Philadelphia City Council approved a resolution to save Joe Frazier’s crumbling gym. It won’t be enough.

There’s a glimmer of hope for legendary boxer Joe Frazier’s historic Philadelphia gym, which has been falling apart under the ownership of a suburban landlord for over two years.

Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young, whose 5th District seat encompasses the former gym, introduced a resolution earlier this month that calls on the city “to halt any potential demolition plans” for the gym. The bill, which comes after a November Inquirer story detailed the crumbling property, also calls on the city, state, and other involved parties to identify alternative uses for the building.

Yet the resolution unanimously passed Thursday is not binding — meaning there’s still no guarantee the latest action will stave off demolition of a building the city deemed unsafe last year.

“Unfortunately, the property has been afflicted with a series of neglectful property owners,” said Paul Steinke, director of the Preservation Alliance, an advocacy group. “That’s the problem … If we had a responsible property owner that wanted to repurpose the property, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

» READ MORE: Joe Frazier’s gym, once a historic boxing sanctuary, crumbles with an uncertain fate

Frazier was a heavyweight fighter who took part in some of the most storied matches in boxing history, including his win against Muhammad Ali in the so-called “Fight of the Century.” But he was also a fixture in a hard-luck corner of North Philly, training young fighters in his gym — which sometimes doubled as a temporary home for men with nowhere else to go.

The building, on the 2900 block of North Broad Street, was a door factory dating to 1895 that was later converted into the Cloverlay Gym in the 1960s.

Frazier died in 2011. And although his gym was historically certified in 2013 — theoretically staving off demolition — the property has repeatedly changed hands and fallen into disrepair. The property housed a Home Gallery discount furniture chain for much of the 2010s, but that store shuttered around 2020.

For reasons that remain unclear, the owner of the Home Gallery chain, Jenkintown resident David Hayon, purchased the derelict property in 2022 for $850,000 through a company called Broad St Holdings LLC.

It has remained vacant since that time, slowly accumulating building code violations from city inspectors, placing the building at risk of demolition by the city if it continues to deteriorate.

Steinke on Friday said the city would still have a legal duty to demolish the building if it posed a serious threat to public safety due to continued deterioration, despite Young’s recent Council resolution.

It is difficult to prevent “demolition by neglect,” even with historic protections in place, although there are some options.

A spokesperson for the Licenses and Inspections did not immediately return a request for comment Friday. A spokesperson for Young did not return a request for comment.

Hayon’s company currently owes the city $20,033 in unpaid property taxes and trash collection fees. That means city attorneys could potentially push the building to a sheriff’s sale — although Steinke noted that dysfunction within that office would make that a time-consuming process, and would result in the building being turned over to the highest bidder.

Another option would be to wrest control of the building away from Hayon’s company through a conservatorship process.

Under a Pennsylvania law, known as Act 135, a judge can appoint a legal conservator, typically a nonprofit, to take effective control of neglected buildings. However, that process requires an interested party with the resources to navigate a sometimes lengthy and complex court process.

Steinke said his group, which helped certify the building and has studied reuse options, planned to meet with Young next week to discuss alternatives for the building. He said the simplest solution would be for Hayon to come to the table to discuss options to save the historic site. The property owner has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

“That’s the most elementary avenue. That the property owner takes care of the property,” Steinke said. “But the Preservation Alliance has also tried to reach him, and we have failed.”