Thank you very much. Are there any other witnesses that would like to be heard? Please approach the witness table. Good evening. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good evening. My name is Paul Steinke. I am the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and also General Manager of the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. I'm going to dispense with my 223 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 prepared marks and just say a few brief things, make a few points in follow-up to some of the comments and questions that City Council have had today. I'm a native Philadelphian, a student of it's history. I love this City, like all of you. I regret that I'm not old enough to have experienced places like the Earl Theater at 11th and Market Streets or Stanley Theaters on Market Street West. I also am a consumer of Philadelphia's cultural offerings. Just last night, I attended Broadway at the Academy. I'm a subscriber of the Philadelphia Orchestra, go to the Kimmel Center, so I'm a real fan of culture. And I wanted to follow-up on a point that one of your witnesses, Ms. Price, made about how 16 percent of New York City's theater audience comes from the Philadelphia region. I have a slightly different take on that than Ms. Price does. I say, let's fight keep those people in Philadelphia. Why are we letting them go to New York, pay their amusement tax, eat in their restaurants, contribute to the New York 224 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 City economy? If we can offer more of what they're looking for in our City, we will keep that tax revenue, keep that activity, keep that urban life in our City. And I think this project is a way for us to do that. No. 2, City Council has seen fit in the past to grant TIF support to parking garages that are adjacent to cultural facilities. I say to you, this is an opportunity to grant a TIF to a project for people, not for cars; a project that will be a proud part of Philadelphia's cultural and architectural scene. So I think there's a point to be made there. And finally, this part of Chestnut Street where the Boyd Theater is located continues to struggle. If you take a walk down the street, you see lots of vacancy, under-utilization. And I think the Boyd will be the catalyst to turning that around and bringing Chestnut Street back at the same time that you're bringing the Boyd back. My main point was going to about the Reading Terminal, not just the market, but the 225 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 whole building, which is a building that years ago came very close to itself being demolished. And if it had been demolished for the new Convention Center, it probably would have been cheaper to do it that way. But you in City Council and other people in leadership in this City saw the value of Reading Terminal, its historical and architectural value as an icon of this City, and you found a way to make it part of the new Pennsylvania Convention Center. And look at it today. It is a marvel nationally in the convention business. It is a marvel nationally as an example of adaptive reuse. And I really believe, ladies and gentlemen, Honorable Members of City Council, that this project, the Boyd Theater, will do the same for Chestnut Street West that the Reading Terminal renovation has done for Market East and the Convention Center. So as a native Philadelphian, a proud Philadelphian who walks these streets and uses our City to its fullest, I ask you, please, cast your vote in support of this 226 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 project. You won't regret it.
Thank you very much, sir. Good evening. Please identify yourself for the record.
Madam Chairman, Members of City Council, my name is Robert Horen, H-O-R-E-N, and I'm the President of the William Penn House, a 600-apartment unit cooperative building that's located between 19th and 20th Street between Ranstean and Ludlow. We have two entrances out onto Chestnut Street directly across the street from the Boyd Theater. The gentleman that spoke that owned restaurant on Chestnut Street, when his restaurant was open and was reviewed in the newspaper, it got a nice review, but the closing comment was that it was on a seedy block of Chestnut Street. And that really cut me to the quick because we go to lengths to keep our building and our area nice. Our building has a beautiful garden in front of it. And unfortunately, it's located next door 227 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 to a liquor store. When that liquor store was opened, it was promised to us that it was going to be the premiere wine shop of the City. It's now just another liquor store. And the premiere wine in the City has moved down to Eighth Street. We have three parking places in front of our building that are constantly being used by patrons of the liquor store, and in cases of emergencies and people trying to get into cabs, it presents a problem for us. However, when we thought of the alternative of what could go across the street, a supermarket, some other highrise buildings, we're in favor of the Boyd Theater being redeveloped and put there. We think it would be a great thing for the street. 1930 Chestnut is being re-habbed and is going to be a new luxury building. 1920 Chestnut, same thing. The one concern that we do have is what type of venues are going to go in there in the long run. There was talk that it could possibly become something like the Troc 228 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 Threater at Tenth and Arch. If that were to happen, we'd be the biggest losers. We want to make sure that if you approve this, and we certainly champion a Boyd Theater being there, that some restrictions be put on the type of venues that go into that theater. We're certainly in favor of Broadway shows and classic music and regular type of concerts, as opposed to rock and roll concerts. Howard Hass mentioned the preservation of the building. That's important to us too. And there is a plan to develop the buildings at the corner, on the southwest corner of 19th and Chestnut Street, and they want to preserve that building. But they want to put a Walgreen's drug store in there right across the street from the CVS, the existing CVS drug store. We just don't think that that's a proper mix for the neighborhood. The traffic, it's horrendous now. It will just be worse. So I close, Madam Chair, by asking you to, yes, we would approve of this, but we would like to know that there would be some 229 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 sort of restrictions on the type of venues and the timing on that. And I think Councilman Rizzo addressed that matter. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments from members of the Committee of this witness? (No response.)
