Civic Center talks at a standstill

Negotiations between the University and the city over the acquisition of the Philadelphia Civic Center have been at a dead halt for the past month, Executive Vice President Janet Hale said Wednesday night. Although the University still plans to purchase the Civic Center site, University officials have not communicated with city officials "since the past month or so," Hale said. The University officially announced its intentions to purchase the Civic Center and turn the site into an ambulatory care unit for the Medical Center at a community meeting on October 14 of last year. Medical Center Senior Vice President Gordon Williams said in January that he predicted the deal would be finalized this spring. But he said yesterday, "we're not even trying to predict [when negotiations will be finalized] anymore." He added that negotiations may run into the fall. Williams blamed the arrested progress of the Civic Center deal on the city. He explained that the city "put its full energy into getting the [Philadelphia] budget passed" during the past few months. Aside from the budgetary delays in negotiations, Williams said the complexity of the deal has slowed the negotiation process as well. "There are at least 150 variables involved in this deal," he explained. "This is a big piece of land." Craig Schelter, executive vice president of the Philadelphia Industrial Corporation, which handles the city's negotiations with the University, refused to comment on the status of the Civic Center deal. Interim President Claire Fagin said last night that she had planned to report on the deal at today's University Board of Trustees meeting, but "things were pretty quiet." At the October community meeting, Williams said the costs of developing the site are estimated at $900 million to $1 billion. The development of the site into an ambulatory care unit would create approximately 4,500 jobs per year over the 20-year life of the project, he added at the meeting. Hale said she is "continuing to be ever hopeful" that the deal will be finalized soon.