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From YouTube: Appropriations Committee Hearing on $50 Million Transfer to Philadelphia Public Schools - Pt II
Description
Oct. 3, 2013 - City Council's Committee on Appropriations heard testimony from the Nutter Administration, real estate experts and developers on Council's proposal to give the School District of Philadelphia $50 million in exchange for vacant surplus properties which would then by sold by the City's real estate arm, PAID. The Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the bill.
A
Vacant,
the
less
is
work
at
sale.
In
this
case
time
is
money.
The
sooner
the
city
can
responsibly
expose
these
properties
to
the
marketplace.
The
better
the
city
will
also
maximize
the
revenue
it
receives
by
offering
potential
bidders
a
clear
path
to
closing
once
their
bid
is
accepted.
If
value
can
be
maximized
by
rezoning,
a
property
in
the
manner
acceptable
to
the
council,
the
rezoning
should
occur
before
the
sale
process
begins.
A
The
city
should
also
discuss
the
sales
process
with
the
registered
community
organizations
in
the
neighborhood
before
the
sale
process
begins
and
indicate
the
potential
buyers,
users
that
the
art
uses
the
gr
ce
o--'s
are
ready
to
support.
Before
and
during
the
sale
process,
the
city
should
adequately
fund
the
securing
and
maintenance
of
these
buildings.
The
threat
of
thieves
under
in
vacant
buildings
to
gather
materials
for
resale,
copper,
pipe
and
walk
wiring
scrap
metal
is
real.
The
damage
they
do
can
be
much
greater
than
the
cost
of
replacing
the
stolen
goods.
A
Many
of
these
buildings
were
built
before
World
War.
Two
freezing
temperature
and
dampness
will
cause
rapid
deterioration,
the
structure,
a
minimal
level
of
eating
during
a
mini
winter
months
and
fleegle
monitoring,
rec
standing
water
will
yield
incremental
revenues
dwelling
in
peace
of
cause
once
peeps
remitted
about
effective
vacancy.
A
Mr.
dr.
Ewing
just
spoke
about
the
negative
impact
of
these
vacant.
Buildings
on
the
value
of
surrounding
properties.
I
would
argue
that
this
effectively
magnified
when
the
building
is
a
school.
I
vividly
remember
a
situation
I'd
honored
in
the
late
80s
in
the
neighborhood
in
jersey
city,
it
was
a
neighborhood
of
working
families
who
are
fighting
to
maintain
their
community
as
a
safe
place
to
our
raiser
children
and
read
peaceful
wives.
It
was
a
tough
fight,
but
they
had
been
holding
her
own
just
before
our
firm
started.
A
Working
with
the
city
on
their
avi
program,
the
school,
the
school
district
could
close
a
neighbor
at
school,
with
no
plans
for
sale,
early
use.
In
addition
to
a
measurable
impact
on
sale
places.
The
emotional
impact
on
the
neighborhood
was
devastating.
I
spoke
with
the
residents
when
I
was
checking
estimated
values
with
our
project
manager.
Although
the
conversation
was
25
years
ago,
I
remember
it
clearly
and
I
remember
flying
out
of
the
newark
airport
that
night
and
fearing
for
the
future
of
that
neighborhood.
Thank
you
for
your
attention
and
I'm
glad
to
answer
any
questions.
B
Spencer
and
questions
for
mr.
Spencer
Cena.
Thank
you
very
much
very
much
sir.
It's
anyone
else
to
testify
before
you
testify.
We're
actually
want
to
move
into
a
meeting
and
take
action.
I
think
it
could.
The
committee
is
ready,
so
we've
moved,
while
probably
hearing
into
a
public
meeting
to
consider
building
above
130
577.
The
chair
recognizes
councilman
black
walk
for
emotional
bill
number,
130,
577,
Hill,
number
130
577
be
reported
out
of
committee
with
the
favorable
recommendation,
and
also
for
suspension
of
rule
so
as
to
permit
consideration
our
next
session
of
council.
B
C
Thank
You
mr.
chair
remaining
members
of
council,
my
name
is
leo
a
tomando,
unlike
other
people
who
testified
today,
I,
actually
in
the
business
of
buying
and
repurposing
schools
for
commercial
development
uses
and
I
thought
it
would
be
useful
for
you
all
to
consider
recent
experience
that
I
have
gone
through
and
trying
to
buy
one
of
these
schools
through
the
current
SRC
process.
