Arts & Crafts has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to reinvent the area into an “arts district,” known as Spring Arts, and owns a string of residential and mixed-use properties in the area –– including a property directly adjacent to the crumbling station. Kelly Edwards, a spokesperson for Arts & Crafts, said the petition came after Reading and the city failed to address deteriorating conditions at the station house despite years of complaints.
“We’re directly affected by this blighted property that no one seems to be able to hold Reading accountable for,” she said. “We’ve tried for years with various city offices to get this cleaned up.”
Reading International was not immediately available for comment.
Joel Palmer, CEO of Scioli Turco, said his group would work with their parent company, a nonprofit called the Caring People Alliance, to “relocate” encampment residents.
“Our overarching aim is to address blight and conditions of blight,” Palmer said. “But we recognize there’s a human element here.”
The petition also describes plans to initiate a $450,000 “remediation” of the station property. If a conservatorship is established, these costs would be added as a lien to the property and recouped from Reading or deducted from proceeds of any property sale. Scioli Turco successfully won a similar conservatorship battle at a nearby property, taking control of the shuttered Willow Street Steam Generation Plant.
Edwards said Arts & Crafts was only interested in stabilizing the station, not in taking permanent ownership of the former rail property.