A Moving Issue

Fire department officials, now muzzled by the city, say hundreds of tenants were moved into uncertified buildings.

by Ralph Cipriano

The city has allowed a prominent developer to move hundreds of tenants into five Center City high-rises in the past two years while the buildings were under construction, according to a source in the fire department. The tenants moved in before the city issued certificates of occupancy that certify the high-rises are safe, the source said.

The latest incident involves a 10-story high-rise at 1300 Chestnut St. Residents say they have lived in the apartment building for up to the past six weeks. The city’s department of Licenses and Inspections, however, has not yet issued a certificate of occupancy (known as a C.O.) for the high-rise. C.O.s are routinely issued after L&I officials inspect a building, and certify that it has met all requirements of the city’s building and fire code.

"Ron Caplan is moving people into buildings without a certificate of occupancy and no one’s doing anything about it," said the source, who is speaking anonymously because fire department employees have been threatened with dismissal if they speak to City Paper on the record. Another fire department source said that fire officials were summoned to a meeting in the managing director’s office Tuesday morning, where they were told by Debra Russo, deputy managing director, that anyone whose name appeared in the press would be fired. Russo told City Paper, "No. That is absolutely not true."

Normal L&I procedure would call for posting a cease operations order at 1300 Chestnut, and evacuating the building. The first fire department source could not recall another instance where any other developer moved tenants into a high-rise without a C.O.

Ronald Caplan, president of Philadelphia Management, is an influential developer and regular Democratic party contributor. The city’s inspector general is currently investigating whether top L&I officials acted properly in dismissing 100 fire code violations at 15 Philadelphia Management high-rises and apartment buildings. A woman who answered the phone at Philadelphia Management said Caplan was not in, and then she hung up.

City officials have been stonewalling the City Paper in recent weeks. L&I Commissioner Edward J. McLaughlin has ordered L&I officials not to talk to City Paper. The mayor’s office also has declined comment, although the mayor’s spokesperson told a City Paper reporter that city officials would be available to answer questions. An L&I spokesperson added that a meeting would be convened Tuesday in the managing director’s office to answer questions, but the meeting was never held. The mayor’s spokesperson did not return a phone call.

Other Philadelphia Management high-rises where residents had been allowed to move in before a C.O. was issued include three buildings on Walnut Street, the source said.

City Paper reported last week that McLaughlin had overruled the safety concerns of two department officials last year who wanted to evacuate a 17-story dormitory at 1338-48 Chestnut. Students were moving into the dormitory in September, 1999, while the building had open elevator shafts, combustible trash throughout the building, and uncertified fire alarms.

The high-rise at 1300 Chestnut had at least 12 fire code violations as of last week, including a lack of fire alarm speakers in the bedrooms of the 61-unit building. The fire department re-inspected the property Monday, and found that the speakers had been installed in all high-rise bedrooms, the fire department source said.

However, there were numerous remaining fire code violations. Management could not provide city officials with certifications for the sprinkler system or standpipes, the vertical piping that supplies water to each floor in the event of a fire, the source said. Also, the city building code requires that the standpipe system be hooked up to a water supply and a fire pump, the source said.

The high-rise lacks emergency signs in the lobby at the elevators, and at the standpipes, the source said. Also, some fire doors in the interior stairwell had holes drilled in them and were filled with putty.

Residents said that up to 60 of the building’s 61 units may be occupied. The building is located across the street from Lord & Taylor in the old Wannamaker’s.