Location of course is everything in real estate, and city officials hope an old building at a very prime location — the Ben Franklin Parkway — will bring proposals from commercial developers.

KYW’s Mike Dunn reports that the site is the old Family Court building, which opened in 1940 at 18th and Vine Streets, a stone’s throw from the Parkway.  The state plans to build a new Family Court elsewhere. And even though that effort is mired in controversy, the city is moving ahead to re-make the old Court.

Proposals from developers are due Friday to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation.  Executive vice president John Grady says the city is not mandating a specific use for the site, but they have ideas:

“Certainly we believe that a series of uses that combine maybe residential, hotel or other commercial uses, with appropriate public uses on the ground floor, including some type of art or cultural use, perhaps a restaurant — those kinds of activities that will activate the Parkway and be positive contributing members to the surrounding community are all things that would be considered.”

The PIDC has already warned potential developers that this project will take several years to come to fruition.

Plans for a new Family Court have been stalled by a controversy over the original developer chosen by the state. But city and state officials are still hopeful that a new developer can be chosen soon to take over the $200 million dollar project.