OARC Finds Million-Plus for Mold-Infested Properties

No one was more surprised than near neighbors when OARC (Ogontz Ave. Redevelopment Corporation), announced it was planning to reopen two twin homes in East Germantown that the city refused to allow to be occupied when they were first built, nearly 15 years ago.

So shoddy was the construction by Berrian Associates of Mt. Airy that L & I refused a certificate of occupancy for 200-206 E. Penn St.  The original project was undertaken by GGHDC, an affiliate of Germantown Settlement, the now bankrupt CDC that at one time presided over a substantial amount of Germantown real estate and social service agencies. Settlement and its 28 affiliated corporations were long associated with the 8th District Council office in receiving funding and accommodations.

According to knowledgeable sources, these modular buildings were so substandard that no developer had an interest in investing and upgrading them as the cost would exceed even tearing them down and starting over. Few saw that one could recoup any such investment; even over longer periods.  For that reason these buildings sat vacant for 10 years or more, reportedly leaking internally so bad that mold infestation was throughout and neighbors claim the smell of it is recognizable across the street.

The properties were sold to OARC in November 2009 at a sheriff’s sale that some claim was not advertised and where only OARC was permitted to bid.

With no advance information or details of construction, OARC plans to announce on June 26 a $1.1 million outlay by the city Redevelopment Authority to “repair” and sell all four units and have them ready in 6 months.  Although they will be investing $1.129,937 in the repairs, the 4 units will sell between $125,000 and $140,000 according to PHA documents.

Contracted to perform the work is McCiubery Overholser Inc of Mt. Airy.  Contact with this company went without reply at press time. Permits have been issued for some repairs and kitchen work.

One should note that this is another OARC project that kind of “crept up on us”, but records show the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority was involved with it since Nov 2009.  One wonders why the community is always the last to know?

This is not the only Northwest development project that had political assistance and was constructed by Berrian Associates with catastrophic results.

The Enclave at Devon, adjacent to the Sedgwick SEPTA station, had similar construction problems with its modular units and was shut down by the city for shoddy work and an almost completely out of Code sewer system. A Certificate of Occupancy was also refused by L & I. In this case the developer had substantial cost overruns, went bankrupt and new developers have recently completed the project.

Stories like this are so typical of the waste of public and sometimes private participating funds on deals in this city done with a wink and nod from the political establishment, contractors and developers who are unqualified, or simply try to cut corners and get around oversight and codes.

More than one neighbor, and informed developers from the Germantown area, will tell you the horror story of Penn and Wakefield.  It took years of petitions and variances to get zoning approval for this modular construction project and mostly public money the first time that went down the drain and then negatively impacted the community since.

A million wasted here, a million wasted there and soon you are talking about real money.

Then the question is who would want to live there?

Jim Foster, Editor/Publisher

Germantown Newspapers Inc.

editor@germantownnewspapers.com