Thank you again for your patience. Please identify yourself for the record.
My name is Craig Morrison. I'm an archetect and I was asked to come down by Ms. Smallwood in my role as a Board Member of the League of Historic American Theaters. The League has a membership of about 500. Most of these are, in fact, historic theaters. There are some service providers to theaters in it. I feel like if you read the Bible, so much has been said, when you're down to the end of Revelation like I'm at, everything's been said already. So I don't 230 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 have too much to add except to say that of the 350 or so of our members who are restoring historic theaters, I will say that in almost every case, there's been some type of a public and private partnership has gone into their success. They've universally done good things for their communty. The public and private partnership is varied. In some cases they are totally under municipal ownership and municipal operation. In other cases, they get specific grants for operation from the City. In some cases their cities have acquired the building by imminent domain and given it without cost for a not-for-profit organization. But in some way or another the public and the private sectors have worked together to make these things happen. I had a long list. I was going to tell you all about what's happening in Boston and Chicago. Mr. Anderson did it in much more detail than I could. And Mr. Hass has much more fire and eloquence than I could ever hope to be. 231 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 If I can make one comment, though, about some of the comments that were made by the Kimmel Center. I think in a way deep in his heart every businessman would like to be the only one in town. You know, there are far too many archetects out there as far as I'm concerned. They seem to get all the work, and here I come and make testimonies. But what would Chinatown be if there was only one Chinese restaurant there? It would be a nice Chinese restaurant, but it wouldn't Chinatown. What would South Philadelphia be if there was one really good Italian restaurant but no 15 others? The product is there. In New York, we have about 25 Broadway theaters. Five have been brought on line just within the last five years. There's product to fill them. This morning I read in the paper about a new Stephen Sondheim musical. It has a number problems, but it's not coming to Broadway this year because there's no theater to put it into. They're all full, they're all busy. I could make a list of -- my memory 232 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 of Philadelphia goes back somewhere between Councilman Nutter's and Councilman Cohen's. I can remember it as the Boyd Theater, but I'm sure the Councilman knows a few others. I won't say what point in between there. Sometimes I feel more closer to Mr. Cohen than almost everybody else here. But if I were to list the or theaters, the Stanley, the 10 Stanton, the Earl, the Randolph, one after 11 another, the people are there to fill them. 12 Movie marketing is something other than what it was. Those venues are gone as movie venues. But the seats are there, the people are there to fill thim. Philadelphia should not need to go to New York to get a variety of programming. When I was a student college in the little college town of Ann Arbor, there was a wider variety of orchestral programming in Ann Arbor than there was in Philadelphia. Why? There was one venue in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Orchestra was there every night. You go out to Ann Arbor, I heard the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, San 233 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 Francisco, Boston. There wasn't room for them to fit into Philadelphia. Philadelphia needs venues. It needed them then and it needs them now. With that thought, as I said, I'm a 20-year Philadelphia resident, now I'm a resident of New York, and I'm eager to go to 30th Street Station which was restored by public and private partnership, use the train which is public and privately run, and thank you very much.
Thank you very much, sir. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
I have a question. Are you familiar with the revitalization or the restoration or the preservation, I guess is the word, of the Highway Theater on Old York Road in Jenkintown? Recently, there was an article in the paper about the effort to restore that. It was originally called The Highway. 234 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663
I used to like to go to Martin's Aquarium up there, but The Highway was just showing movies. I'm not aware of that recent effort. I'd like to know more about it.
