Morning Headlines: Consultants Say Boyd Redevelopment Is Too Pricey

The Boyd Theatre circa 1928.
Photo credit: The Irvin R. Glazer Collection, Athenaeum of Philadelphia via Friends of the Boyd.

The new owners of the Boyd Theatre will present development plans before the Philadelphia Historical Commission on Tuesday, January 28th. According to PlanPhilly’s Ashley Hahn, they already put in a financial hardship application for the former movie palace, aka the Sameric at 19th and Chestnut — a customary move for developers who want to demolish a building:

In order to justify demolition based on financial hardship, the owners must show that sale of the property “is impracticable, that commercial rental cannot yield a reasonable rate of return, and that other potential uses are foreclosed.”

The Historical Commission hired Real Estate Strategies to assess the hardship application, and their findings (based on interviews, file reviews, and on-site inspections) were published last week.

The conclusion? “Redevelopment of the Boyd is not economically feasible without significant public subsidies.”

• Hardship hearing for Boyd Theatre next week, consultants say reuse requires subsidy [PlanPhilly]

In the meantime, some non-snow related headlines…

• Evolution And Influence At Penn’s Hill College House [Hidden City]

• New York Times Declares Fishtown Urban, Gritty [Philebrity]

• Guac blocked: How overlapping civic groups can stand in the way of a simple taco stand [Philadelphia City Paper]

• Slummin’ it in Philly? Not! [Philly.com]

• Curtis Center could sell for $135M [Philadelphia Business Journal]