Morning Headlines: What’s Going to Happen to the Legendary Blue Horizon?

With fundraising for a luxury hotel ongoing, the Preservation Alliance looks to protect the historic boxing hall.

By James Jennings· 2/27/2015, 9:07 a.m.

Photo via Google Street View

The Legendary Blue Horizon on North Broad Street is back in the news this week as the Philadelphia Historical Commission met to determine what the future holds for the building. PlanPhilly’s Jared Brey reports that developers Mosaic Development Partners and Orens Brothers Real Estate have had plans to demolish the historic boxing hall in favor of a luxury hotel. The problem is that they don’t yet have the funding.

The Preservation Alliance has sought to protect the building from essentially being torn down in order to sell the land. It wants the interior boxing venue/hall and exterior of the building to be historically designated and incorporated into future plans for the site. Here’s more:

On Thursday, the Commission’s committee on historic designation considered nominations for both the interior and exterior of the building. It voted to split the difference, recommending that the exterior be protected but that the interior be left alone. The full Commission will make the final designation decision next month.

The developers purchased the property in the 1990s and claim that historical designation could cause potential funders to be “scared off” by the added costs of dealing with the building. As such, they’ve agreed not make any major demolition to the property (they already have the permit) until they can prove they actually have the funding. So, will we eventually see a hotel rise on North Broad?

The full Commission will make a final determination on the designation on March 13. In the meantime, Leslie Smallwood-Lewis of Mosaic said the group is “cautiously optimistic” it can get the money it needs to build the hotel. She didn’t want to guess how quickly that might happen.