Thank you. Thank you very much. Please identify yourself for the record. 122 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005
Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and members of the Finance Committee. It is nice to be back again. My name is Paul Lonie, Philadelphia Projects Director for Westrum Development Company. Our current Philadelphia office addresses are 3200 South 20th Street, 3101 West Thompson Street, 4451 Ridge Avenue and soon to open at 2691 Somerton Avenue and 4501 Richmond Street.
What about me? You hear all those addresses. Did you hear one in west or southwest? No, no, no. Just kidding.
Today I'm here to testify on Bill No. 060005 as it relates to a new development for us, that of the former Philadelphia Coke site in the Bridesburg section of the City. This lies along the North Delaware River near 123 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 the foot of the Betsy Ross Bridge and will hopefully be part of the New River City. It is Westrum's policy to meet with the neighborhood community organizations or simply the neighbors at least once a month prior and during construction. We have formal community agreements which we negotiate with various organizations for each of our developments. We have formal agreements with the Somerton Civic Association, the East Falls Community Council and the Brewerytown Community Development Corporation, along with less formal agreements with the Packard Park Civic Association in South Philadelphia. In the next month, we also expect to formalize an agreement with the Bridesburg community and its representative organizations. We are a new neighbor and we like to become partners in the goals of our neighbors. Today I'm here to discuss our 124 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 75-acre Philly Coke site in which we hope to build over 1,000 houses. The challenges of this development are many: Pollution of the ground, challenging soil conditions, an industrial, not residential infrastructure. These conditions are not unique to the Delaware or even Philadelphia. But if we are to keep up with the other great cities of our nation, we must accept these challenges and work together with the community and the government to overcome them. Another Westrum development is the old U.S. Steel site which fronts on Lake Michigan and is on the south side of Chicago. Many of the conditions of that site are the same. The city has asked us that we donate a strip of ground along the lakefront as a community greenway and public area. In return, Chicago has committed many millions of dollars in tax incentives and Department of Transportation money for that project, 125 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 because it's economically feasible to do it only with the assistance of government. They know it will help the city to prosper and, more importantly, reuse the land that has laid fallow far too long. We ask for your help by giving a favorable recommendation to this bill. This bill would allow us to economically donate the land of North Delaware greenway and give existing citizens of the river communities and all Philadelphians access to the North Delaware that presently just simply doesn't exist. Rehabilitating old abandoned industrial sites into new housing is an extreme challenge. Transforming into green recreational area will be impossible without your help. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and I'd be glad to answer any questions about this development. 126 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005
Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)
Thank you, Mr. Lonie. Is Mr. John McDonald here, Impact Services?
Thank you. Welcome. Give him our best. Identify yourself for the record and welcome.
Good afternoon, Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the Finance Committee. My name is Ed Blaney and I'm Deputy Director of Impact Services Corporation. We're a non-profit community development organization located in Kensington. Recently, we expanded our housing activities that will add to the many services that we provide in our 127 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 neighborhood. One of the projects that we have adopted is the Twins at Frankford Creek located at Castor and Wingohocking Streets in Juniata Park. This project includes development of 50 new three and four-bedroom twin homes and a First Tee driving range for City kids along the Frankford Creek. Impact has adopted the project to assist with land acquisition, community relations and the sale of the houses. The Twins at Frankford Creek is a mixed-income development designed to have a strong and positive impact on the real estate market in the distressed neighborhoods of Juniata Park and southern Frankford. Houses will be selling for prices between $130,000 and $150,000. This will make a significant improvement in sales prices within the community. The Twins project will also provide houses for sale to low-income people, meeting a longstanding need in the neighborhood for affordable housing. 128 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 I am here today to express our support for the New River City initiative. This funding would be used for capital construction of water infrastructure, including sewers, water mains and hopefully storm water management infrastructure. The Twins at Frankford Creek project would benefit directly from this funding. As part of the project, we anticipate providing new water and sewers to all 50 houses. This will be an additional cost beyond the cost to build the houses. The cost of providing new sewers and water mains are prohibitive to developers of affordable and mixed-income housing, and there is no 18 direct funding source to take care of these costs. Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. Any questions? (No response.)
Thank 129 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 you. Mr. Kamps, Transactionable Property Solutions. Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience. Welcome.
