Thank you. Please identify yourself with a record.
Yes. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
My name is Alan Ockamson of Ockamson, PC, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
I'm sharing my screen right now and showing you the packet of materials for this zoning matter.
Let me just get the right one.
And along with me is Jared Gruber, the owner's representative.
So the packet of materials include eight exhibits.
The first one is the agreement of sale for this particular matter for 631 East Thompson Street, LLC.
The second exhibit is the tax clearance certificate showing that the property is in good standing.
The third exhibit is the notice of refusal.
So this is an RSA-5 property, and I would say that it's an RSA-5 property in name only.
If you look at the zoning file for this property, since 1900, this property has been used as a garage for storage and repairs of motor vehicles.
Now, there has been a residential component for this property, but just to repeat, like this has never been used solely as an RSA 5 type of property.
And you'll see from its conditions, it looks like nothing like an RSA 5 property.
So what we're proposing to do is take 631 East Thompson Street and 633 East Thompson
Street, consolidate the lots, and repurpose the garage structure, which is currently in
a dilapidated condition, and repurpose it for professional and office use, as well as
to repurpose the driveway that's there and to allow us to put accessory surface off-street
parking spaces there.
And the purpose of this acquisition by the buyer is this is going to be purchased by an entity which is also affiliated with JG Real Estate.
A little background about JG Real Estate.
They've been around since 2011.
They employ approximately 50 people in the Fishtown area.
Their operations are not far away from here on the 1100 block of Frankfort Avenue.
What they need, though, is additional space because they're outgrowing their space, which is a good problem to have.
You know, Philadelphia Inquirer has recognized them as one of the top 100 companies, private companies in the Philadelphia area, you know, in terms of growth.
And because of that, they've outgrown their space on the 1100 block of Frankfort Avenue.
And they're looking to put a satellite office here for some of their workers and to keep, you know, the jobs in the 19125 zip code.
Here's our application for appeal.
Along with our project information form.
Here you'll see where we are.
So here's 633 East Thompson Street.
And then you can see 631 East Thompson Street is a flag-shaped lot.
you'll see the photographs of the property so as you can see this is a property in desperate need
of some TLC and we're hoping to do that by way of this proposed variance application you also see
that there's a pre-existing driveway here so we're not creating any off-street parking where it
hasn't existed well for well over 100 years you'll see properties to right of us and properties to
left of us and then you'll see our plans so this is the rendering of what we're trying to do
so we're trying to incorporate a property uh that is going to hopefully be a business and
office use but we're trying to make it in a way that adds to the uniqueness of fish town right
fish town like prides itself if you look at the fish town neighbors association website they
pride themselves on being unique to having a diversity of types of buildings within their
to having a diversity of types of buildings within their neighborhood.
But most importantly, they pride themselves on preserving the history of Fishtown.
So what we're trying to do is build or repurpose this lot so that when you walk by it,
you would think that it has been there for well over 100 years.
So if you saw the pictures of what this lot originally looked like or currently looks like
and compare it to, like, what we're proposing, it's night and day.
But the materials that we're looking to use are brick, wrought iron fence, landscaping,
and most importantly, to repurpose the garage.
And you'll see it better here.
You know, again, this is going to be a satellite office.
We're hoping of JG Real Estate.
Their office hours would be 9 to 5.
they're not accepting any clients here but they just need administrative space so they want to
have as light a use on the property as possible and to have to create as much light in air for
the surrounding uh property owners but you'll see that we're trying to create it more of as a park
atmosphere you know for the p you know so people would when they're walking by they don't think of
this as an office building and then here are just the plans of what we you know plan to do again
off-street parking, repurposing the first floor to store some of their vehicles, and then office
space on the second floor with an open floor plan and layout. Now, we did meet with the Fishtown
Neighbors Association. Now, there was no vote taken, which is rather disappointing to us because
we do believe that there's much support in the neighborhood for a property of this sort or a plan
of this sort. So we did meet with them. They refused to take a vote. They had their zoning
committee vote on this project. So what were they receptive and supportive of? Reuse of an existing
garage instead of demolition. Again, the Fishtown Neighbors Association as well as Fishtown in
general prides itself in preserving their history. So that's what we're trying to do by way of this
project uh things that they uh were concerned about the community felt that allowing this
project would create a precedent allowing for conversion of a mid-block rsa5 property to a
commercial use we're not creating a precedent we're actually preserving the past of this
property again if you saw the property it's always been a garage and so instead of having a garage
there which we don't think is an appropriate use we're trying to repurpose the space to make it
into a lighter use, a more appropriate use for that block in terms of a business and professional
office building for a boutique real estate company where they would not have that many
employees in there. And one in which has grown over the course of 10 years to 50 employees.
You know, the next issue that Fishtown Neighbors claimed that the neighbors had
was that this project would create a precedent of off-street parking for multiple vehicles
for commercial use mid-block RSA 5 lots.
Well, again, if you look at the zoning file,
this property has been a commercial garage for well over 100 years in its past.
So we're not creating a precedent.
We're actually preserving the history of this property.
They said while the site was previously approved for use as a garage to make repairs to vehicles,
The property he used was for a single-family and private storage and repairs of the owner's three vehicles.
Yes, that was the most recent use before the lot was vacated, was that there was a single-family component,
and then there was a garage component where he did work on his cars.
But if you look further and deeper into the zoning history, as far back as 1900, again, this has always been used for commercial means.
