because I had there was no activity um for four years because I was I was just not able to get
anybody there because Maplewood Mall is very quiet pedestrian street I love it I absolutely
love that street. That's why I am there. But there's no traffic there because actually Maplewood
Mall does not connect directly to Germantown Avenue or Green Street. The way it's situated
is the entry and exit of Maplewood Mall is from the little Armat Street, not from Germantown or
green. And I think that partially explains why it's a very quiet space. I want to just go back
to this map for a moment, just for your information of these properties that are on the
same side of Maplewood Mall where I am, all except to my knowledge, all properties between
my property here at 43 and at the end close to germantown avenue all except two um are vacant
have been vacant for years um there's no commercial activity on them people are not able to find uh
tenants i don't know how or or commercial tenants i don't know if they're they're even
looking um but i know from a couple of neighbors who have expressed um had expressed same concern
With me, there were no commercial attendants. And from my property up to Green Street, there's the Prince Lodge that meets every now and then, maybe a couple of times, every two months, maybe.
But it's a private, you know, private establishment. And there's a little music school there. They have lessons there. And one law firm and then on Green Street, there's a Caribbean diner at the end.
But these properties, majority of them are vacant. Same thing on the other side, at least half of the buildings are vacant downstairs. So that's a that has been a real hardship.
And so when I started the Airbnb, I was really happy about being able to do that and then controlling carefully and vetting visitors there, both on the Airbnb.
and vetting visitors there both on the Airbnb platform and then I myself I because I manage
the property I'm there all the time so it's very important to me that there are visitors who
understood the quiet. Why don't you show us some photos of the property? Yeah so here is
my backyard that I renovated completely it's very nice patio and backyard there and here you can see
all the central AC units for the buildings here in the next one this is the current third floor
that I have self-explanatory what these rooms are and that's what I have there currently
that's another picture of the same place and uh the next one is the first floor proposal for
furniture um for the visitor accommodations in the open space here's one view um of it
and uh here if i can get here's the other other one behind that big window that's where maplewood
mall is and you can see it also on the other and that's uh those are the pictures um of the first
and third floors and i keep them i maintain everything myself and yeah that's pretty much
pretty much it um so so so i understand that the first and third floor you have visitor
accommodations good right now and on the second floor you have a long-term tenant correct correct
okay all right all right questions from the board no chair no chair questions or comments
from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the
virtual audience chair we have alissa weiss okay they have been unmuted and allowed to speak
yeah yes hello good afternoon good afternoon miss weiss could you state your name and spell
for the court stenography allison a double l i s o n weiss w e i s s solo germantown civic
association affected rco all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes please proceed miss weiss yes thank you um i just wanted to um say
because you didn't mention that in our letter we had expressed a uh temporary variance for i i see
that in this way okay and the city of philadelphia uh and the planning commission and the council
member recently um had a multi-million dollar renovation of the maplewood mall and so we're
hoping for uh changes and occupancy so that is why we would like to see this on a temporary basis
thank you so much for calling in we appreciate your input is there anyone else in the virtual
audience i see no hayes chair my planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do chair please proceed
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use zoning
at this location uh we feel the applicant has demonstrated a hardship and that visitor
accommodations are less likely to cause adverse impacts in commercial districts accordingly the
planning commission recommends the board grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2023 006285 43 Maplewood
Mall. I vote yes with temporary variance. Expires 2727. Also in proviso, first and third floor only.
James Snell my vote is yes with provisos
LeVar Leonard Palmer my vote is yes with provisos
thank you thank you you have your votes
and thank you
we're going to go to let's see here
number one
MI 2023-006-336-3721
in Midville. Stephanie Boggs-Magna is the attorney.
There is a letter of support from East Falls Development
Corporation, letter of support from East Falls Community
Council, letter of support from
East Falls Farmer's Market,
and we also have seven emails in support of the requested
And we also have seven emails in support of the requested special exception.
special exception.
Counsel, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenography?
