DN editorial: PMC Group reneges on promise for affordable housing

ONE WATER STREET is a glitzy, new apartment house that was designed to be a model for public-private endeavors to create more housing for low- and moderate-income Philadelphians.

In exchange for city allowing the building to exceed zoning rules on density, the developer, PMC Property Group, agreed to make 25 units available to people who could not afford the $1,750- to $5,500-a-month rent for an apartment.

As a result, the building, which sits on the waterfront near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, is five floors higher than normally allowed. Twenty-five of the 250 rental units are supposed to be available at below-market rates. So far, so good.

Then, as architecture critic Inga Saffron recently revealed in the Inquirer, a funny thing happened.

Just as the building was about to accept rentals, PMC let the city know it did not intend to live up to the deal. It would not have any subsidized units in One Water Street.

Saffron called it a bait-and-switch. We call it chutzpah, for starters. The PMC Group appears to have torn a page from the playbook of the late, unlamented Sam Rappaport, the notorious Center City slumlord who employed a "To Hell With You" approach to city rules and regulations.

Why would PMC Group, a large firm headed by Ron Caplan, decide to renege on its deal with the city? The firm has declined to comment on One Water Street. So, it is up to us to speculate on its motives.

Let's start with greed. Maybe the developer wants to make as much money on this project as it can, and the best way to maximize its profits is to screw lower-income people out of apartments.

Let's move on to arrogance. PMC is doing it because it thinks it can just roll over Licenses and Inspections, the Planning Commission and others responsible for making sure development is done right.

If that is PMC's gambit, it will not work. David Perri, the L & I commissioner, already sent the firm a notice saying his agency will not issue an occupancy permit for the apartment house, because it violates its deal with the city. That means no one can move into One Water Street.

PMC does have other options: It can donate cash equal to the value of the 25 apartments to the city's Housing Trust Fund, which provides construction financing for subsidized units. That payment could equal $5 million or more. This option is favored by the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, which wrote a letter to Mayor Kenney urging him not to compromise with PMC.

PMC also could qualify for "density credits" by adding retail to the ground floor of the building and by installing public art. Under this option, it would have to begin the permit process from scratch, a process that could take many months - with the building still unoccupied.

We are glad to see L & I leading the way on this matter. It's especially important given the building's location: on the Delaware waterfront. For too long, developing the waterfront focused primarily on big-box stores and gated buildings. Civic groups have worked for years on plans that would ensure wider public access to this prime city asset.

We urge Mayor Kenney to stand by his agency and reject any compromise for two reasons: What PMC did was wrong. And it will set a terrible precedent if it is allowed to get away with it.