UArts owned a string of iconic Center City properties

Since the 1890s, the university had amassed nearly 600,000 square feet of downtown real estate, spanning nine properties along South Broad Street, as well as nearby blocks in Center City, according to city property records.

Although the university had sought to unload some properties in its waning years, a 2022 city tax assessment estimated the combined market value of these structures at about $162 million.

The university's holdings include several historic buildings, a soaring former 19th-century hotel, and several other large high-rises.

The core of the art school’s campus consists of two historic institutional buildings. The 1820s-era Dorrance Hamilton Hall was built in a Greek Revival style as a home for the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. A later addition rose in the rear around 1875, and was designed by (and now named for) the legendary Victorian-era architect Frank Furness. The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, one of the precursors to UArts, later made this complex its home in the 1890s.

Following the merger of several other art schools in 1985, the University of the Arts was born and underwent a period of considerable expansion – acquiring a string of downtown high-rises that later served as dorms, classrooms, or academic office space.

Most notably, in 1998, UArts purchased 211 S. Broad Street, a former Ritz-Carlton hotel built by business magnate George Widener in 1912 that was later converted to office space. It was acquired by UArts and rededicated by the university in honor of the late Daniel J. Terra, an art collector and philanthropist.

As Terra Hall, it served as home for performing and visual arts programs, as well as a dining hall. Two other high-rise buildings, on nearby Juniper and Spruce Streets, mainly functioned as dormitory space.

In the 1990s, UArts also partnered with the city and other cultural institutions along South Broad in an economic development initiative that would become known as the “Avenue of the Arts,” designed to market Philadelphia’s ailing southern boulevard while channeling investment dollars into arts-related projects.

The university finished converting the former South Philadelphia National Bank into the 238-seat Arts Bank dance and performance hall in 1994 as part of this initiative, with support from local philanthropies.

In 2000, the university acquired a century-old building at Broad and Pine Streets that once housed the Young Men’s Hebrew Association – but was better known in the modern era as the home of the Gershman Y, a Jewish cultural center.

In 2018, the Gershman had rebranded to focus on films and later left the building, which most recently served as the UArts student center.

The university merged with the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 2017, taking control of the venerable – and then-financially struggling – cultural institution, as well as a 19th-century Rittenhouse Square manor house that served as its headquarters.

The building currently hosts art galleries and exhibition space.

Part of UArts’ demise has been attributed to declining enrollment and unstable finances. As a likely result, the university had notably divested from some of its real estate holdings over the past decade.

In 2014, the university sold an accessory building it had acquired at 313 S. Broad for $6,415,000 to developer Carl Dranoff, as part of land assembled for the Arthaus condo development.

Last year, UArts later sold off the 104-year-old, 10-story Pine Residence Hall at 15th and Pine Streets to developer MM Partners for $10,723,000.

A predecessor to the modern university had acquired the 1910s-era Shubert Theater in 1972, and later renamed the storied performing arts venue the Merriam Theater, in honor of a board member.

UArts sold the theater to the Kimmel Center in 2016. It is now known as the Miller Theater.