Budget stalemate puts a damper on developers' big plans for Philadelphia
Updated: FEBRUARY 22, 2016 — 5:34 PM EST
by Jacob Adelman, Inquirer Staff Writer.
The Pennsylvania budget stalemate wreaking havoc on Philadelphia's school and social-service finances could soon claim another victim: the city's expanding skyline.
Officials in Harrisburg are holding back funds from a program aimed at helping large, transformative redevelopment projects until the eight-month impasse is resolved.
That has forced developers expecting funds from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) to delay - and consider downgrading - their big plans for the city.
"We're in the pack with other people," said Carl Dranoff, who applied for $20 million from the program for his SLS Lux hotel and condo project on South Broad Street. "We want to start in the summer, and we're not going to be able to do that unless this money becomes available pretty soon."
Philadelphia projects account for about $460 million of the $1.6 billion requested from the program statewide in 2015. They range from the Gallery at Market East shopping-mall redevelopment to the 3.0 University Place office building in University City, from the Chinatown Community Center mixed-use tower to the Viaduct Rail Park north of Center City.
"The RACP grants are often essential to make the economics of development work for certain kinds of projects," such as hotels and those with big public-space components, said Alan Greenberger, former deputy mayor for economic development, now a senior adviser to consultancy Econsult Solutions Inc.
Jeff Sheridan, a spokesman for Gov. Wolf, said the applications will remain under review "until there is an agreement on current and future revenue plans to fully fund state obligations."
Only a fraction of the applicants for RACP money will be successful, if past years' awards are any guide. Of the $1.1 billion in funding sought statewide in 2014, only $207.8 million was awarded.
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