The multi-story building that for years served as the Germantown YWCA facility had been put on the market as a result of the bankruptcy of its owners.  Although developers and interested parties saw the listed building it seemed that one potential buyer was getting preferential treatment, and rumor has there were willing to pay closer to the asking price, but there were several obstacles to reaching settlement.

 

First, the Referee in Federal Bankruptcy Court had to approve the sale, second the potential buyer, The Germantown Settlement, could not arrange financing in the marketplace, and third there was a federal tax lien against the buyer standing in way.

 

Not to worry.  Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Germantown Settlement principal Emanuel Freeman reportedly take Mayor John Street on a tour of the building (see Germantown Courier article) and voila! - - -  The Redevelopment Authority becomes the lender virtually overnight and complications that would have stopped any private purchaser or developer dead in their tracks start melting away one at a time.

 

How does an expanded organization that is deep in debt to the city in taxes, plagued with L & I violations, in arrears on Federal Taxes get a one and half million dollar loan from the city, that then telegraphs that to reportedly another 3 million in lending from the state and private sources, to refurbish the facility that we are told will be the new headquarters of the Germantown Settlement and its affiliates?

 

This would be the same city that only a short time ago was closing playgrounds, libraries and firehouses as it could not meet budget demands.  Now it has a million plus to lend to a sub par risk enterprise with virtually no detailed business plan in place to justify how the debt will be repaid.

 

Most of this process takes place way under the radar.  The only news reports to my knowledge were small articles in the local newspaper.

 

Jim Foster

215-438-4330