Judge rejects developer’s effort to get control of Germantown YWCA by declaring it’s blighted
An effort to force the city to dispose of publicly held land was rejected by local courts.
Northwest Philadelphia developer Ken Weinstein’s effort to gain control of the Germantown YWCA, a long-empty historic building, failed earlier this month.
Common Pleas Court Judge Ann Butchart denied Weinstein’s application under Act 135, a blight-busting state law meant to give recourse against property owners who sit on vacant properties for years.
But Butchart found that “the petitioner [Weinstein] has failed to establish that the property was abandoned or blighted.”
The four-story brick building at 5820-24 Germantown Ave. is almost 110 years old and is locally famous for integrating when the Black-only YMCA facility shuttered. In recent years it has been the center of a neighborhood controversy over a stalled City Council-backed redevelopment effort.
The ruling did not contain an explanation for Butchart’s decision. Weinstein said he would ask for a reconsideration by the court to better understand why his case was rejected. After that, the developer said he is “inclined to” appeal the ruling.
“Everyone who has heard about this ruling is very upset and confused by it, because it’s hard to justify that the building was not blighted on Oct. 11, 2023,” when the case was filed, Weinstein said.
The Redevelopment Authority has owned the empty building since the collapse of the politically connected Germantown Settlement nonprofit in 2010, which left dozens of vacant properties in its wake.
In 2016, the city put the property up for bid. Ohio-based Keith B. Key (KBK) Enterprises was selected over Weinstein and Philadelphia-based Mission First Housing Group.
The sale of city-owned land is a political process, as City Council has to pass legislation to move municipally held properties. District Council members are given decision-making power over property in their districts — so-called councilmanic prerogative — and in this case to Councilmember Cindy Bass, who represents much of Northwest Philly.
KBK is a Bass campaign donor, but what bothered some neighbors — and rival local developers like Weinstein — is that KBK has maintained precedence for almost a decade despite no physical progress being made, despite a 2019 deadline. In 2021, the city ended its contract with the developer, but no new request for proposals was issued.
Still, KBK insisted it was moving forward, and without the support of the Councilmember, no one else could redevelop the property anyway.
That’s where Weinstein’s Act 135 petition came in. He seized on the state law, crafted with slumlords and speculators in mind, as an innovative way to get the politically paralyzed property back into play.
Weinstein is a prominent developer in the area but says he does not want to redevelop the YWCA himself and he only wanted to get it fixed up.
The Redevelopment Authority conducted some remediation and trash clearing in response to the case, but Weinstein wants to see more done.
“By leaving a key property in the middle of Germantown vacant and deteriorated for 20 plus years, PRA has done a disservice to the people of Germantown,” Weinstein said in a statement.
The Redevelopment Authority said it could not comment, given that Weinstein was likely to continue the lawsuit.
KBK did not respond to a request for comment on their construction timeline but Councilmember Bass said that she believes the project will soon move forward.
“The Germantown YWCA has been a hot topic for a while, and I believe this decision by Judge Butchart, will finally allow the process to move forward,” said Bass in a statement to the Inquirer.
Bass reaffirmed that she remains “committed to KBK” and that their project will be an asset to the community when it is completed.
“I was always hopeful for a developer that was either a minority firm or a developer that had a strong history of working with minority subcontractors, and KBK fulfilled that desire,” said Bass.
Weinstein’s allies among neighborhood advocates, however, were keenly upset by the ruling and had little faith in the long delayed development bid.
“If this property isn’t blighted, I don’t know what property could be considered blighted,” said Yvonne Haskins, a neighborhood activist who has long been critical of the land disposition process around the YWCA. “Is there a different standard because its public property? No government should be allowed to to cause blight.”
*This story has been updated to include comments from Councilmember Cindy Bass.