Press

Conversion Experience

by Gene Austin
Inquirer Real Estate Writer

View the original press clipping

The gray stone buildings of the former St. Agatha’s parochial school and church in Powelton Village fascinated Caroline Millett from the time she moved to Powelton about three years ago.  “There they sat, all those gorgeous buildings, simply empty,” said Millett.  “They were clearly the most attractive buildings in Powelton.  And I had all these theories that a person should have a place to live at moderate cost.” 

Millett, after rehabilitating some small buildings in Powelton Village, bought St. Agatha’s about two years ago from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  The church-school complex, which occupies more than two acres between 38th and 39th Streets on the North Side of Spring Garden Street, has been renamed The Cloisters and is beginning a new life as Powelton Village’s first major condominium complex. 

A total of 116 condos with prices starting $65,900 are planned in the former school, rectory, church and church annex.  Work on the school (51 condos and an exercise room for residents) is complete, and the rectory (11 units) is virtually finished.  And annex to the church, with three units, is about half finished.  The conversion of the church into 51 additional condos is expected to take another year. 

The conversion will retain much of the flavor of St. Agatha’s, since it will preserve the facades and exterior structures of the church as well as the school and rectory.  Many interior touches, such as marble paneling, massive wood staircases and ornate cornices, also have been preserved in the school and rectory.  Much of the church interior was destroyed in a fire about 5 years ago. 

The conversion of the church will be especially unusual.  Philadelphia architect Frank Weiss, who designed the church segment of the project, said a new eight-level building would be constructed inside the existing stone shell.  The church’s bell tower and much of the ornate altar area will be preserved along with the shell. 

Three levels of the new inner church building will extend of the church’s roof line but blend with the structure Gothic architecture and retain a churchlike exterior.  Weiss said the inner building would “hardly touch anything there now,” creating an open area to serve as patios and walkways between the walls of the old and new buildings. 

Weiss called St. Agatha’s “a landmark of the Philadelphia’s Irish Catholic community.” 

The condos’ grounds have been extensively relandscaped, according to project director Robin Pierce of Pierce & Associates, Philadelphia.  Pierce said that the most desirable old trees had been saved but that many sizable new trees and shrubs had been added. 

Agreements of sale have been made for more than a dozen condos since a sales office in the school building was opened in early May, according to David Zebrick, president of Zebrick & Associates, a Narberth marketing firm that is handling sales at the complex.  Zebrick said the remaining condos were expected to find a ready market among investors, professionals and students from universities, hospitals and science facilities in the University City area near Powelton Village. 

The project is another step in what some real estate observers see as a comeback for the Powelton Village neighborhood in West Philadelphia.  “This whole area is being revitalized,” said Zebrick, pointing out the proximity of the University City Science Center, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. 

“I look for location, location, location, and I’m convinced the Powelton Village area will go up in value,” said Robert Tannenbaum of New York, an investor who formerly lived in Huntingdon Valley.  Tannenbaum has a one-bedroom condo under agreement at the Cloisters and said he was negotiating for the possible purchase of two more units.  “The condos should be easily rentable.  I inspected the project and think it has a lot of merit.”

Condos in the school and rectory (renamed the Mansion) start at $65,900 for a studio-style unit with about 510 square feet of living space, Zebrick said.  One-bedroom units range from $69,900 to $95,900 and two-bedroom units start at $133,900.  Many of the condos have bi-level layouts. 

Zebrick said many of the units were expected to be sold to investors who would offer them for rental.  About 20 units in the school building already have been rented and are occupied and will be offered for sale to investors complete with tenants, he said.  Deposits on several units have also been made by parents of university students who will occupy the units, Zebrick said. 

The church building dates to the 1870’s, with additions and renovations made through the years and other buildings added to the complex.  St. Agatha’s parish included about 2,500 families at its high point in 1940 but had dwindled to fewer than 100 families by the mid 1970’s.  In 1976, the church and the rectory were closed and the parish merged with St. James parish and church at 38th and Chestnut Streets.  The school remained open for several more years. 

Millett, who is also vice president of the Powelton Village Civic Association, grew up in the Midwest and became a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service.  She said she had dabbled in real estate while living in Washington D.C. and had decided Philadelphia and Powelton Village was “the place for me to be” to make real estate development a full-time business.  In addition to St. Agatha’s, Millett said, she has rehabbed about 10 small buildings in Powelton Village, converting them to apartment buildings of two to four units each. 

Millett said that all her previous projects had been done as historic renovations, following federal guidelines to obtain tax breaks, but that changes in historic-rehab laws as part of the 1986 Tax Reform Act had caused her to abandon that approach for St. Agatha’s.  “The new law is so stupidly conceived that we would lose money” by remodeling St. Agatha’s as a historic renovation, she said.  “We couldn’t possibly have put apartments” in parts of the school building because the federal regulations would bar alterations to large open spaces in the building. 

Millett obtained financial backing from K.S. Wu of Washington, a general partner in the St. Agatha’s project, and Bell Savings Bank of Upper Darby. 

Her decision to convert St. Agatha’s to condos instead of rental apartments was made after a careful study of the market, said Millett.  “There are lots of rentals but just nothing much to buy in Powelton Village,” she said.  “It’s obvious it’s a good condo market.” 

Millett credited another Powelton conversion, The Courts, at Powelton Avenue and 35th Street, with having pioneered that village’s resurgence as a desirable residential area.  The Courts, a 182 unit rental complex, was rebuilt from nine connecting homes in 1984-85 by developers Robert Basile of Douglassville and Michael Winitsky of Jenkintown.  Basile said The Courts was “doing very well; there’s an ongoing demand for rental units.”  He said he believed that the “stable forces” around Powelton Village, such as the universities, hospitals, and science center created “excellent long term prospects in terms of real estate values.” 

Recently, the village also acquired the first units of a 22-home townhouse development, Carriage Lane, said to be the first sizable new housing development in Powelton Village for decades.  Carriage Lane is at 32nd and Hamilton Streets.  The townhouses, developed by Tron Construction Co. of Philadelphia have prices starting at about $170,000.