ZBA Hearing - May 13, 2026

But this address is part of the Jewelry Trade Center. And the actual address for the property is 129 South 8th Street. I submitted a package of information today, which contains about a 40 document. I won't go through them all.

uh i will start by uh showing you the refusal uh we asked the lmi to give us a permit for to add

pawn to a jewelry store that we operate currently at 129 south 8th street my clients have been in

the jewelry business for many years they've been in the jewelry business for about 12 years

Currently, they have another jewelry store on 8th Street 117 South 8th Street called

Ruben the Jeweler.

They also have a jewelry store down at 2746 North Front Street that they've been operating

for about 14 years.

I just really wanted to show you the store down here to show you that at this particular

the shop here it's an outlet which is also a jewelry store and it also operates as a pawn shop

now currently we are asking the board to grant us a license to expand our business at 128 south

8th street to add pawn now we only want to add pawn in regards to jewelry and jewelry only so

there'll be uh no one walking down the street uh with televisions or stereos or anything like that

uh basically we have uh we do custom jewelry we've had a jewelry shops for a very long time

and our clients have uh asked for the need to get loans or either corn their jewelry so we're in

front of the board today trying to legally get the right to add pawn and pawn only just for jewelry

to our current operation here on 129 South 8th Street.

I'm going to just go through a few documents for you.

Here is the actual lease.

I didn't put the whole document in.

It's about 50 pages, but I did give you the terms.

The lease is until 2027 currently, and it is signed.

And I just really wanted to show you, too, the actual address of the lease is 129 South

8th Street.

There was a little bit of confusion concerning the posting of this property.

And here's the lease, and it's signed by the Jewelry Trade Center and my client, Valsap

Kumar Patel.

And here's the tax information for the property up to date.

And I just really wanted to show you that the client has the current licenses.

He has the commercial activity license.

The precious metal dealer license, the scales and scanner license.

That's a picture of the store

that they've been operating in the porn capacity down at twenty seven.

46 north front street and i would like to say in order to operate pawn in the city of philadelphia

every year you have to renew your license and every year you have to get a letter from the

captain of the police station in your district uh to indicate that you've been operating correctly

and that you're a good business uh here is the uh scales and scanner license for the business

down on 2742 north front street this is the current store uh as you see we just have a sign

here as goldilocks jewelers we like we currently operate this business uh six days a week uh from

10 to 6 monday through saturday uh we have two employees and we do high-end custom jewelry

mainly gold and diamonds at this location just going to show you how the block looks

of course we are on a street in the jewelry district that's the front of our store that's

the posting that's some of our goods in the front so another picture of the store and this is

actually the interior of the store and this is the entire store you were walking through here

the entire store you were walking through here we have an l shape counter here we have some display

We have an L-shaped counter here.

counters here we have some displays here some displays in the back and you could actually walk

down here and go behind here there's a restroom back here and in the back behind there there's a

safety that's just to enter a picture of the jewelry and display that's the safe

behind the jewelry display council that I previously showed you it's just a long

shot of a 8th Street looking to the right-hand side of the street that's a

double shot angle of the entire block so another shot of eighth street eighth

street and here's the actual plan for the store again we have the entry right

here we have the roll down gate here we do have a buzzer at the door here we do

have security lighting outside you come into the jewelry store here we have the display counter here

uh you could actually walk behind the display counter and there's a little desk in the back

here there's a bathroom in the back here and back behind here there's a little storage

and there's a safe again this is display counter and these are the counters on the wall

with the jewelry.

We did notice a community meeting which was held on April 28th with Washington Square West.

We sent out 103 notices.

We also circulated a petition with 30 signatures.

We did get signatures from Samson Street, from Pestnut Street, as well as 8th Street.

uh here is the uh letter from uh washington west uh there were nine members uh board members in

support of the project and uh frankly uh everyone who attended the meeting uh

23 participants all support the project.