So
I
think
it
will
illustrate
exactly
why
you
need
to
pass
this
bill.
C
My
firm
in
april
of
last
year
was
one
of
the
qualified
bidders
for
one
of
the
SRC
disposition
properties.
I
won't
name
the
property,
we're
actually
closing
on
on
the
acquisition
next
week,
18
months
after
expressing
qualified
interest,
I
want
to
just
walk
through
quickly
what
we
went
through
to
get
to
closing.
We
were
qualified
April
of
2012.
The
RFP
came
out
late,
June
2012.
We
responded
to
the
RFP
with
a
substantial
submission
in
August
of
2012.
C
We
were
told
sometime
in
October
November
that
we
were
the
likely
winning
bidder,
however,
was
not
until
the
SRC
meeting
on
the
twentieth
of
December
2012.
The
formal
vote
was
taken
in
the
public
hearing
to
award
the
property
to
us.
It
subsequently
took
the
SRC
36
days
to
get
us
an
agreement
of
sale.
C
Not
agreement
of
sale
was
negotiated
over
two
months,
which,
frankly,
could
have
been
five
days
because
of
the
length
of
time
in
response
back
from
the
SRC,
the
school
district.
I
guess,
you
would
say
it
did
not
get
signed.
The
agreement
was
agreed
to
in
March
of
this
year
did
not
get
signed
for
an
additional
two
months
by
the
SRC
chair.
Our
understanding
is
that
he's
a
busy
man.
It
then
took
until
the
twelfth
of
sep
tember
for
there
to
be
a
court
hearing
to
approve
the
sale.
C
In
the
meantime,
there
were
two
appraisals
done,
neither
of
which
we
were.
We
were
entitled
to
look
at
and
we
are
trying
to
settle
this
next
week,
18
months
from
an
expression
of
qualified
interest
15
months
from
a
submission
of
what
was
by
all
counts,
the
only
shall
we
say
winning
bid.
There
were
actually
nine
bids
submitted
qualified
bids.
There
were
nine
criteria,
price
terms
using
design,
minority
participation,
neighborhood
context,
track
record
financial
strength
and
completeness
of
proposal.
C
We
checked
every
single
one
of
those
boxes
and
had
the
highest
bid
fifteen
months
ago,
and
we
have
been
fighting
to
try
to
purchase
this
property
from
the
city
and
then
from
the
school
district.
In
the
meantime,
we
haven't
generated
any
jobs
for
construction
reconstruction
of
this
project
into
sixteen
apartments,
which
is
our
plan.
Okay,
this
city
is
getting
no
tax
revenue
from
this
and
the
building
is
lying
fallow
and
I
assume
there's
some
upkeep
costs
that
the
school
district
is
is
bearing.
C
It's
always
harder
for
public
entities
to
sell
property
than
for
private
it.
You
know
owners
to
sell
them,
but,
eighteen
months,
even
with
a
lot
of
red
tape,
could
be
cut
down
to
three
to
six
months.
Specifically,
what?
If
you
pass
this
motion
or
this
bill
and
the
properties
are
transferred
to
the
city
or
to
the
city
for
for
sale?
I
would
encourage
you
to
do
two
things.
One
is
hire
a
single
brokerage
firm
to
market
all
of
the
properties.
C
That
way
there
is
one
point
of
contact
for
all
properties,
one
of
the
problems
that
what
we
had
was
we
didn't
know
who
to
contact.
Okay.
The
second
thing
is:
do
the
appraisals,
if
you're
going
to
require
appraisals,
do
the
appraisals
before
you
take
the
property
to
market
so
as
to
not
make
the
person
who's
trying
to
buy
the
property
and
put
money
in
the
city's
pocket?
So
we
can
fund
the
school
district,
wait,
60
or
90
days.
For
for
these
appraisals,
I
will
say
a
couple
more
things.
C
C
We
have
bought
property
from
the
city
before
we
bought
it
from
all
manner
of
city
agencies,
office
of
public
property,
the
Redevelopment
Authority
pidc
paid
next
week,
the
school
district.
It
is
our
opinion
that
the
most
qualified
city
or
quasi
city
agency,
to
run
a
market
process
is
pidc
they're,
very
adept
at
disposing
of
real
estate
in
a
proven
track
record
of
it.
