Mr. Patterson and Mr. Baddione, please.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I'm trying to find Mr. Patterson now, but I just have a...
I promoted him.
Okay, thank you.
You're right.
I'd like to swear to both of you, please.
But both state your name and spell for the court reporter.
I guess good afternoon.
Ronald Patterson, Claire Harrison Law Firm, 1835 Market Street,
Philadelphia PA 19103, on behalf of the applicant.
Michael Mattione, that's M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I,
Federal Reserve Bank Building, 100 North Independence Mall,
Suite 5A Northwest, Philadelphia 19106,
on behalf of Protestants, the William Penn House, and Michael Niederman.
Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And I think if I remember this correctly, Mr. Patterson, we left with you after you questioned
several of your witnesses. Am I right?
That's correct. If you want me to briefly rehash, I'm happy to.
I think we know it, but tell me, would Mr. Mattione now want to cross your witnesses?
Is that where we are? Or do you want to continue?
So, yeah, I would like to continue briefly because when we left the last hearing, we were hoping that we would reach a settlement.
And if not, then we would continue with this hearing today.
So I was going to, I'm bringing back my witnesses, of course, for questioning two of them.
I wanted just to clarify some things. And then I have a CCRA witness would like to speak. And then
my two expert witnesses, which will be available, of course, for cross. And Mr. Matione, I know,
has a handful of witnesses as well. But as you may recall, I'll share my screen.
this application regards 1910 chestnut street i'm just going paint going through some pictures
where we have before the old boy theater here as you see um and
the old boy theater here, as you see. And directly across the street would be an entrance
to the William Penn House right here, which sits back a ways on Ludlow Street.
The application originally contained two things. One was for the use as an eat-in restaurant.
and be in located in the cmx 5 commercial zoning district uh is a permitted use but because we're
within the center city overlay uh which includes chestnut street walnut street and south broad
street it requires a special exception for the restaurant we also had a series of
uh a sign package that we had proposed i'm going to show you that now
for the building
sorry not this
and it included a digital sign package which generated a refusal in addition to the referral
for the use and we as we had represented at the hearing we were withdrawing those digital
signs from the application so therefore this matter just came down to a special exception
for the Eden restaurant so that's that's where we are I don't know attorney Matione if you want
anything otherwise i want to have uh mr palermo return i just just wanted to ask the board how
much time we had because in addition to your witnesses i i do have four witnesses mr chairman
and i was wondering you know where we were going to be in terms of time um i would like to do a
brief opening before my witnesses testify but just yeah we're we're struggling for time you
You know, I'm thinking we're going to get to about one o'clock and maybe have to continue.
And excuse me, Mr. Mattione, I believe the plan was this was left with you cross-examining the witnesses who Mr. Patterson previously prevented.
If you can do that today and also if we can get CCRA's position on the record, that might be all that will be possible.
I have no cross-examination for his witnesses who appeared at the last hearing.
if he has, and I know he has additional witnesses, if they testify, I may have cross-examination
for them, but it depends on how far along we go and he testifies, you know, but if the
likelihood is my witnesses would not testify to at least like one or two of them to be
excused because, you know, they're just on the line doing nothing, and if that's okay.
So, Mr. Patterson, you're prepared to put your additional witnesses on?
Yes. Yes. The first will be Michael Palermo, P-A-L-E-R-M-O.
Excuse me. You don't in the next hour that we have, you don't anticipate going beyond that.
And CCRA's position should have put one on the record so that Mr.
Matione can excuse his witnesses. If that's what we're saying, yes, I think I could complete my part of the case,
of course, subject to and reserving, you know, rebuttal or clarification after Mr.
Matione's case. But that probably is a good place to break.
if we agree on that we get so essentially the next hearing would be about the experts and
mr neederman i guess too okay thank you okay so i'll stop before my experts is that what we're
saying we're agreeing to no i i think what's going to happen okay all right unless you can get the
experts in okay we'll see how we go let's just let's see if we can get as much in as okay sure
Can I ask one more question, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Maglioni, would it make sense to first
get CCRA's position on the record if they've been waiting?
We can do that, sure.
Chair, can we ask if any representative of CCRA is present?
Any representative, pleasure.
It's Mr. Gross, G-R-O-S-S.
mr gross yes could you could you state your name please and um my name is gross g-r-o-s-s
i live at 1920 chestnut street philadelphia pennsylvania right do you swear a firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you proceed thank you
proceed thank you uh hi mr gross um could you tell the board your name and address please
Oh, hi, Mr. Gross.
