Trustees vote to gain more real estate

The University Trustees convened for their annual spring meeting last Thursday and Friday to resolve numerous University issues, as well as to decide on such annual resolutions as the operating budget.

Overall, the two days of meetings, held at the Inn at Penn, focused on real estate matters and campus improvement.

Provost Robert Barchi introduced the topic of campus improvement in his academic report.

"We are pushing into our third of four years of summertime renovations to the Quadrangle, providing the historic Quad with modern infrastructures and the facilities need to support the new college house system," Barchi said.

The Trustees' Budget and Finance Committee proposed the majority of resolutions to the congregation, including those that dealt with real estate ventures.

Amongst the future plans for University property, the Trustees agreed to purchase additional Civic Center acreage.

Penn already owns portions of the former Civic Center site, and will purchase an approximately three-acre parcel from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which CHOP obtained from the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development.

"The University and CHOP are now preparing to close with PAID on the acquisition of their respective portions of the [Civic Center] property," the resolution stated.

The property is the site of Pennsylvania Hall, and is adjacent to the the Civic Center property already owned by the University.

Under Penn's agreement with PAID, they can defer closing on the property until 2004.

Both Penn and CHOP entered into agreements in 1999 with PAID to obtain portions of the Civic Center site. Since then, however, Penn and CHOP have discussed dividing the property up between them.

The Trustees also approved a measure that would sell two acres of Civic Center property already obtained by Penn to CHOP for a total price of $6 million.

Penn and CHOP have been planning to build a shared cancer center on the former Civic Center site, but the project has not advanced beyond initial planning stages due to financial obstacles.

Retail woes on 40th Street were also on the Trustees' table as they approved a larger budget for the Hamilton Square projects.

The Budget and Finance Committee requested an additional $9 million dollars to complete both the FreshGrocer and parking garage complexes.

The Trustees had originally approved the budget for these projects back in 1998, with the parking garage being estimated to cost a little over $15 million, and the FreshGrocer being estimated to cost over $4 million.

The Trustees also took the first step to improve fire safety measures on campus, with a resolution to design and install fully automatic fire suppression systems, or sprinkler systems, in three residences -- W.E.B. DuBois College House, Van Pelt College House, and the Class of 1925 residence.

According to the Committee's plan, the addition of the fire suppression systems is just the initial phase of a multi-year program that will have the sprinkler systems installed in every student residence, including University-recognized fraternity and sorority houses.

The project is estimated to cost over $1.8 million. Penn will be one of many institutions of higher learning across the state scrambling to install the sprinklers. The sprinklers are required under a new piece of legislation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

In one of the meeting's annual resolutions, the Trustees voted to reelect James Riepe as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the second year in a row.

And on the financial end, Executive Vice President John Fry reported that the University has increased its total net assets, giving them a fiscal year total of $4.6 billion.

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