repaircongo83 blog

Two are in Germantown, two in Eastwick and two more are in North Philadelphia —  one in Sharswood and another in Kensington, not too far from Fairhill.

Developers own three of these empty buildings — Sheridan West Academy in Kensington, Germantown High and Fulton Elementary School in Germantown.

Meanwhile, the District handed off management of George Wharton Pepper Middle and Communications Tech High in Eastwick to the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. Under an agreement approved last week, the state-chartered agency will manage the buildings’ sale as part of a major master planning effort in the area.

Studies commissioned by the PRA imagine transforming the former high school into a community center and demolishing Pepper, a brutalist icon built in a low-lying bowl-shaped area, but nothing has been finalized.  “The Pepper School site needs additional study due to flooding issues,” said Jamila Davis, a PRA spokeswoman. “We are working on an RFP and hope to have it on the street this summer.”

The empty Sharswood building, General John F. Reynolds School, was bought by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which plans to eventually reuse it as part of a long-term neighborhood redevelopment plan.

Yet for the neighborhoods saddled with these empty schools, the closures left an open wound that is only getting worse with time.

“We’ve had assaults back there. We’ve had people living back there, people tearing out the copper and metal in the building,” said the Rev. Gregory Holston, senior pastor for Janes Memorial United Methodist Church. He can see the Germantown High School from the window in his office.  

Developer Jack Azran bought the massive building for $100,000 in May 2017 from the developer who first purchased it from the district. He hasn’t yet released development plans, but, to the chagrin of nearby neighbors, leaked marketing documents show a suburban-style discount strip mall.

Azran, who owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes on the building, declined to comment on his plans for its future. The school is set to be auctioned at a May 15 tax sale because of the unpaid debt. The opening bid is listed as $1,500.

Pew Charitable Trusts researchers who studied similar public school auctions in Chicago and Kansas City warned local officials that vacancy would likely follow closures in neighborhoods already struggling with blight and abandonment.

“Just selling a building doesn’t solve the problem,” said Larry Eichel, director of the Philadelphia Research Initiative at Pew Charitable Trusts. “From the district’s point of view, yeah, they make a little bit of money. From the community point of view, that may not solve anything.”