C
It's
a
transparent
process,
it's
an
efficient
process
and,
frankly,
it's
a
process
that
will
guarantee
the
taxpayers
the
highest
level
of
private
market
participation
in
the
sales
process,
because
that
is
what
you
need.
You
need
not
only
someone
to
try
to
sell
the
property,
but
for
the
people
who
are
writing
the
checks,
which
is
guys
like
me
and
my
partner's
to
know
that
there
is
a
building
for
sale
and
then
it's
not
going
to
take
18
months
to
try
to
get
something
close
because
time
is
money.
C
D
For
the
record,
Wilson
good
was
an
economic
development
practitioner
and
the
other
night.
But
let
me
just
have
some
quick
question
in
18
months:
can
a
deal
goes
south?
Can
it
disintegrates?
Can
you
lose
investors?
Can
you
lose
lines
of
credit?
Can
when
you
don't
have
site
control?
Is
there
a
hundred
things
that
can
go
wrong?
I'd.
C
Say
18
months
is
an
extraordinary
long
period
of
time
for
any
private
investor
with
that
relies
on.
You
know
certain
market
conditions
to
sit
around
a
way
to
try
to
buy
a
property.
Yes,
in
our
case,
it's
a
cash
deal,
there's
no
financing
involved
and
we're
from
Philadelphia.
We
have
a
lot
of
property
in
Philadelphia,
we're
not
going
anywhere
if
I
were
an
out-of-towner
and
I
had
been
awarded.
This
property
I
would
still
not
be
I
would
not
be
here
today
trying
to
settle
it
I'm.
Next
we
trying
to
settle
it's
entirely
too
long.
C
It's
an
entirely.
It's
an
entire
rental
development
cycle
missed
you
know,
and
frankly,
if
something
were
to
happen,
you
know
it
sounds
crazy,
but
if
the
government
default
on
their
debt
tomorrow,
okay
you'd
see
a
lot
of
transactions
fall
apart.
This
could
be
one
of
them,
so
yeah
I
think
time.
Time
is
money
in
every
sense
of
the
word,
particularly
in
real
estate
development.
B
C
We
have
we
actually
bought
something
from
the
Catholic
Church,
it's
a
form
of
public
school
that
was
more
recently
a
parochial
school.
We
purchased
this
property
last
summer,
we're
redeveloping
it
now.
You
know
creating
several
million
dollars
of
construction
work,
sixty
or
seventy
thousand
dollars
a
year
in
tax
revenue
starting
this
year,
and
you
know
other
economic
development
based
on
some
commercial
uses
in
the
building.
So
how.
D
A
few
archdiocese
could
do
that.
I
think
the
city
should
be
able
to
do
something
like
that.
That
speaks
volumes
from
dealing
with
the
school
district
and
we
all
agree.
The
school
edition
can
be
in
there
selling
property
because
of
the
issues
that
they
have,
but
the
arc
ties
to
move
like
that
at
our
city
could
definitely
move
like
that.
So
thank
you
very
much.
I.
C
Will
add
the
archdiocese
does
the
appraisal
before
they
take
the
property
to
market?
This
is
a
very
it's.
A
very
key
thing.
Not
only
is
a
property
only
worth
what
somebody
in
the
open
markets
willing
to
pay
for
it,
if
you're
going
to
subject
a
sales
process
to
some
appraisal,
contingency
or
hurdle
for
just
to
make
sure
that
all
the
I's
are
dotted
and
T's
are
crossed,
you
got
to
do
it
before
you
put
it
up
for
sale.
Otherwise,
it's
just
going
to
hold
things
up.
It
makes
no
sense
to
be
done
after
the
fact.
E
My
name
is
David
Killian
I've
been
buying
and
participating
in
the
bidding
process
in
schools
and
Philadelphia
for
the
past
ten
years,
mostly
Catholic
schools
and
I'm
here
to
state
that
there
has
been
very
aggressive
activity
in
the
bidding
process,
sometimes
the
find
that
the
winning
bid
has
it
even
exceeded.
The
anticipated
value
of
the
Bill
of
the
school
is,
along
with
a
very
aggressive
terms.
E
Many
times
are
buying
the
properties
with
no
contingencies
and
cash
offers
and
quick
settlement
settlements.
I
have
been
deterred
from
my
past
dealings
with
buying
property
from
the
city
from
participating
and
buying
some
of
the
public
schools
that
have
have
been
going
out
to
forbid
put
through
the
RFP
process.