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New battle over La Ronda

The debate over razing Bryn Mawr's historic La Ronda now has yet another layer of intrigue: The villa's former owner now claims he retained salvage rights for the property.

The debate over razing Bryn Mawr's historic La Ronda now has yet another layer of intrigue: The villa's former owner now claims he retained salvage rights for the property.

The assertion appeared to surprise the mansion's current owner, who has a team salvaging items ahead of a planned September demolition.

The effect the claim could have on the quest to save the house remains unclear. At the least, it appears likely to drive up the six-figure offer that Florida developer Benjamin Wohl made for the house.

"I thought what I originally offered was to buy the whole house," said Wohl, who wants to move the 18,000-square-foot, 80-year-old structure to a nearby lot.

Since it changed hands in March, La Ronda has been at the center of dramatic developments, from the announcement that its unidentified new owner plans a demolition to the emergence last week of Wohl as a possible savior.

The assertion that Arthur J. Kania kept salvage rights when selling the property throws another wrinkle into the matter. Kania, for whom the University of Scranton's business school is named, did not return a call.

Joseph C. Kuhls, attorney for the home's current owner, whom he will not identify, said yesterday that Kania had only recently claimed to have a document showing he retained salvage rights.

"We do not agree with Mr. Kania's position," Kuhls said.

Public records do not appear to offer evidence supporting Kania's claim. A state realty-transfer tax statement filed in March says 100 percent of Kania's interest in the property was sold for $6 million to the current owner's corporate front.

Wohl said he was willing to offer more money to buy Kania's salvage rights, if they exist, so he can preserve as much of La Ronda as possible. There could also be a suit over the property, which could tie up plans for moving or demolition.

"I really just want to save the house," Wohl said. "I'm really not interested in salvage. If the house is taken apart . . . it will end up in somebody's garage."

What that might cost, Wohl said, is a mystery. He and Kuhls each said they do not have the document that Kania claims shows he retains salvage rights, so the extent of the property that it would cover is unclear.

A binder of 222 photos of La Ronda, filed Tuesday with Lower Merion Township to help fulfill requirements for demolition, shows the house still has lavish antique fixtures, from tilework and chandeliers to light fixtures, that would have value as architectural salvage.

For Wohl's purposes, they have more value if left in the house that the leather-tanning industrialist Percival Foerderer had built in 1929.

"La Ronda is not just a bunch of windows and doors," Wohl said. "It's a building that is made of many components of architecture and design. The compilation of it, together, is what makes La Ronda."

Other filings this summer hint at what the new owner plans for the 6.34-acre lot at 1030 Mount Pleasant Rd. Where initial filings showed little more than that a 10,000-square-foot house was intended, building permits now show that the dwelling would be bracketed by a 1,000 square-foot pool and a basketball court.

Its curved driveway, at 14,110 square feet, would have an area larger than the new home and nearly as big as the walking space inside La Ronda.