Historic Spring Garden church could be sold to highest bidder

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The historic Church of the Assumption has sat near the intersection of Spring Garden and 12th streets for the past 176 years but has been vacant for decades.

The Roman Catholic church was designed and built in 1849 by architect Patrick Charles Keely, and the property served as a place of worship until 1995.

Previous efforts to redevelop the property have failed, but there’s now a chance for a new owner to invest in the site. The property is slated to be auctioned off to the highest bidder in a foreclosure sale after the owner defaulted on the mortgage.

The auction was set for April 4 through the Philadelphia Sheriff Office’s online vendor, Bid4Assets, but has since been postponed until May 6.

The most recent owner of the property is MJ Central Investment LP, controlled by John Wei, a Chinatown real estate developer.

In 2012, Wei purchased the property. He then sought to demolish it, until neighbors fought back. In 2018, Wei obtained a permit to turn the church into a hotel, but that project never happened, either.

Now Wei owes JP Vision Financial, a Newtown-based company, more than $3.9 million on the building and several nearby properties — including a former convent and school.

In December 2023, Wei filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, about a month after a Civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act judgement of $5 million was handed down against him.

Wei owes $1.5 million in back taxes to the federal, state and local government.

It was not immediately clear why the auction was postponed. Neither Wei nor his attorneys responded to a request for comment for this story.

The new owner will have to contend with an outstanding Department of Licenses and Inspections violation that deemed the property unsafe and will require repairs but there’s some protections in place.

In 2009, the church was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places for its ecclesiastical design, complete with copper spires, and because two Catholic saints — John Neumann and Katharine Drexel — were baptized there. It’s the oldest remaining building designed by the architect Keely.

“It was the first church with that type of design and it kind of opened the door to many more churches that were built with that same design,” said Andrew Palewski, a local resident who helped nominate the church for historic designation.

There are several other unprotected buildings on the property that have been turned into apartments over the years — such as the former convent and school.

“There are many many options for adaptively reusing that property that could involve preservation of the church in a profitable way,” Palewski said.

But it would take some investment. There hasn’t been regular maintenance of the building in at least 30 years, if not longer.

“There are slate shingles missing on the roof, and from time to time windows are open and people are going in and out of there,” Palewski said. “The more time that goes by without anything being done in terms of maintenance, I think the risk is greater and greater that it will be demolished.”

Palewski is skeptical that the building will be sold at auction and that the mortgage company won’t work out a deal with the property owner instead. Back taxes owed on the buildings are roughly several thousand dollars each, property records show.

As to whether the L&I violation may spur the city to demolish the building, he suggested that’s unlikely.

“Those violations have been outstanding for I think more than 15 years at this point,” he said.

A spokesperson from the department shared that the property has been declared unsafe by the city, but that the department “is not seeking demolition at this time” and that the current property owner is still responsible for repairs to this unsafe building.

“If the property is sold, the new owner is expected to obtain the required permits to repair the building,” the statement continued.

The historic designation does protect the building from major changes to its exterior, which would require approval from the Philadelphia Historical Commission. There is also a higher bar before any potential demolition, which has been threatened before. Any potential demolition requires historic commission approval as well, said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.

“There’s not a 100% guarantee against demolition. It just means that there is a process in place before a demolition permit would be granted,” Steinke said.

And those permits on historic properties are rare, he said.

There’s also a section in the city’s zoning code that makes redevelopment of historic properties not zoned for residential into residential uses easier, which would include buildings like churches.

There were zoning reforms to encourage redevelopment of historic properties, like when the city eliminated parking requirements for residential properties that are redeveloped historic buildings.

West Girard Progress is the registered community organization that would deal with any potential zoning meetings if the church needs a permit. A representative for the neighborhood organization did not respond to a request for comment.

But a different community group nearby, the Callowhill Neighborhood Association, has been active about historic preservation and fought against the church’s proposed demolition about a decade ago.

“There’s a pretty strong desire to preserve as much of the bigger historic buildings as possible,” said Vincent DiMaria, zoning co-chair of the association. “But we are also pretty welcoming to new development.”

But some neighbors are concerned that property owners of historic buildings purposely allow the site to deteriorate until it’s structurally unstable.

“They make the argument that it’s not viable to redevelop the property,” he said, meaning the developer could apply for financial hardship and demolish it.

If there is a new owner of the historic church, that would be a new opportunity.

“We would be very excited if a serious developer, you know, has true vision and, you know, the will and ability and financing to make something happen here,” he said.