PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — State and city officials broke ground Monday on the makeover of a West Philadelphia public housing complex that once faced demolition.
They called West Park Apartments, “a city within a city.” One entrance in and out served the sprawling complex at 44th and Market streets — right where the El comes up from underground — creating a sort of island of low-income housing, the last high-rise in the Philadelphia Housing Authority portfolio.
Andrea Foster loved it.
“I moved into West Park in 1979. I raised both my children here. For those that don’t know, I was the last one that left here, and I’ll be the first one back in here,” she shared.
Foster moved out more than a year ago after many permutations of PHA’s plan for the complex. In 2019, it was going to demolish two of the towers, replace them with low-rise units and sell one-third of the site to market-rate developers to pay for it. That ran into opposition.
District councilmember Jamie Gauthier saw the previous plan as a gateway to gentrification.
“I felt that it was very important to put a stake in the ground and say we’re going to have housing for working-class people, right here in University City,” she said.
The new plan, backed and financed by multiple stakeholders, including the city, state and federal governments, is to keep all three towers — that’s 327 affordable units. Previous tenants have first dibs on them. Private partners will build 600 new, mixed-income units.
Renovations include more green space and amenities and better connections to the El and the surrounding community.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said the renovation is a model for the state.
“This project represents the kind of progress we want to make all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.
Featured Image Photo Credit: Pat Loeb/KYW Newsradio