Could you tell the board
mr gross yes you're you're breaking up
Thank you. So where do you live in relationship to 1910 Chestnut Street?
Next door. My building abuts the property that's being proposed as the restaurant.
And how many residents live in that building?
And does your building support this application?
It does.
Okay. And you're also here on behalf of the Center City Residence Association?
I am. I'm the president of the Center City Residence Association.
Okay. And you can confirm that we have met publicly with full CCRA membership that was notified as well as some meetings with a special committee regarding this application?
that is correct um there have been a series of uh meetings and discussions about this project
and CCRA has notified its membership about the existence of the project
and how would you describe or how do you view this restaurant as presented well
if i could give two minutes of background when the project was first proposed
The proposers asked if CCRA would join in a kind of community representative agreement, a community representative forum with them.
I said that I would rather have a community benefits approach.
I would rather have to appoint a stakeholders committee, which we do when we have major projects, and let the stakeholders committee composed of nearby residents and others throughout the neighborhood make a recommendation about an agreement and bring that to the CCRA board.
That approach was followed.
I became president on July 1st.
I appointed a stakeholders group consisting of two residents of William Penthouse, the chairman of their board, and another member of their board, two residents of my building, 1920 Chestnut Street, including a professor of engineering to handle engineering questions,
the president of Robin Real Estate, which owns almost all the adjacent buildings opposite the property and west of William Penthouse, a resident of the Rittenhouse Plaza, and a resident of a different part of the neighborhood.
That group met in extensive sessions with the bankroll presenters, and they presented them with a substantial agreement.
They listened to all the concerns that people had brought to them.
They dealt expressly with questions of congestion, noise, lighting, security, and the unusual nature of some of the restaurant's proposed sports theming.
Of course, the neighborhood is well familiar with Stephen Starr, who is going to be the operator of the restaurant.
But this proposal raised questions that we haven't seen before, or at least raised some concerns that we thought should be addressed in a written memorandum.
That agreement was reached and was presented to the CCRA board.
Before presenting that agreement, I insisted that it be published publicly in our CCRA this week.
our newsletter that goes to 1300 residents we are the largest rco in the city we have 1300 members
and on two separate weeks we published the agreement we also asked for comment before
the board would take up the agreement the comments were overwhelmingly in favor of the comments or
I'm going to allow the testimony. I hear what you're saying.
The comments were overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement,
including comments from residents of William Penhouse.
I made sure that people understood that we would have a board meeting about it,
and people were invited to attend.
Our board meetings are open to our members.
The agreement essentially provides extensive protections for adjacent buildings,
including William Powell.
Mr. Chairman, I would object. I just say the agreement's up on the board. It's a written agreement. It speaks for itself, and I think it's going to be admitted into the record. I don't know that we have to have it.
Mr. Chairman, I would inject,
I just say the agreement's up on the board.
It's a written.
Okay, we won't go over the whole agreement, but Mr. Patterson, continue.
Yeah, I would like to just maybe focus on one, and it's one that's on the page. So there was some rumors or concerns about gaming within the facility. Is that correct, Mr. Gross?
That is correct. And we had heard originally that there were residents who were quite concerned, as was I, that this could have been a gaming facility.
My condition for proceeding in the way that I did and the way CCRA did was to insist that the applicant, the restaurant, the Stephen Starr restaurant, and the owner of the building, which is Pearl Properties and not the applicant, jointly agreed to record a deed restriction prohibiting gaming at this location.
That was my condition for proceeding with any communications. That was agreed, and it's paragraph 1A in the agreement, which is up in front of your screen, and as far as I understand, that restriction has been recorded, which will permanently prohibit any gaming at this location.
The balance of the agreement, and I won't do any more than just summarize it, dealt with a series of issues that the residents had in mind having to do with noise, congestion, safety, lighting, capacity, and everything else that might arise from the operation of a large restaurant.
In all respects, we were informed by the stakeholders group that they had reached a satisfactory agreement with the promoters, the Stephen Starr restaurant.
