READING, Pa. – In the wake of the unplanned demolition of some historic buildings in downtown Reading, the developer the city is working with is now talking about plans moving forward.
Philly Office Retail is the developer working with Reading officials to buy a block of properties next to Alvernia’s CollegeTowne in the 400 block of Penn Street.
“It includes the former bank building, the nine-story building to the right of that and, unfortunately, also the buildings that were just demolished by the city,” said Philly Office Retail President, Ken Weinstein.
The developer says that wasn’t initially the plan, although the company knew the buildings were in poor condition.
“We’re still evaluating how this changes our overall plan, but we had been counting on keeping the facades and keeping first floor commercial behind the facades, so it does impact our pro forma in that way,” Weinstein said. “It also potentially might jeopardize our historic tax credits that we planned to pursue on the property.”
He says there is still an approximately $34 million dollar funding gap that needs to be met before the group can buy the properties.
The City of Reading said in a statement: “The City remains in the due diligence phase of the sale to determine the viability of the proposed projects. We understand and recognize that proposed changes at HUD may impact the path forward. Philly Office Retail has been a valued partner, and we hope to continue working with them.”
“We’re going to keep turning over every rock and stone and try to find the local, state and federal funding that is still out there and try to obtain what’s necessary so we can move ahead and purchase and renovate these properties,” said Weinstein.
Philly Office Retail says the initial agreement of sale expires at the end of the summer so the group will have a better idea about the fate of the project then.