And then we had a character letter from the pastor that lives near the jewelry store that's operated currently in Palm Shop on Front Street, indicating the character of the Patels, how they've been in that neighborhood for 14 years and how they run a good business.

and uh that's all i have chairman bring your client on council uh mr patel can you raise your hand

please

we're coming back in as a panel thank you

hello could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer yes akshar patel

could you spell it please for the stenographer sure a-k-s-h-a-r patel p-a-t-e-l right do you

swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes patel could

turn your video on sure thank you sir council good afternoon mr patel good afternoon mr patel do you

and your family run goldilocks jewelers currently at a 129 south 8th street yes and is the lease

that i showed the members today the lease that you're under right now with the owner of that

building yes and have you heard my testimony as presented today to the board yes and if you were

to testify today mr patel would you adopt my testimony as true and correct yes that's all i

have commissioners okay thank you questions from the board so are you are you moving into this space

or how why is why are we here today um this uh store has been operating since uh 2024

and we would just like to add another service to the current jewelry store here which would be pawn

and we would just like to add another service to the current jewelry store here

which would allow us to uh hold our clients jewelry to lend money on the jewelry to buy

the jewelry and or sell it and does that include appraisals and things for yes they do appraise

jewelry okay all right thank you all the questions um given that you're going to be expanding your

services is there going to be any alterations to the site like are you adding a safe or

anything like that at the rear currently we have a safe at the rear i didn't go over explicitly

all these security measures that we have, but I will. We have a roll down gate. We have a buzzer

to buzz you in and out of the facility. We are connected with the police department there.

We do participate in the point of service system, which allows us not to sell stolen jewelry and

to report stolen jewelry and we also participate in the OFAC system which is the office of foreign

assets which allows us to track and in us to inform and individuals to inform us of stolen

jewelry items okay well and i'll and so i guess that safe is in the rear where the safe is in the

Maria, I'm sorry, I want to show you a picture again.

I think it's a picture of the safe.

It wasn't on the plane.

Okay.

Other questions?

Questions from our attorney?

We want to straighten out what's the address, right?

Yeah, so I understand that the mailing address may be different.

here we can't really change what l and i we can't change what l and i has determined is the address

on the refusal um is there i'm not sure how big the overall building is at 734 to 42 sansum but

i don't know if there if there is a way if the board approves to specify where this location

is if there's a unit or a suite number or just ground floor um well i'm gonna just go back to

lease it is a little confusing uh miss emerson yes it really is um maybe mr patel could help us

the uh

the lease number and it's specified as 129 8th street and they also mentioned 740 sansom street

I see there. Yes, and when I sent my notice, I noticed the Samsung Street address. I just put

also doing business as 129 8th Street. And this is just, is this use just occurring on the ground

floor? Yes, on the ground floor only. All right, so maybe we can just narrow it down that way,

just to say ground floor the address they have so i i don't think i i think that would be confusing

if we listed either the addresses on the lease because l and i it recognizes this parcel a

certain way and so i don't want to call it i'm saying so it's going to be 7 34 to 42.

yeah so that's what's already on the yeah that's what's on the refusal that's what's going to stay

but we will say ground floor ground floor exactly and i would also note that the refusal says corner

with south 8th street yes it does mi 2025 007 333 wait a minute oh i'm sorry i i didn't mean to

forget you yeah you just came in here and surprised us too but go ahead

nina solomonica planning commission could you spell it please for the stenographer

s-o-l-o-m-o-n-i-c do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth

yes please proceed the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing

cmx 5 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location this property sits along the historic jeweler's

row and the proposed use is in harmony with the surrounding area planning commission recommends

the board grant the requested variances for regulated use within 1 000 feet of existing

regulated use regulated use within 500 feet of protected use and personal credit establishment

pawn shop thank you thank you so much is there anyone did i do the virtual no one in the virtual

is there anyone did i do the virtual no one in the virtual audience i take it

audience, I take it.

