PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Redevelopment is underway at the historic Germantown High School building. Neighbors in search of details about the project went to a community meeting with the developer, but they came away mostly empty-handed.
Facing decreased enrollment and budget cuts, Germantown High School closed in 2013 and has remained vacant ever since. Now, developer Jack Azran is expecting to reopen it by next summer as an apartment building with about 240 units.
City Councilmember Cindy Bass says the project is part of a larger plan to revitalize the area.
“The goal is to bring development on Germantown Avenue,” Bass said. She says she convened the meeting “to keep the community fully informed” about development at several sites.
“We have a number of structures: Germantown Y, Germantown High and, next month, Germantown Town Hall.”
Residents, however, say they have a lot of unanswered questions and mixed feelings. Top of mind for neighbors is how the forthcoming plan will serve the greater community.
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More than 100 concerned neighbors, like Patrick Jones, fired off questions aimed at Azran.
“My main concern — affordable housing and economic opportunities,” Jones said. “I want to see it on paper.”
Jones said he wants Azran to be more involved. “I firmly believe that anything that comes to this community — if the community isn’t prospering along with it, it’s not right.”
Neighbors wanted Azran to give details about parking and community commitments.
“We need low-income, affordable housing,” said resident Lisa Jackson.
More often than not, Azran’s response to questions and comments like these was he did not know the answers.
“I’m not 100% sure.”
“I can’t answer what you want to hear.”
Germantown High alumna Pat Honesty, along with Jackson and neighborhood activist Clayton Justice all agreed that the developers should honor the terms of a community benefits agreement previously drawn up.
“What the developer is going to do, I’d like it to be for the community,” said Honesty. “I’ve got so many mixed messages … they’ve come up with nothing.”
“Give something back for the community, and then it will have true value,” said Justice.
Justice said he supports community progress but the meeting missed the mark: “The developers weren’t providing details. They really weren’t taking the citizens serious. They were like: ‘We’re here because Councilwoman asked us to be here.’”
Azran did say they are working on making affordable housing available, but they have no pricing or set numbers of units yet.