Philadelphia looks at selling excess buildings

A Philadelphia task force is reviewing all city properties with an eye toward possibly selling some.

Mayor Michael Nutter says Philadelphia owns many buildings, and the Task Force for City-Owned facilities is designed to determine if they are being used properly.

“The city of Philadelphia owns more that 2,000 properties,” said Nutter. “Quite honestly, both from operations as well as capital improvements to our facilities, a review is long overdue,” said Nutter.

Tom Knox, who was deputy to former Mayor Ed Rendell, will chair the task force and will be responsible for giving a report about how the city can save money.

“I know there are a lot of properties that are fallow right now, they are going to waste probably should be sold off,” Knox said. “There’s a lot of properties that are underutilized, maybe some departments should be put together, then the piece that we don’t need could be sold off or reutilized for something else.”

Nutter said the review could also include leasing a part of City Hall as a cafeteria.