And even here, it was commercial means.
uh they're concerned that after the applicant outgrows and sells the current property to
another owner they're going to abandon the space as you can see from the drawings that we provided
we're putting a lot the the owner's putting a lot of money in here he's you know before he um he
worked in fishtown he lived in fishtown so he has many roots in fishtown and his hope is to continue
having this property you know over the course of his business's lifetime and it's exponentially
grown in just 10 short years so this is the community notice we gave you'll see that there
were 99 properties that we gave notice to so I appreciate that Fishtown Neighbors provided us a
So I appreciate that Fishtown neighbors provided us a forum to have, you know, to have a discussion about this project.
forum to have
What we were upset about was the fact that there was no vote taken.
So we, after the meeting, had, we both had people write letters, one of which is a commercial operator, BND Auto Service Center, which is around the block, which shows the commercial nature of this area in Fishtown.
We also had someone who was close by on Tulip Street.
And then we actually had a petition generated, you know, COVID-19 style, where we had everyone
DocuSign.
But, you know, but they all signed it because, you know, we've been very careful about, you
know, distributing a petition door to door.
But we thought it was important enough to have, you know, the board understand that
we have overwhelming support.
Maybe some of the board members don't feel like this should happen of the Fishtown Neighbors
Association, but the community in general does. And one of the things I would point out is the
fact that we have 627 East Thompson Street, the neighbor to our left or the property owner to our
left who signed this petition. We also have met personally with the owners of 1314 East Burke
Street, and they were also on the Zoom call or the community meeting call. And if you look at where
they are in relation to
so this is 1314
East Burke Street
but exactly against
the rear of our property where the building structure
would be. They would be the most
affected. 627, look at
East Thompson Street
they would be very affected
but the owners of 1314 East
Burke Street has told us
personally that they're in support of this
project and i i would like to quote what they stated unfortunately they can't be here today
they believe we are salvaging a building structure which has become the an eyesore to say the very
least and it's a superior option in comparison to other planning alternatives so they actually
appreciate the fact that we are going to be building to their side and 627 signed the petition
as well um so that's my presentation in a nutshell now i do have jared gruber the owner of jg real
estate and who will also be the owner of this property on the line uh jared can you uh virtually
raise your hand to acknowledge your presence yep i raised hand i think i'm unmuted as well
Okay, Jared, can you state your full name and address for the record?
Yep, Jared Gruber, 1140, Frankfort Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19125.
Mr. Chair, would you like to swear?
Yes, sir.
Would you please, do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
All right.
Jared, why did you select this site to purchase?
A few reasons. Existing building largely met my needs. And I know Fishtown specifically, the neighbors, the residents are impacted by construction and largely hope to keep construction activity reduced as much as possible.
So I thought it was a good opportunity to reuse an existing structure, which also met my space and kind of logistical requirements.
So my secondary site, my satellite site, needs to be in close proximity to my main office.
This is about three minutes away from my main office.
It offers some ability to have some off-street parking.
It offers the ability to have that second floor be used for 10, 12 desks.
And then, you know, again, it also allows me to minimize construction.
So it really seems ideal.
And I think these types of commercial properties are, even though it's embedded within, you know, the RSA 5 zoning district, it's actually pretty typical.
There's a lot of neighborhood, small neighborhood commercial, kind of low impact stuff embedded within residential blocks in Fishtown.
So I thought for all of those reasons, it was a good fit for me.
And what would happen if you weren't able to put your satellite office at 631-33 East Thompson Street?
Well, unfortunately, I've had to think about that a lot because obviously the zoning hearing could go one of two ways.
So given the expansion, given the need for parking, given the need for the secondary location, you know, if I don't get the variance, I need to figure out another location.
Another location could take the form of another satellite office if I can find it.
The more likely path is that I re-look at the entire office and probably take it out of Fishtown because it's difficult to find offices or sites in Fishtown, which meet my needs.
offices or sites in fishtown which meet my needs yes so again another argument that i know is not
zoney related is to is to keep the jobs in fishtown um mr chair members of the board you
know jared gruber's company jg real estate um is if you look them up it's well known in the
philadelphia region they've grown in in a short 10 years to over 50 uh workers in who primarily
live in the 19125 area code and you know alternative plans would be to you know move to
another location in philadelphia but also take away those jobs in fishtown as well so which mr
gruber does not want to do so we're trying to put together a like a property that makes sense
because of its history given the given the the character of fishtown which embraces these
alternative types of buildings and sites and to preserve the history of fishtown by way of this
building and the fact that we're keeping you know the jobs in a zip code 19125 where many
of mr grouper's employees uh not only work but live we're hoping that the board look at the
petition, look at the letters of support, look at the proximity of those people who
signed the petition and who signed those letters. And, you know, overlook the fact that, you know,
the Fishtown Neighbors Association opposes it in name only through their executive board,
but not by the members of the community.
I have I I have concluded my presentation yeah I think we lost the
the chairman. I think it appears we lost. Confessor? Yes, Sharon? No, it's Tanya.
Tanya, I'm sorry. It looks like we might have lost Frank.
Okay. Is there anybody else that wish to speak in this matter? Please raise your hand.
confessor i do have benice whitaker benice you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
hello can you hear me yes we can hear you do you swear or firm to tell the truth the
truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Can you please spell your...
Hello?
Can you please
please?
Yes, I'm here.
It's Venise, V-E-N-I-S-E
Last name Whitaker, W-H-I-T-A-K-E-R
My residence is at 1468 East Wilt Street, 19125
Okay, are you in opposition or are you in favor of this project?
So I'm calling in opposition of this project
I was attending the Zoom meeting, which was very well attended by the neighbors
throughout the zoom meeting the neighbors spoke against it there was only one person who spoke
for it numerous people spoke against this project overall this is zoned for residential not
commercial there's no need for a real estate commercial office in a residential area our
commercial corridor is where this should be we have tons of empty storefronts that this
realtor can go into who's already on Frankfort Avenue. In addition, we have five to six realtors