are the owners current? seems like the best solution is to have the buildings sold off, demolition being the worst 

To me this kind of highlights the dilemma of these abandoned warehouse fires…  Here’s a situation, where the building is basically abandoned and there’s going to be an uproar to demolish it.  However, if it caught fire last week, everyone would be asking, why didn’t the city do anything.

No, a fire and firefighters dying would be the worst.

Clearly it’s not going to be easy for anyone to keep the building and make money.  That’s the problem.

 In this case however the city *has* done something by posting the notice.  If the owner pushes back and fights to keep it from being demolished, and *then* it catches fire, well at least the City can point to this attempt and say it tried.

You can’t have it both ways.  Given the location of the brewery, no one’s going to be developing it any time in the next 20 years – this is reality and we have to acknowledge it.  And, as mentioned already, should something very bad happen there (a fire, a murder, an injury, etc.), everyone will sue everyone and people will be asking why the City didn’t do anything.  Demolition makes the site safer.  While it is, on some level, sad that it will go away (and this comes from an architect by education and training), I would rather have the buildings be demolished then have someone get injured or killed because of an incident.  Sometimes there’s no ability to save things.

NO ONE IS GOING TO INVEST MONEY INTO THESE PROPERTIES RIGHT NOW…SOW IF SOMEONE BOUGHT THEM THEY WOULD JUST BE KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD….THEY WOULD STILL SIT VACANT….NO BANK WILL LEND THE MONEY NECESSARY TO REHAB THIS PROPERTY IN THE NEAR FUTURE …

The people who suggest that the location is not ripe for development are ill-informed.  The building is 3.5 blocks north of Girard.  It’s 2 1/2 blocks north of the new Third Ward building at 4th & Thompson.  There have been industrial conversions further north (5th & 6th at Cecil B. Moore; also around 2nd & Cecil B. Moore).  There is a large new residential development at 2nd & Oxford; another new house at 3rd & Jefferson.  This is unquestionably in the immediate path of development.  It would be a huge mistake to demolish it at this point in time.  I can remember all the demolitions around 15th & Carpenter back in the 1990′s when the City assumed that area would never come back.

This is a building that can Definitely be redeveloped. There’s A LOT of development happening in that area. Anyone who thinks this building can’t get financing for renovation just hasn’t been in that area recently.

The caps lock key is usually located in the middle row, in the left, above the shift key. Thanks.

You keep telling yourself that.  You mean the way Fishtown is going to get completely developed also?  Wishful thinking does not development make. 

Fishtown is pretty close to being fully developed….

There are developments in the works in all directions surrounding this building…

And all the land is pretty much owned by developers

A slight loosening of the credit market and you’ll we’ll see this neighborhood come together faster than northern libs did…

You’ll see

[...] As it turns out, the building was home to the Theo Finkenauer Lager Brewery a hundred years ago. It also happens to be just a couple of blocks away from the abandoned and possibly endangered Gretz Brewery building on Germantown Avenue. [...]

20 years is perhaps overly pessimistic, but something happening within 5 is overly optimistic unless the building was in the hands of someone motivated, capable, with a healthy appetite for risk, access to financing, and comfortable with a longer horizon for a return on their investment, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  Seeing the building developed within 10 years is more realistic if current development trends continue.  The problem is that having the building sit vacant for even 5 years presents an unacceptable risk to the community.

The best case scenario here is that the demolition order prompts the owners to develop or sell the property to someone else who will develop it but I don’t have a lot of hope for that outcome.

The property was purchased fairly cheaply so the cost of demolition might not be enough of a factor for the owners to stop it.  There are plenty of uses for that site which are easier and cheaper to pull off than converting the brewery building into residences.

I’m not sure demolition is in anyone’s interest.  The City would have to incur enormous demolition costs.  And the owner would be slapped with a demolition lien for those costs and lose its investment.  Redevelopment would be the best solution.

 What the neighborhood clearly needs is more vacant, unattended lots with absentee owners.

Anyone who thinks it’s easy to get financing for a renovation like this hasn’t ever tried to get financing for a renovation like this.  

You don’t have to take my word for it:

[Developer Tony] Rufo says he wants to turn it into a condominium or a residence, but, he said, “banks aren’t lending money for that kind of stuff right now.” He and his men have repaired the roof to stop water infiltration, but until he can secure funding, “it’s a gem sitting there waiting to be worked on.” 

http://hiddencityphila.org/2012/06/whats-up-with-the-gretz-brewery/

it’ll be developed within the decade.

til then try to relax

ok, ‘guest’. I guess I can hold you to that? keep carrying your anonymous flag for this noble cause. 

It is noble… Gorgeous building in an up and coming area. Forgive me that I’m not leading a mob to bring it down just before it makes economic sense to redevelop it

Buildings like the are what separates phily from the phoenixs of the world

Ahhh ha ha ha. Yes. Old abandoned buildings are truly the only thing that distinguish us from Phoenix. Because other than that, the cities are identical in nearly every way. Sometimes I walk around my neighborhood and wonder, “Am I in Phoenix, Arizona right now?” and then I see a building that has been abandoned and unattended to for fifty years and I remember, “Nope. I’m in Kensington.” Whew, what a relief! 

Thanks for keeping everyone updated on this. I wrote about Tony Rufo, the developer who owns the companies who own this warehouse back in May – he owed the city almost $300,000 in back taxes on 22 properties. Looks like the city is also going after his warehouse at 1201 Jackson St, which you wrote about earlier this year. http://tinypic.com/r/mmr9l1/6

Oh, weird. Partial demolition scheduled.

http://hiddencityphila.org/2013/05/partial-demolition-approved-at-gretz-brewery/

Who’s nearsighted now?

L&I is requiring it, and the owner doesn’t have the wherewithal to save it. Doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be saved if it were in the hands of a responsible developer.

It could be saved. I just think the cost and risk outweigh the potential reward and as you said before, it’s not easy to get financing for a renovation like this. In the meantime, it’s falling apart to the point that L&I has to step in and some nameless people are claiming it’s not “structurally unsound” because their art history professor taught them to appreciate post-industrial decay.

There is a lot of exciting development going on all around it and plenty of opportunity for more. It’s too bad that this building was too far gone to renovate but it’s better to see it go than watch it fall apart and become the kind of eyesore/liability that holds the neighborhood back.

a partial demolition being scheduled does not vindicate you. it could just mean whoever approves demolitions is also similarly nearsighted.
historic buildings are not replicated so it is a noble cause to try to save them tho some cant be saved. The church on 3rd & Reed is especially disappointing. Any conscientious and versatile architect/contractor could have easily saved at least the facade.

Also, with this only being a partial demolition perhaps they are going to try to save this facade and demolish the interior