Tumblin' Towers?

"I'm numb," said Vince Lane, the nationally known public housing guru lured here in 1993 to guide the project. "I still won't believe [the deal is done] until it happens."

One of the Southwark towers slated for implosion.

Photo: Julia Lehman, City Paper

Tumblin' Towers?

Cautious optimism reigns as parties in the Southwark Saga agree on a method of demolition.

By Frank Lewis

Southwark Plaza's troubled past will end with a bang.

So said the city's Zoning Board on Monday, in a deceptively dull hearing that ended with the elimination of the last remaining obstacle to the public housing facility's long-awaited rebirth. The board cleared the way for the demolition of two of Southwark's three high-rises by implosion rather than by wrecking ball. The latter would have cost as much as $2 million more, and the money simply wasn't there.

And on Tuesday, lawyers representing the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the four organizations that will own and operate the new Southwark as a primarily tenant-owned, mixed-income facility were scheduled to meet in the Center City offices of Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen to close the deal, one of the most innovative and complex in the history of public housing in America.

At press time late Monday, Southwark insiders were cautiously optimistic. Tuesday's settlement meeting was widely considered a formality, because the real work had been accomplished in a series of urgent meetings over the last two weeks.

"I'm numb," said Vince Lane, the nationally known public housing guru lured here in 1993 to guide the project, in an interview Monday. "I still won't believe [the deal is done] until it happens."

His reluctance to celebrate was understandable. Just two weeks ago, the entire project seemed to be in jeopardy. Ten years of work and $34 million in federal funding were threatened by long-ignored disputes between several key players.

The new Southwark will be owned and operated by a private partnership. Tenants will own 51 precent of the site, under the name Southwark Development Corporation. National Equity Fund (NEF), a Chicago-based firm that helps community organzations finance affordable-housing projects, owns 25 percent. (NEF also added nearly $20 million to the $34 million in HUD funds allotted for Southwark years ago, and will act as managing partner.) Lane's company, Affordable Community Housing Advocate, owns 15 percent, and Housing Association of Delaware Valley (HADV), a Center City-based non-profit, owns 9 percent. (HADV staffers have provided leadership training for the members of Southwark's tenant council board for about 10 years.)

But earlier this year, tensions going back years came to the surface. As City Paper reported on Dec. 12, Rebecca Washington, president of the Southwark tenant council, and Alan Hunter, president of nearby Queen Village's community organization, had threatened to oppose the deal every way possible if changes were not made to the partnership.

Specifically, they wanted HADV out of the picture. Washington charged that HADV trainer Corliss Gray had turned the other members of the Southwark tenant council board against her. Hunter agreed, and complained that Gray and HADV managing director Anthony Lewis wanted to limit input from him and the leaders of other neighborhoods bordering on Southwark.

Lewis, Gray and all other members of the board denied these accusations. Washington, they said, had chosen not to attend board meetings and training sessions, while Hunter was interested primarily in getting paid for the work he'd done.

Whatever the case, Hunter threatened to withold Queen Village's consent to implosion of the towers until the issue was resolved. So what should have been a routine adjustment became a potential deal-breaker, because of the Dec. 31 deadline for authorizing the bonds that free up the federal funding.

Intense meetings ensued. Details have been hard to come by—sources only started talking again last Friday—but the result was a green light for implosion, and plans to begin serious discussions next month on the two outstanding issues: job training and other social programs for Southwark residents, and the facility's integration into the surrounding community (the South Philadelphia neighborhoods of Queen Village, Bella Vista, Greenwich and Pennsport).

"Remember, this is only the beginning," says Hunter. "All we got after all these years is permission from the system, 'Yeah, go do your idea.'"

This is not to say, however, that everyone is on the same page. Hunter says he remains suspicious of HADV intentions, and Washington stands by her assertion that the group caused her estrangement from the board. Lewis, meanwhile, repeated his contention that Hunter is in it for the money, but expressed hope that the tension will dissipate once work begins.

The estimated 28-month process is expected to get underway on or around Jan. 3. Demolition and construction will occur on one side of the property at a time—South 4th Street runs down the middle—and residents will relocate accordingly.

All current Southwark residents are guaranteed a home if they opt to stay. But as many as half of the 470 units will be open to new residents, families earning up to 60 percent of the city's median income, or roughly $34,000 a year.