is that building also a stair access only building yes in fact i have a picture
this is the bill so okay so i will say the big difference here is this is a two-story building
versus what we're looking at which is going to be four stories once we include
The basement and like that's a very different setup. So I don't is the.
Operator able to speak to how they plan to manage.
2 more flights of stairs with elderly.
You know, homeowners are renters.
Well, I'm just going to talk about the economics that they're, they are signing a master lease.
where they are going to be responsible for insurance, taxes, utilities, and rent.
And then it is up to them to fill the units.
the units if they have understand that i think what we're i think the reason we're giving these
I think while we understand that, I think the reason we're...
questions is because their model in southwest philly does not directly apply to the setup of
this current building and while they yes they take the risk when they sign the lease it is a very
different setup if they have to start renting it out to other people and it becomes something
that's like very different than what we've discussed very different than what's been
discussed with the rcos and the residents it becomes a completely different project all
together and we're talking about anybody could rent here yeah i i can see yeah i can see that
miss when i guess the only thing i would say is what's different about our building is one floor
right because if if a senior walks in and is in the basement that's one floor down
if he's on the first he or she is on the first floor it's even and so it's it has to do with
the two apartments on the third floor then I I can see that the other thing and I'm sorry
the other thing is I mean the my concern is um for eight dwelling unit you need to have
3,400 square feet. And currently you have 1,365 square feet. So you're talking about
almost 2,000 square feet less than you would ordinarily need to have this number of units.
And it appears that somebody did this conversion. It doesn't appear that they had any permits to do it. And if they had tried to get permits to do this, they wouldn't have been allowed to do it.
And I just, I'm having a real problem with the density. I'm having a real problem with the idea that you're going to put seniors, which, you know, right now they may not be needing a walker or wheelchair, but there's no guarantee that, you know, they won't fall.
they won't have some other condition that comes up where they're gonna have uh the ambulatory
problems that makes this um all these steps a problem and even to get into the first floor
unit you have to go uh first floor unit you have to go up steps i mean this isn't this isn't like a
a property where you know you're you there's any floor where you don't have to deal with steps
I hear what you're saying. I mean, we're just trying to go on the track record of this company side, interviewed a number of different companies, and this was one that said they would take senior adults 60 years or older, ambulatory, non-vehicle owning, and they participate in the tenant's coordinated transportation program.
So I hear what everybody's saying. I don't know how you can limit your population of renters to just seniors. I mean, I don't know how you can do that either.
I have a question about the trash done at RCO, wanted to have dedicated trash areas and trash compactors. Where would, where are they? Like, where's the space on the plan for trash?
Interior trash storage or?
All right, let me, I'm going to go into that.
Management plan is.
All right, so.
on the the there's the basement front trash storage a mop closet same thing here
okay same thing here and there and and the the there's one on each in each studio apartment
and the company is going to be responsible for collecting this trash from each senior's room
that's that's in the lease also all right um questions from our attorney
not at this time questions from the virtual audience
madam chair i do not see any hands raised okay on planning commission amy boyd with
the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the existing
RM1 residential multifamily. Based on the lot area, the property would be allowed three units
buy rate or four units with the mixed income housing bonus. Eight units is not the least
minimum and there is no evidence that the conversion was done with the benefit of the
proper zoning permits. The Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the requested
The Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance for eight dwelling units.
variance for eight dwelling units.
Can I address that?
Yes, you may, counsel.
All right, thank you.
So, I know there's eight units.
I can't prove it that there's apartments on this block with six bedrooms and potentially seven bedrooms.
So I think we have to look at not necessarily the number of units, but the number of bedrooms.