The renovation of the Ruth L. Bennett buildings have been complete since November 2013 and the construction fence remains in place.
I've been following this renovation since its beginning and expressing my concerns on this blog on what will happen to the buildings once they were complete. My curiosity got the best of me and I picked up the phone last week and played investigative reporter.
The 'unnamed source' from the Department of Transportation told me that the building expenses will exceed $1000 per month and the Ruth L. Bennett board members have until July-ish to find tenants.
If the building is really for rent, there is no realtor sign on the lawn for the thousands of folks driving up and down Rt 291 to see. I doubt if they have a realtor. I doubt if they're looking for renters. I think they're going to lose the building to 'someone' else.
Let's hope the new owners do something nice.
I have been watching this building also....who is the "someone else" .....deep
ReplyDeleteMy guess is the folks who put up the money for the renovation. I tried to help, I tried to warn. No one cares. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteBy contacting the DOT is this is a state bldg?
ReplyDeleteDOT built the ramps on the Barry Bridge in the building's backyard and funded the renovation out of the kindness of our State's taxpayer dollars. What started out as an awesome gift that a Chester organization should be benefitting from is turning out to be squandered. They only announced tenant from the beginning was the Nia Center and they haven't moved in. I wonder why.
DeleteI just don't see any vision coming from those who are in leadership in this city. Unfortunately it looks like its going to take people who don't live in the city now, before the people start to see it.
ReplyDeleteIf by leadership you mean the political folks, they had little to nothing to do with this project other than approving the zoning variances, and that was all done with the last administration. This project was between PennDOT and the Ruth L. Bennett Improvement Association, the board in charge of the property. Unfortunately, that board isn't equipped for a project like this. They were excited with the gift but don't know what to do with it. Who knows...maybe they're selling out. No one from their side is speaking up.
DeleteWhat is the Ruth L Bennett improvement association, and what do they do. Make it a halfway house and close the one on Edgemont.
ReplyDeleteThe improvement association is the board of directors for the property and buildings.
DeleteWhat do they do now? Nothing. What did they do then? When the building was first used as a 'way station' for women and their children in the 1930s, the association was formed. Since the buildings have gone into abandonment since the 70s, the current board has had nothing to maintain. They hardly ever cut the grass.
You can't just turn a building into anything you want it to be without zoning approval. The Ruth House has been zoned commercial not residential. It has been designed as an office building with offices on the top floor and common space on the first floor. The old Wilson Nursery has been renovated for a school to walk right in and use the space.
But I get your point. Make it something. The problem is that the people who have the responsibility to make it something are doing nothing...that I can tell.