Civic Center talks continue in secret

No one's talking about $1 billion deal Negotiations on the University's potential acquisition of the Civic Center are continuing behind closed doors, in the wake of a raucous community meeting and rampant city-wide speculation. University and city officials generally refuse to comment on the progress of talks, saying there is no set timetable on when they will yield results. "Any kind of major decision like this for the acquisition of something like the Civic Center usually takes a significant amount of time," Executive Vice President Janet Hale said. "We are hoping it will be successfully completed." While University officials are oblique as to which city officials they are negotiating with, the city's negotiations are being handled by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation. But PIDC Executive Vice President Craig Schelter refused to comment on the status of the talks and other PIDC officials said they were not allowed to comment. Gordon Williams, vice president of the Medical Center, said the negotiations were currently in a state of flux, and that while he remains "optimistic," the talks are "by no means a done deal." At a community meeting on October 14, Williams was the first to officially announce the University's intentions to acquire the Civic Center from the city. At the meeting, Williams presented diagrams detailing the location and layout of the potential ambulatory care unit that would be built on the current Civic Center site. Williams then estimated that the development of the Civic Center site would cost anywhere from $900 million to $1 billion, and that the gradual costs of refining the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania would be "approximately $2 billion over 15 to 20 years." Williams said the negative feedback from West Philadelphia residents at the meeting generated a "concerned" reaction from the University. "I think when you're faced with how the community perceives you, it hits home a little harder than you may have thought before," Williams said. Williams said yesterday that he feels the problem of the University's relationship with the surrounding area is not content-based, but is a problem of public relations. "We have to do a much better job making sure the community is aware of what we do," he said. Hale said the meeting drew attention to the University's "ongoing working relationship with the community." "We've always anticipated that we would want to talk to the community, and anticipate that we will do more of that," she said. Williams would not disclose details about the ongoing negotiations. But he did say he foresees negotiations proceeding to the point of public hearings – which would be necessary if and when discussion of the deal would reach City Council for approval. "We know we're going to have public hearings, and no institution the size of Penn is going to come out unscathed," Williams said. "We are going to have to deal with some things in order to make the deal successful."