Ken Weinstein, entrepreneur and developer, is well-known
for rehabbing properties in Mount Airy. Now, he's turned his sights on
Germantown, buying and refurbishing historic or vacant buildings and turning
them into modern apartments and stores.
"Germantown is still high-risk, low-cost, as far as
development goes," Weinstein said in a recent interview. "It's not
hot yet, but it's growing. Mount Airy shows what Germantown could be."
Weinstein is now one of the larger property owners along
Germantown Avenue, having invested $18 million. He's even put in a bid to
redevelop the famed Germantown YWCA building near Vernon Park with
MissionFirst, a nonprofit developer, proposing to keep the outer shell and the
mural and renovate the interiors into affordable senior housing.
Across from the Y is Weinstein's newly renovated
Cobblestone Flats at 5301 Germantown Ave., 11 apartments and a street-level
café opening this year after conversion from a storage facility. Weinstein
bought the building in 2011 for $5 million; the café will be run by Marvin
Graf, owner of the East Falls Tavern, who plans a brick-oven pizza restaurant.
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"We're adding density to Germantown Avenue, and that
brings more energy," Weinstein said. Cobblestone Flats "is the
largest renovation in dollars and size on lower Germantown Avenue."
"Germantown is at a very different state of
development," he said, "but we are hell-bent on removing blight and
renovating or restoring vacant commercial properties in what used to be the
second busiest business corridor in the city as recently as the 1950s."
Weinstein wants to replicate in Germantown what he did in
Mount Airy. Six months ago, the Germantown Special Services District, a
business-improvement committee, was created to pick up trash and help
revitalize a neighborhood with housing stock dating back to the mid-1700s.
Through his company PhillyOfficeRetail, Weinstein's model
is to buy, own, and operate mixed-use buildings, incorporating into them new
apartments and office space - take Mount Airy Presbyterian Church at Germantown
and Mount Pleasant Avenues, which he currently is rehabbing. The church will
lease the sanctuary part of the space, and the rest will be renovated into
apartments. BWA is the architect on the $4 million project.
Weinstein's model has helped him survive real estate
boom-and-bust cycles.
"What got us through 2007 and 2008 was cash
flow" from owning and managing rental buildings, he says. "We don't
buy expensive Center City buildings and wait for appreciation. We buy for good
tenants."
Weinstein already has rehabbed 7047 Germantown Ave., a
former funeral home converted into an office center, and commercial lofts
called Kendrick Mills, a former knitting mill at 6139 Germantown Ave. Weinstein
invested $400,000 into the 25,000-square-foot mill. It is fully occupied by
tenants including musicians, artists, a children's clothing maker, and other
small businesses.
He has also bought, rehabbed and leased 5847 Germantown
Ave., a former welfare-office building at the corner across from long-vacant
Town Hall. The new tenant is Philadelphia Works, which has leased 30,000 square
feet starting in September.
As proposed by Weinstein, MissionFirst would lead the
development of the YWCA into senior apartments and own and operate the
facility, while Weinstein would develop a vacant lot next door into commercial
space in partnership with MissionFirst, which develops low-income housing for
seniors and veterans. The nonprofit Center in the Park would also be a partner.
Apparently, not everyone is happy with that plan, though.
Councilwoman Cindy Bass, who represents the area, must sign off on any plan for
the property and has yet to endorse the joint Weinstein-MissionFirst bid. Her
office did not offer any details why; a response had been expected in early
January.
Soon, there will be public input. Germantown United
Community Development Corp. wants to weigh in and plans a public meeting later
this month, and the Preservation Alliance also is interested in the fate of the
project.
Solid tenants have not yet signed on at Weinstein's
project at the former St. Michael of the Saints church and school, which sits
on a six-acre lot on lower Germantown Avenue, within eyeshot of Louden Hall in
Fairmount Park. Still, Weinstein hopes the $25 million city redo of SEPTA's
Wayne Junction will be a boon to the area.
"Germantown has been left out of everything. Our
goal is to make it less risky."
Source: Philly.com
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