Expert Says Plan To Sell Off Philly School Buildings Won't Fetch Much Cash
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Although Philadelphia City Council president Darrell Clarke says he prefers selling shuttered school buildings to raise the $50 million promised to the school district (see related story), one real estate expert counters that it may not be so easy.
University of Pennsylvania design professor Harris Steinberg led a team of graduate students who looked at how cities disposed of surplus buildings.
Council president Clarke says selling just eight of 32 empty schools could yield $100 million. But Steinberg says market realities paint a different picture.
Steinberg guesses the most valuable properties, near Penn and Drexel, would bring maybe $10 million.
"Most of the other schools -- I would say 75 percent -- are either in weak markets or have no markets. So getting to $50 million, I believe, will be extremely difficult," he tells KYW Newsradio.
Steinberg says the city needs a disposition plan that allows schools to be repurposed in a way that gives back to their communities -- while acknowledging that some buildings may be hard to sell.
