Nearly two years after the demolition of the old Mt. Pleasant Garage on Lincoln Drive left an unsightly mess behind a chain link fence along the busy thoroughfare, local developer Ken Weinstein has moved to take control of the property using Act 135. 

“This is the most blighted site in Mt. Airy,” said Weinstein, who owns the adjacent Mt. Airy Taproom at 300 W. M. Pleasant Ave. and therefore has legal standing to file the claim. “If we can improve this property, we can go a long way toward making things better for the neighborhood.”

Act 135, also known as the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act, allows state courts to transfer control of blighted properties when they negatively impact surrounding communities. A hearing on the matter has not yet been scheduled. 

Weinstein said he filed a conservatorship petition on July 29 in Philadelphia County Court, just after a building permit issued in January 2020 for a five-story structure with 30 residential units and a fresh food market on that site expired. 

Weinstein said he would seek to redevelop the site in consultation with nearby neighbors if he gets control of the property.

“We started this process about 10 years ago, and came up with a development proposal that the nearby neighbors really liked, but unfortunately we were not able to convince the owner to sell, so we couldn’t move ahead.”

That plan, which included a 15-unit, four story building with parking on the ground floor, would have kept the original stone walls. 

“Not only would it have provided off street parking for each unit, it would have kept the historical character of the existing structure,” he said. “The immediate neighbors I’ve met with recently would still be in favor of that – although now of course those walls are gone.”

The property has sat empty since September 2022, when the old stone building - built in 1925 on a 1.8 acre site – was demolished without proper permits, prompting an October stop-work order from city officials.

Developer David Mednick’s zoning and building permits, which he got in 2022, gave him permission to build a four-story addition on top of a one-story structure.

Mednick’s attorney Michael Phillips argued that because the building did not have an intact roof, it didn’t actually qualify as a building – so they should not have needed a demolition permit. 

City attorney, Leonard Reuter said the development team failed to alert the city that trusses for a previously removed roof remained intact. As a result, Reuter said, the four walls actually counted as a building. And since the developer didn’t tell the city that it planned to remove the trusses in his zoning permit application, his building permit was invalid.

If appointed conservator, Weinstein said he plans to invest $180,400 in repairs and stabilization, work that would include bracing the remaining walls and installing a temporary fence. 

According to the court filing, the property is currently assessed at $216,400. It was last sold in 2013 for $110,000.

Representatives for 7078 Partners LP, the company listed as the current property owner could not be reached for comment.

Weinstein is also seeking to take control of another Northwest Philadelphia landmark, the Germantown YWCA, via Act 135. A third hearing on that matter is scheduled for Sept. 12.