CITY LIMITS: A Tough Sell

Concerns over the bottom line have pushed the Civic Center deal into real estate limbo While the forces of age and progress long ago sealed the fate of the world-famous Philadelphia Civic Center, the role its 19 and one-half acre site will play in the city's future is far less certain. Accordingly, the fabled structure -- home of the 1948 Democratic National Convention and the Philadelphia Flower Show -- sits on property that has been the subject of much speculation, both physical and emotional. Given the Civic Center's location across the street from the Medical Center on Civic Center Boulevard, and the space needs of the Medical Center, it was almost inevitable that University officials would explore the feasibility of purchasing the tract. According to Gordon Williams, senior vice president for Academic and Clinical Affairs of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Medical Center's chief negotiator on the Civic Center purchase, the University began to show interest in the property in 1991. At that time, the Medical Center formulated a master site facility concept plan consisting of two parts, according to Williams. The first part of the plan dealt with the Medical School's expanding research needs, involving the planned construction of three new biomedical research buildings: Biomedical Research Building (BRB) Number One, BRB Number Two, and BRB Number Three. BRB Number One has since been built on Parcel Number Four of the old Philadelphia General Hospital Property, a city-owned facility that closed in the late 1980s. The University purchased the land as part of a parceling of the whole property. And currently, BRB Number Two and BRB Number Three have passed through the design stage. Construction is slated to begin in 1996 with an expected completion date of 1998. Part Two of the plan dealt with the Medical Center's long-term facility usage needs, such as the Medical Center's serious space constraints in terms of parking. " We have a major parking problem here," Williams said. "We have around two thousand parking spaces when we need about four thousand. Patients and visitors are our priority." The University did not omit the option of off-site parking. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia buses its employees from a parking facility in the Grays Ferry section of Southwest Philadelphia. Ambulatory care, also known as outpatient care, has caused the Medical Center headaches, since facilities are currently disparate and far apart, Williams said. "We have people scattered in all areas of the hospital, and we have five floors of facilities over in the Penn Tower," he said. "More and more procedures are being done on an outpatient basis. "We shouldn't be delivering outpatient care like this in such a competitive environment," Williams added. "Other major hospitals have separate outpatient facilities." The new Rhoads Pavilion, adjacent to the Quadrangle, is designed to help the outpatient problem, Williams said. It has 150 beds, some of which will be devoted to outpatient care. But even this expansion was not enough. Therefore, as part of its master plan, the Medical Center began to investigate the possible purchase of the Civic Center. One plan was to demolish the Civic Center facilities and erect a new ambulatory care facility on the site. CHOP also showed an interest in the property, according to Williams. Other plans included a possible total relocation of the entire Medical Center facility to the Civic Center site over the course of the next 15 to 20 years. The plans would neither be quick, nor easy to realize. In late 1991, with then-University Executive Vice President Janet Hale conducting negotiations for the University and Williams representing the Medical Center, informal discussions began with the Rendell Administration about a purchase. According to Williams, at that time the city was somewhat skittish about selling the property. Although negotiations moved along throughout late 1991 and 1992, they did not really swing into high gear until the fall of 1993, when the University also began contacts with City Council members. As the sale of land is considered an ordinance, the Philadelphia City Council is required to approve the sale. "We met with all of the council members individually to explain the deal to them," Williams said. The negotiations focused on one simple factor -- the bottom line cost. Taking into consideration that the site would have to be leveled as part of the deal, the city would have been responsible for the demolition costs. "The fact that we have a medical facility across the street means that we would have had to gut the facility from the inside," Williams said. "We couldn't have dynamited the place like they did with the Sears Building. That would have added to the city's costs." Preservationists have expressed concerns about the proposed demolition of the building. "We do believe that Convention Hall and Commercial Museum are important historical sites," said Jennifer Hale, spokesperson for the Preservation Coalition. "We didn't want to see the building come down unless there was a real strong design and financing plan in place." While Williams and Hale negotiated for the University, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) handled the bargaining on the city side, according to Philadelphia City Councilwoman Happy Fernandez. PIDC is a city economic development agency that brokers the sale of city-owned real estate. The PIDC also handled the sale of the Philadelphia General Hospital parcel to the University. The city's desire to sell the Civic Center stemmed from the construction of the new Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City. The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a jointly state and city funded-facility that opened up in July 1993, including a grand ballroom and meeting facilities. According to Fernandez, it takes up about three city blocks. It runs west from 13th Street to 11th Street and from Arch Street to Race Street. The Civic Center has been underutilized for several years now, Fernandez said. "We probably didn't need the Civic Center now that we have the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The museum is being dismantled," she said. "And the Philadelphia Flower Show is being moved to the Pennsylvania Convention Center starting next March." General Manager of the Civic Center Bob McClintock said the facility is being closed at the end of June. "Events are moving to the new Convention Center," he said. "Other programs are moving to the Spectrum and numerous other facilities in the area." PIDC Executive Vice President, Craig Schelter said PIDC had been involved in the attempted purchase. However, negotiations have ground to a halt, he said. "We have stopped work on the project," he said. "There are no longer any plans for that deal." According to Carol Lackey, Williams' assistant, the negotiations have been put on hold. "The papers from that deal have been filed away," she said. "Nothing has been done on that front for a month and a half." Lori Doyle, spokesperson for the Medical Center, expressed the idea that the Civic Center was overvalued by the city. "They thought that the site was more valuable than we did," she said. "That's why the deal fell through." Fernandez concurred with Doyle's assessment that financial issues helped torpedo the deal. "The city and the University can't agree on the terms of the deal," she said. "It's a complicated deal. There was lots of money and complicated issues involved." While all agree that no new progress is going to occur in the near future, perspectives differ on what the future will be. According to University President Judith Rodin, the negotiations have been tabled for the time being. "We're not at the table and neither is the city," she said. "We were not able to reach an agreement with them. We were too far apart on the price. At the present time there are no discussions and nothing is planned." "The implication is that we've been working on this deal day and night," Williams said. "But that isn't the case. We haven't had serious discussions with the city since the summer of 1994. "We've agreed that we don't agree," he added. "We're moving along planning other alternatives. If the opportunity arises in the future, we'd be happy to speak to them again." According to Kevin Feeley, Press Secretary for Mayor Edward Rendell, the deal is currently in a state of limbo. "There has been no change since the last announcement that was made on the deal," he said. "We are continuing to talk to them. There is no deal. There is no stall. It's been a long time that we've been in this position."