UArts to headline planned restoration of historic South Broad health center as deal nears approval

A City Council committee has approved plans to sell District Health Center No. 1 on South Broad Street as part of a plan to restore the mid-20th century building as a University of the Arts performance space with apartments being built on an adjacent parking lot.

Council’s public property committee voted Tuesday to allow the sale to a team led by Blue Bell-based developer the Goldenberg Group. The sale also must be approved by the full Council and by the board of the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID).

Goldenberg, in partnership with parking lot moguls Robert and Harvey Spear and the Badger Group real estate firm, were selected as buyers of the city-owned site through a competitive process by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC), PAID’s nonprofit administrative arm.

The group plans for the three-story glazed brick health center to be restored for use as shops and theater space for UArts, which has its main facilities up South Broad Street, Dominique Casimir, the city’s deputy commissioner for real estate management, said at Tuesday’s hearing.

The apartments would cater to UArts students, Casimir said.

Under its deal with the city, the development group would pay $15.1 million for the 66,000-square-foot building on 40,000 square feet of land, the website PlanPhilly reported. The group plans to spend $150 million to restore the clinic building and build the 300,000-square-foot apartment structure, PlanPhilly said.

The deal gives Goldenberg and the Spears near-complete control of the city block bounded by Broad and 15th Streets between Lombard and South Streets, a development site of 2.5 acres.

The Spears own the parking lot that occupies most of the rest of the block, along with three rowhouse properties between the lot and 15th. Goldenberg’s holdings on the block include the now-closed World Communications Charter School building, just south of the health center.