no mr chair no no hands raised am i 2025 007 333 734 to 42 samson street i vote yes with proviso

ground floor only michael johns my vote is yes with proviso charles gaston my vote is yes with

proviso i am mcadams my vote is yes with proviso i win my vote is yes with proviso thank you

counsel thank you very much number four mi 2025 007 387 147 west loray street

bromley french is the owner applicant

i've been coming back in as a panelist shortly mr chair this application is for uses of two

three family household in an existing structure whereas the proposed two family household

is prohibited in the cmx1 zoning district

good afternoon everyone uh my name is bromley french jr i'm here with my father bromley senior

okay he is the applicant and owner hold on all right he's he's going to testify mr

okay mr bromley senior could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer

yeah good afternoon name is bromley french b-r-o-m-l-e-y french two f-r-e-n-c-h

right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth

yes i do okay um sir we're uh mr french our um board secretary has just a few questions for you

okay okay um good afternoon uh this um application is for use as two family household living in an

existing structure um there's one use refusal whereas the proposed use two-family household

living is prohibited in the cmx1 zoning district so um did you submit your exhibits and documents

five days in advance of this hearing yes yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and

stipulate to its accuracy yes yes okay and you can share your screen and begin your presentation so

mr french senior i need you to be the one to respond not um uh mr french jr okay i can't help

out with the presentation yes i'm sorry yes yes you may proceed can i can i help out with the

presentation yeah you're my son absolutely you can absolutely provide tech support i just the

property owner is the one who has to testify that's all okay thank you mr french why don't

you tell us what you want to do yeah it's an existing um two story one bedroom apartment on

each floor it's been there i bought it oh wait i bought it all right oh eight which is was two

parcel which was so but subdivided by the other party I mean just like a guy

like that yes okay so I'll show you the this is the property yes yes

okay go ahead and there's a step from the first floor going up to the second floor

that's not separated you you come into the house and

come in the house yeah when you come in the house it's separated uh it's a hard as a

hard way going to the second floor to the second floor and you go into a door to the right

first floor first floor first floor right that's what i'm saying but there's a door there you go in

there's a door that separates that yes okay go ahead this is the first unit first floor

kitchen on the first floor

bedroom bedroom second floor second floor

bedroom kitchen bedroom bedroom

bedroom bedroom living room what the tongue for each each unit and the meters and three electric

meter for each each floor and one for the basement which you use for story mr french

how long has it been like this has it been already when did you separate it did you separate it or

or was it like that?

No, I bought it just like that.

You bought it like that?

It was already like that when you bought it?

Yes.

Did you put the utilities in or anything?

Yeah, one of the utilities I put in.

Okay.

It was a one out-water tank and I put a second out-water tank.

Let's picture the plug.

Picture the off the block.

beginning and end of luck we've got to join we've got to join here

a letter of support a letter of support in the meeting something

well why don't you go back for the did you have something there tell me why you think you're

was there once something said justification for this i just saw it so why don't you tell us why

you you think you're justified that's all if it's for the neighborhood it's for the neighborhood

because uh there's nothing congressional work there's nothing like mr french you need to let

your you need to let your father testify okay just don't get fancy why is it why do you think this

is justified because yeah i'm in the rent i'm in the property money um owner i own a few more

property so you know consider the city is short of um housing i do section 8 also too so i'm

figuring that you know i'm trying to establish more property for people to live right and uh

how many other houses on the block are duplexes that's that i that i own no that that there are

duplexes on the block is there other duplexes on the second on the second block is that no no

no the rest of the block where your house is right yes right you're on loray street yeah

on that block are there other duplexes yes yes i can't answer greater

okay um questions from the board

can you pull back up the floor plans

Can you zoom in so that it's like one floor at a time?

Can you go to the first floor first?

First floor, yeah, go to the, did you see that?

Wait, wait, wait, go back, go back first?

Okay, you can go to the second floor.

Okay, so what is your plan for the basement?