My name is Charlie Kamps. I'm President of Transactionable Property Solutions and I am here to address Councilwoman Blackwell and everyone else who is still here. My firm is one of the leading developers of distressed, impaired and underutilized properties in the tristate region. I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify in support of Bill 19 60005, as it will be a key ingredient for helping to bring about what will be a magnificent asset for Philadelphia and its people. " 130 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 I make note of that because I know many of you here for a very long time have dreamed about recapturing all the majestic beauty and enjoyment of Philadelphia's waterfront. That vision of a restored waterfront as an attractive, accessible place for people to live, work and play is what everyone would like to see. All across the nation, cities have realized that a substantial part of their river's edge no longer needs to be compromised by industrial blight. They have come to realize that their natural resources such as rivers, tributaries and associated wildlife are precious commodities that need protection from further degradation. So the work of turning underutilized and distressed riverfront land back to productive public use has finally come of age. As a result of Mayor Street's New River City initiative, the idea of converting distressed, impaired and 131 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 underutilized properties along the river's edge began as a stimulating dream. In the years that followed, developers like myself pulled together huge teams of professionals from every discipline imaginable to turn ideas and concepts into engineered designs to address the needs of the local community, the regulatory needs of the government and the economic needs of our investors. In the months to come, we will begin to break ground for two exciting new residential neighborhoods on the Delaware in the Northeast. These projects are called Tacony Point and Independence Point, and they will each replace sizable industrial brownfield sites that have sat idle for decades. The projects we are building will be unlike anything Philadelphia has seen. Together they will create more than 2,000 new market-rate homes in the City, homes that the average working family can afford. The project build-out will 132 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 become an economic engine that will keep running for a good five years, consuming materials, supplies and labor from the region, employing hundreds of workers from the City's labor force, and ultimately employing hundreds of full-time workers after build-out. In my line of work, I meet a lot of people from a broad range of disciplines, backgrounds and localities where all too often they are not familiar with Philadelphia. They truly are surprised when they hear that Philly is the second largest city on the east coast, that it encompasses 142 square miles, that in its metro area it has 300,000 college and university students and that it is a leader center for business, healthcare and education. More importantly, they are intrigued when I say it will be the best city to live in in the years to come. When we committed to these projects, we did so with the intent of 133 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 creating affordable open neighborhoods where residents, young, old and in between, could enjoy state-of-the-art energy-efficient housing and a high quality of life, with landscape trails, pathways, parks and public areas along the waterfront. More recently, we are working to create as a part of this what will be the nation's first healthcare housing partnership, which will be announced in the weeks to come. Doing that not only takes vision but also guts. These projects are considerably more complicated and risky than building another downtown high-rise where most of the infrastructure is already in place waiting to be connected.
For starters, we're talking about hundreds of acres of impaired land where over the last century environmental accountability and stewardship were rare commodities. Here we have grassroots projects involving tremendous engineering and construction management to ensure 134 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 that it is all done right, under budget and in a timely fashion. In order to develop these properties, we need to ensure that the ground is clean. We need to put in place expensive foundations in difficult soils. We need to bring in trunk lines for water, sewer, storm water, electric, gas, telephone, cable and more, miles and miles of pipes and miles and miles of cable, new roads, new sewers, new sidewalks, new pathways, new public amenities, recreation areas and more. All of that equates to hundreds of millions of dollars before a single home gets occupied and before a single shop opens for business. Passage of Bill 60005 provides the financial assistance or what I will call the infrastructure jump start that these exciting riverfront projects need in order to get moving before traditional construction can even begin. I believe this is a fantastic day that should be remembered as the City's major step 135 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 towards making all of this become a reality. Thank you for your time, and if you have any questions, I'd be more than glad to answer them.
Thank you very much. Are there questions? (No response.)
I'm trying to figure out how you made that testimony from that one sheet of paper. You folded it up and turned it. All that from one sheet of paper. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Thank you very much for your work and for your testimony.
Is there anyone else here who would like to testify? (No response.)
Is there anyone else here? 136 11/14/06 - FINANCE - BILL 060005 (No response.)
Seeing none, as there are some issues we have to resolve with the Economic Opportunity Plan that we hope to conclude, I thank all who have been here. It was a great mix of information and interest and statements by everyone who has a stake in this. We will continue this hearing on Thursday, Thursday the 30th. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving. The following Thursday, November 30th at 1 o'clock at the conclusion of City Council hearings. So we will see you then, and hopefully we can get where we're trying to go. Thank you very much. Everybody have a good holiday. (Committee on Finance adjourned at 5:40 p.m.) - - - 137 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on November 14, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)