And another provision, which I do want to highlight, is that all neighboring buildings were offered an indemnity in case there would be any damage caused to those buildings by virtue of a patron of the restaurant, somebody who might be disruptive or unruly.
by way of example my building has very extensive planters in front of the building
after our super bowl victory they were all destroyed we were concerned that that not
happen again and bankroll has offered and we have agreed for all neighboring buildings to an
indemnity in case any damage arose we've never seen that in any of the community benefits
agreements we have negotiated and i've negotiated personally about 10 of them in the ccra neighborhood
This matter was brought to the board. I would note that on the stakeholders group, as I've said, there was the chairman of the William Penthouse board and another board member representative.
The CCRA board had open and extensive discussion about the agreement and about the operation of the facility, and it voted 28 to 1 to adopt the agreement and approve the facility proceeding.
This is after our zoning committee had voted 10 to 2, not to oppose the special exception.
okay i have since heard i have since heard from members throughout the community as i walk around
the community and the overwhelming chairman again to any of these other statements because
thank you mr patterson continue sure okay um mr gross do you recall in 2017 there was another
application for a sit-down restaurant proposed here yes there was a very large restaurant
proposed. I'm judging to the relevance, Mr. Chairman. I was going to get to it. And how large
was it, if you recall? I believe it was 350 seats against the current 400. And was there support for
this restaurant, which simply needed the same special exception? Yes. There was an issue with
the liquor licensing, and that was agreed to between our building, William Penthouse, and the
applicant and there was no objection to the special exception for that restaurant, which
unfortunately failed and didn't go forward. License agreements have been incorporated in
the agreement that was before you and with the stakeholders in CCRA that are more restrictive
than the agreement that was reached with the previous restaurant. You're saying that William
Penthouse supported that restaurant? They did. Do you recall in 2016 that the owner of 1900
of Marcus Street, the former Philadelphia Stock Exchange building, had a ZVA case and
involved the parking garage on the rear of Ludlow Street that faced William Penthouse?
I recall that well. I was a member of the zoning committee of CCRA at that time,
and I was approached by the then president of the board of William Penthouse, Dan Coyle,
and another member of the board, and asked if we would continue at the zoning committee the
variance request because of their concern that the parking, the newly arranged parking for
because of their concern that the parking, the new newly arranged parking for 1900 market, which backs on.
I don't know.
I think we don't all hear say those statements, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Patterson.
So let me ask you this.
Based on your observation that you live next door and across the street from the William Penthouse,
do you see or understand any fire department or emergency vehicles can access William Penthouse and where?
based on your observations. I personally see emergency vehicles using Ludlow Street,
the four bays that were protected in the earlier zoning decision, and I sometimes see emergency
vehicles on Chestnut Street across from my house, and I've also seen them on Ranstead Street at
another entrance. Because I am out and around, I have opportunity, and because I live across the
street. I have opportunity to see a great deal of the activity. I would say there are infrequent
emergency vehicles in the front of William Penthouse. Most of them are on Ludlow Street,
to my observation. Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Otherwise, I have no further
questions. All I would add for the board is that CCRA, which is experiencing our 75th anniversary
this year is a well-regarded and long-standing RCO is overwhelmingly in favor of a special
exception for this project. Thank you. Mr. Matteoni? I have no questions for Mr. Rowe.
Okay. Mr. Patterson, continue. Thank you. Michael Palermo, please.
i think i'm unmuted you mr put could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Sure. My name is Michael Palermo, P-A-L-E-R-M-O.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Michael, to rehash, what is your position with the Star Restaurant Organization?
I'm the vice president of development. I've been with Star Restaurant since 1998.
and um as part of your duties you develop open and oversee new restaurants is that fair
that's an accurate statement i work with the designers i work with the operations team
to uh to develop the restaurants how many star restaurants have you worked on
uh in the last 24 years uh clipped to 45 restaurants and you've acted similarly with
developing and proposing this restaurant? That's correct. This restaurant has been
the same. I just want to have a pointed question. So could you briefly describe again the nature
and the scope of this proposed restaurant? Sure. This restaurant is a scale boutique restaurant
that is sports focused. The restaurant is being built and developed to be comfortable for sports
enthusiasts but also comfortable for guests that are not primarily interested in sports
uh the restaurant is a is a complement to our other written house restaurants
park barkley prime the love continental midtown dandelion uh the restaurant has
you know five different venues inside of it there's a large great space
with seating for approximately 100 guests there's a more formal restaurant
in a part of the building on the first floor that accommodates about 130 guests
there's a smaller bar on the mezzanine that accommodates approximately 50 guests