Painted Bride is on sale for $6.5 million — but the owner isn’t sure he actually wants to give up the building

The Painted Bride building in Old City is on the market for sale, making the future of the property uncertain yet again — but the owner says he may not actually want to sell it.

“As a developer, I’m not sure 100% that I want to let go of this property. I think it’s an amazing opportunity — also for myself,” said Shimi Zakin of Atrium Design Group, and architect, developer, and owner of the building, which measures more than 14,000 square feet and is located at 230 Vine St.

Zakin has planned to construct a residential building with commercial space at the former site of the Painted Bride Art Center since he bought it in 2022 for $3.85 million. He described the past few years working on plans for the building as a “roller-coaster.”

His original design would have conserved an iconic 7,000-square-foot mosaic by artist Isaiah Zagar on the facade, but to do that, Zakin argued that he needed zoning exceptions to build taller and more densely than permitted in the area.

In 2022, a judge blocked a zoning exception that would have allowed that proposal to advance.

The most recent plans for the building include 85 residential units, 5,925 square feet of commercial space, and 30 underground parking spaces, according to the sale listing.

Plans include tearing down the original building but conserving pieces of the mosaic that could be incorporated into the final design, The Inquirer reported last year.

While Zakin says he’s not certain he will sell the building, he listed it for sale to expand his options, he said. The property is listed with Global Real Estate Advisors for $6.5 million. There has been “a good amount of interest” in the property for its first week on the market, he said.

“It’s been [a] very emotional process,” Zakin said. “That’s one of the reasons that I felt like maybe I should not be the one to develop it. Maybe yes, maybe no. All my options are open, on the table.”

As an architect, he is proud of his original design concept that preserved the mosaic but as a developer, he is happy with the new proposal, which brings more units and provides better amenities for the building, he said.

“Being the architect and the developer, I have mixed feelings about the entire process, where it started and where it is now,” he said. “I’ve been torn between the architect in me and the developer in me. That’s the story of my life.”

Zakin is waiting on final building permit approvals, which are expected in the next few weeks. After that, he could break ground on the property this summer if he doesn’t sell, he said.

There are several banks interested in lending the money for the project, he said, but he described 2023 as “a dead zone” in terms of construction funding generally. It was “almost impossible” to secure loans that year, but he believes more banks will be interested in providing construction loans in the later half of 2024.

“It’s not a secret that it’s a little bit more challenging today than two years ago to secure [a] construction loan,” he said.

In October, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens began taking down the Painted Bride’s mosaic to preserve tiles. Emily Smith, the executive director of Magic Gardens, said in an email that the preservation team spent two weeks removing at least 40% of the artwork but could not remove more because of how well the tiles were adhered.

“It was extremely difficult to physically remove the artwork and also very emotional for my team and the Zagar family,” she wrote in an email.

A courtyard in the building could be dedicated to Zagar in the future, Zakin said.

The Painted Bride Art Center, an alternative art space, announced in 2017 that it wanted to sell the building. At the time, executive director Laurel Raczka told The Inquirer that the organization wanted to move towarda model that would support artist projects at venues throughout the city or in public spaces. The nonprofit acquired the building in 1982 for $300,000.