PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA is set to greenlight a long-term lease agreement designed to give new life to five vacant train stations in Northwest Philadelphia.
The SEPTA board Thursday votes on whether to lease five historic but closed-up stations along the Chestnut Hill East and West lines, to developer Ken Weinstein's firm Philly Office Retail. Weinstein intends to renovate the Gravers, Mt. Airy, Carpenter, Tulpehocken and Upsal stations and sublease them.
"Our goal is to take these vacant deteriorated stations, restore them to their original beauty and find new uses for them," Weinstein told KYW Newsradio. "Some of these stations will end up being solely residential. Some of these stations will end up being coffee shops. And some of these stations will end up being a mix of the two."
Weinstein said if the leases can be finalized early next year, the stations could be renovated and ready for tenants by late 2026.
SEPTA would collect a nominal one dollar a year in rent during the 99-year lease. The transit agency would ultimately save $150,000 a year on landscaping, snow removal and other costs, said Ken Starr, SEPTA's manager of joint real estate development.
"We spend approximately $30,000 per station in annual maintenance," Starr told KYW Newsradio. It would also cost the cash-strapped transit agency nearly $4 million to renovate the five stations. Each is listed either on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places or the National Register of Historic Places. "It was important to us to have a partner who understood the requirements and the complexities and what you're getting into when you are taking over the renovation and maintenance responsibility of historic structures," Starr said.
Weinstein already leases three SEPTA train stations, including the Richard Allen station in Mt. Airy. "We more than anything else want to remove blight from the communities in which we invest," he said. "So this is right up our alley."