I wanted to know if you knew if there were any public dollars in it.
Thank you again. Are there any other witnesses that would like to testify? (No response.)
Councilman Nutter, did you want to be recognized?
For one matter -- maybe two. Is Mr. Cuorato around? Mr. Cuorato, just in the realm of how we do what we do and sometimes if we follow some of the provisions that we put in place, it can sometimes make this process a 235 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 little easier. There was testimony earlier about this letter from the Finance Director, Ms. Davis. There seemed maybe to be some confusion about where the letter was supposed to do. I think Mr. Rhoads indicated that he thought that finance was sending it over on their own, but apparently they sent it to you. Again, within the Code on the TIF districts, the letter that has been sent over by way of the ordinance is supposed to be included in the Project Plan. So again, for the future so that there's no confusion about that, if you'd just include it in the Project Plan then we will have it and not have to ask for it or wonder what's going on or anything like that.
Again, I apologize, Councilman, we will do that. And I guess I would need to ask that it be included in the Project Plan before you.
Lastly, on the letter itself, the last paragraph would raise a lot of questions, but for the fact that we've asked a lot of questions all day. But 236 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 the last paragraph says, "The assumptions are based on critical project descriptions. These descriptions, which include the project size, the project completion date, the number of performances, and the amounts of tickets sold per performance were not included in our review." If we do other TIFs as we go forward in this process, that would probably be about half of what needs to be reviewed or quantified or attested to, which is the whole purpose of the letter in the first place. So, I mean, you've certainly met the technical requirement because there's a letter and it's signed by the Finance Director. But the letter tells us that, in essence, only half of what's required to be reviewed has actually been reviewed. And I think it doesn't add value necessarily to the process that we're going through or even do justice potentially to the project. The whole purpose of having the Finance Director write us a letter about this is that someone outside of the agency that's sponsoring it or the entity that's 237 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 looking for it has literally reviewed all of the numbers, put them to some test. I mean, the project works or it doesn't. So, again, as we go through this, if you can make sure that what we get is responsive to the provisions of the Code, it would be really helpful.
Thank you, Madam President. I'll be brief. I just want to take one more shot at Mr. Cuorato. (Laughter.)
In the course of this hearing and the course of other hearings on TIF projects, we have talked about the fact that TIF districts are not done in Philadelphia the way they're done in other cities. In other words, in other cities they're actually done as districts where there are many developers and many different 238 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 properties for the purpose of a broader development plan. Even though this TIF district, if approved, will go toward what people belive is a landmark property that may generate other investment in the area, are there any other development plans linked to this TIF district?
No, Councilman. Other than what we expect and what we testified earlier to be what we expect will be a very positive impact on the Chestnut Street corridor.
So in the end, all we know of, there is one developer of one property?
Right now all we have is one developer of one property?
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke. 239 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663
Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to thank my colleagues and the members in the audience for indulging us through our lengthy questioning. There were a number of questions that were raised here today, to my recollection, between my lobbying efforts in the hallway and while I was in the Council that I believe that were not necessarily answered to the level that people felt at comfort level, and I know a couple of my colleagues would like to see some information in more specific terms. So I've talked to the development team and the City Administration and PIDC individuals and asked them to pull together some responses to some of those questions, some issues with respect to use of the facility, content of the programming. Most recently individuals have expressed some concerns about traffic flow, pedestrian and vehicular. A couple other members were concerned about the monitoring of the development of the project short-term and long-term. I know there were some issues with 240 11/19/03 - WHOLE - BILL 030663 respect to participation on the construction phase that I think can be a little more detailed in nature. I would like to ask, Madam President, if we can have this particular hearing recessed, if it's okay with you, until tomorrow morning. And they've indicated that they will pull some documents together and lengthen their evening a little longer and have that prepared for us in the morning, if that's okay with you.
Councilman, you did not specify time. I would suggest it be at 9 o'clock.
Fine. The Committee of the Whole will recess until tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock. Thank you very much for your patience. (Council adjourned at 6:45 p.m.) 241 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of November 19, 2003, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE OF OF THE WHOLE _________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR