District sets $6.5 million sale price for old West Philly High building

by Benjamin Herold
for the Notebook and WHYY/NewsWorks 

Got $6.5 million and a fondness for Gothic architecture?

If so, the School District of Philadelphia wants to talk with you.

According to District documents, $6.5 million is the sale price for the 100-year-old, 250,000-square-foot building at 47th and Walnut Streets that used to house West Philadelphia High.

As Patrick Kerkstra of Notebooknews partner PlanPhilly wrote last month, rumors have been swirling about potential reuses for the historic building. 

For those who find the price tag on West too steep – or who are in the market for a real fixer upper – the District has relative bargains to be found elsewhere in the city.

They’ve set the sale price of the empty Ada Lewis Middle School in Germantown at $2.5 million. The old Childs Elementary building in South Philadelphia has a sale price of $1.25 million. And the old Willard Elementary and Clemente Middle school buildings in Kensington have sale prices of $250,000 apiece.

The sale prices are part of an addendum to the District’s Request for Qualifications for prospective buyers for the 12 surplus properties it is hoping to dispose of as part of its facilities master plan .

Responses are due February 21.

According to the addendum, brokers have been assigned to each building. The “Evaluation Committees” to be tasked with vetting prequalified proposals on each building are still being formed.

The complete list of sale prices:

• $6,500,000: West Philadelphia High School, 4700 Walnut

• $2,500,000: Ada Lewis Middle School, 6199 Ardleigh Street

• $1,350,000: Gillespie Middle School, 1801 W. Pike Street

• $1,250,000: Childs Elementary School, 1541 S. 17th Street

• $1,200,000: Education Services Building, 427 Monroe Avenue

• $750,000: Alcorn School Annex, 1325-1349 S. 33rd Street

• $450,000: Walton Elementary, 2601-2631 N. 28th Street

• $360,000: Muhr Elementary School, 3150 Germantown Avenue

• $350,000: Jones Annex (Maisland Building): 3250 Willard Street

• $300,000: Beeber Wynnefield School Annex, 1818 N. 53rd Street

• $250,000: Clemente Middle School, 3921-3961 N. 5th Street

• $250,000: Willard Elementary, 2900 Emerald Street

This story is a product of a reporting partnership on the District’s facilities master plan between PlanPhilly and the Notebook. The project is funded by a grant from the William Penn Foundation. Follow our coverage of the facilities master plan and discuss school-specific issues in our forum.