Sure. Stephanie Magana, S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E. Last name's M-A-G-A-G-N-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Sure. My clan is the theater at East Falls LLC. They are the owner of the property, and they'll be represented today by Felicity Moorman.
Okay. And all of your exhibits have been sent in within five days?
Please start your presentation and share your screen.
Absolutely. Thank you.
So briefly, before Felicity tells a little bit more about the use, this property is located at the corner of Midvale and Frederick Street, about one block north of Ridge Ave.
very closely in proximity to the SEPTA East Falls train station, as well as several bus routes that
are located here. You can see on the aerial image shown here. The building was originally constructed
in about 1920. It was used as a movie theater in its original conception, but then it was later
converted for a warehouse and for office space. But as you can see in the picture, it's maintained
much of its character as a movie theater um so more recently in its history the falser club
and the theater at east falls lc bought the building to kind of save this from being
redeveloped most likely for multi-family use given the market demand in east falls
and intended to have it become a community center and events based for local community events
and that kind of grew organically into what is now becoming a performing arts center in east
So this application is seeking to document its use as a performing arts center and space for community events.
They are not proposing any additions or renovations to the building in connection with these use, but they will be preserving the character of the existing building, which you can see in the picture.
um when i'll make a particular note about our refusal um we are seeking special exception
approval for uses assembly and entertainment use when this application was filed um performing arts
venues and the like were more broadly defined um as assembly and entertainment uses at the time
under the zoning code um this was filed before more recent changes to that in the code um but
as you can see here is our notice of refusal and as or at referral and as mentioned we are
stipulating to its accuracy um also as was mentioned by the chairman and we did meet with
east falls community council their letter of support is included within the package
along with several letters of support from other members of the community which has been very
helpful um the falzer club has quite a loyal following in east falls and felicity moorman who
who is the representative for the Falser Club
and for the owner of the property,
can explain a little bit more about the use.
So with that, I will ask her to raise her hand
if she hasn't already and identify herself for the board.
What's her client's name, Ms. Magadia?
Felicity Moorman, M-O-O-R-M-A-N.
She has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Thank you.
Hi, good afternoon. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, how do you do? My name is Felicity Mormon. That's F-E-L-I-C-I-T-E. Last name Mormon. M as in
Mary. O-O-R-M-A-N as in Nancy. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Proceed, counsel. Thank you, Felicity. Did you hear my
short introduction to the board? Yes, ma'am. Everything I said correct and accurate?
it? Absolutely. Okay. Would you adopt it as your own? I would. Great. Please feel free. I'll go
through the slides at your pace, Felicity. Thank you so much. Thank you, board. I appreciate
this opportunity today. We're exceptionally excited about this moment in the Falzer Club
history and this building's history. Just to give a little bit more, but brief history,
my co-founder and I purchased the building originally, moving in in May 2014 from Resources
for human development. It had been used as co-working space and we- Felicity, let me interrupt
you just for one second. I'm not sure if the slide deck is sharing appropriately, so I'm going to
reshare. Just one second. You bet. Continue, please. So my co-founder and I purchased the
building to move our software companies into the space, Stratus and BooLogix, where we remained for
over five years until 2020 when our software companies were purchased and the acquiring
company moved our companies to Maniank for a larger space. We then renegotiated a deal to
repurchase the building back from the company that acquired us. Their real estate assessments
proved that indeed multifamily development would be the most lucrative use of the space,
use of the space but we had grown quite attached uh to the the nature of the space and i'll share
but we had grown quite attached to the...
some photos here in just a few minutes but um we negotiated purchased the building back not knowing
what we were going to do with it but having held uh really innumerable community events over the
course of the six years that we were also using it as office space everything from potlucks to
political meetings, to clothing swaps. And so we'd become very comfortable in the space as
something of a community center. So upon purchase, we did a little deeper dive into the
deeper history of the space. Next slide, if you don't mind, Stephanie. Originally a silent film
theater, the Midvale Theater, it opened in November of 1914 and seated nearly 500 people.
