{"id":457573,"date":"2025-12-19T10:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/457573\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T10:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:41:15","slug":"after-decade-of-delay-philadelphia-housing-authority-will-bring-affordable-housing-to-center-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/457573\/","title":{"rendered":"After decade of delay, Philadelphia Housing Authority will bring affordable housing to Center City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 20 years after the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) moved out of its Center City<\/a> headquarters, a long-promised mixed-income tower will finally begin construction early next year. <\/p>\n

The 14-story building is being built by Philadelphia developer Alterra Property Group, which may also manage the site after it opens. PHA will hold a 99-year ground lease on the property at <\/b>2012 Chestnut St., which will be its only affordable building in Center City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a multifamily, mixed-use, mixed-income building in a high opportunity neighborhood,\u201d said Kelvin Jeremiah, president and CEO of PHA. <\/p>\n

It \u201cwould afford residents a huge opportunity to live in an area that has access to transportation, employment opportunities, and a whole host of amenities literally right outside of their building entrance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The tower will have 121 apartments, 40% of which will be rented at market rate with the rest targeted at tenants below 80% of area median income (or almost $83,000 for a three-person household). It will have 28 studios, 63 one-bedroom, and 30 two-bedroom units. <\/p>\n

It also will have 2,000 square feet of commercial space, parking available off-site, and amenities that include a roof deck. The project was designed by JKRP Architects. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking to break ground in Q1 of next year,\u201d said Mark Cartella, Alterra\u2019s senior vice president of development and construction. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming, so we\u2019re excited to finally be going vertical here.\u201d <\/p>\n

What took so long?<\/p>\n

PHA moved out of its Chestnut Street headquarters in January 2008, leaving a four-story husk. The agency cycled through numerous plans for the property, including a new headquarters and selling the land to a private developer. <\/p>\n

The partnership with Alterra began in 2016. At that time, the project would have had 200 units, a majority of them market rate, and the developer would have held the 99-year ground lease on the property. <\/p>\n

But neighborhood pushback and the resulting negotiations delayed the proposal until 2020. Then the pandemic caused more chaos, followed by a spike in construction costs and elevated interest rates that killed the original financing plan. <\/p>\n

That led to a new strategy in which PHA issued bonds backed by the future rents of the market-rate units to help pay for the project, along with additional funds from federal housing programs, and a $2 million boost promised by Council President Kenyatta Johnson<\/a> from funds available through Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>\u2019s Housing Opportunities Made Easy (H.O.M.E.) initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy adding high-quality, affordable apartments alongside retail space in the area, this project helps ensure that our downtown remains vibrant, diverse, and accessible to working families and individuals,\u201d Johnson said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe PHA project will also help deliver a more inclusive Center City that reflects the full spectrum and diversity of Philadelphia\u2019s residents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 95-year-old headquarters was demolished in early 2024<\/a>, but groundbreaking has been delayed in the current unpredictable national economic and political environment. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can probably sum that all up with it\u2019s just general uncertainty with the change of <\/b>[presidential] <\/b>administration, as well as just getting through the design development process with a lot of folks having input,\u201d said Cartella of Alterra. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a little bit beyond the [usual] design development process with Alterra,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more stringent than what we typically have to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremiah has repeatedly expressed concerns about how long the development process can take in Philadelphia, especially in combination with federal guidelines and requirements.<\/p>\n

But as this process nears its end \u2014 18 years after the move, 10 years since bringing on Alterra, and two since demolition \u2014 he is feeling optimistic. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the first PHA built development in Center City,\u201d said Jeremiah. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be a signature project for me, for the city, for affordable housing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 20 years after the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) moved out of its Center City headquarters, a long-promised…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":457574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,209355,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-457573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pha-former-headquarters-chestnut-street-alterra-property","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115745815818674666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}