By 1930, obviously, talkies, well, maybe not obviously, but talkies had come into trend.
And so the theater owners decided to build a new theater, the New Falls Theater nearby, eventually called the Alden Theater.
And they launched that in 1939, at which time there was no movie theater used for our theater.
So this became a grocery store in 1939 and was later utilized for light manufacturing, warehousing, again, a co-working space for resources for human development, and also, needless to say, our office space for a number of years.
Not wanting to see it destroyed, we bid against others to purchase the property back.
We love it, and we feel like it's a huge part of Philadelphia's history.
So in the last year, we've endeavored to create a space for our community in East Falls.
Our first community event as a space that was an office space was a fundraiser for Ukraine, where we raised $20,000.
These are just some of those photos.
Since then, we've hosted JoyFest.
We were privileged to host the Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival kickoff in conjunction with Shofuso.
And our largest clothing community swapped to date where people bring good clothing and take hopefully all the clothing that people brought.
Not always the case, but this was over our 5,000 square feet.
There was not a spot that didn't have clothing in it.
So phenomenal events.
We've also hosted the East Falls Farmers Winter Market twice.
And again, something like 40 vendors.
So we've seen an organic growth in adoption, utilization, and support of the space.
And we'll just take you through a couple of pictures here briefly so that you get kind of a feel for the unique nature of the building itself.
Stephanie, if you can pop through a couple. Unique nature of performers, too.
I'm scrolling through the performance pictures, Felicity. If you cannot see it, please let me know.
Yep, I got you. Thank you. Now, here on music, this is where we really started to find our groove with our community.
It was consistently requested that we bring in live music. It is a theater. It certainly lends itself to that. And the nature of the theater itself has been minimally impacted by our use as office space.
We have hosted countless musicians now, including Grammy award-winning Bakithi Kumalo, who played on Paul Simon's Graceland album, the late, great Larry McKenna, the phenomenal jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno, and one of my personal favorites, Christine Havrila, and the incredible and exceptional Divine Hand Ensemble.
If you haven't seen them, I have to highly recommend literally international artists from around the world, including Gambia just last weekend.
So not not what we necessarily expected to do with the space, but we continue to do both live music and support our community with things like film screenings that you see here.
Reimagining Safety, where we had really kind of an awakening that we were going to need to
document the use because the turnouts are growing. And it's been an exceptional opportunity to serve
our East Falls community with something fresh and new. We do intend, with the approval of the board,
to subsidize some of the things we do with private events
in order to continue to guarantee fees to musicians
who often take risk in playing in new venues.
A couple of the events,
we had a wedding for a community member,
very touching, really exceptional.
And we still work here.
So my co-founder and I run a software company.
Now, everybody in software works remotely, so we don't have a need for office space anymore.
So this repurposing, while we occasionally have meetings here, is really a labor of love.
A labor of love. If I may, just to close, I want to close with gratitude for the deep conversations we were able to have with the East Falls Community Council, their leadership, membership and committee, including any concerns that they had with regards to parking and noise.
If I may, just to close.
I believe all assuaged and included in the provisos.
So thank you to the community council for their support.
Thank you very much for your time.
Council, one question.
Would you be comfortable with the proviso,
understated performance will be concluded by midnight?
Okay. All right.
Questions on the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
no questions mr chairman questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um only to know what the proviso um mr chair um if the board plans to adopt that it can just say
um events to conclude by midnight thank you or all events to conclude by midnight thank you
um questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have hillary langer they are sure and allowed to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenography
hillary langer h-i-l-a-r-y l-a-n-g-e-r do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do proceed mr langer i just want to uh back up everything felicity
And Stephanie has said it's a an awesome community asset to have in the middle of our community.
They have outstanding performers. It's an incredible community gathering place.
And I say we're very lucky to have them in the middle of our community.
So we're very happy to see you grant special exception with the proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Weiner. We appreciate your call.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Michelle Feldman.
They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Why, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?