Legal News

Philadelphia Family Court Developer Still Wants to Build Courthouse

By Brian Harris

In the wake of the decision by the First Judicial District and the Philadelphia Parking Authority to terminate their agreements with the owner of the developer rights to the family court site at 15th and Arch streets, developer Donald W. Pulver and his corporate entity, Northwest 15th Street Associates, still want to build a courthouse that would unify the domestic relations and juvenile branches in one building.

According to a letter released Wednesday by the Philadelphia Parking Authority in response to a Right-to-Know request, Pulver's counsel, Robert L. Ebby of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, wrote Friday that Pulver rejects the parking authority's contention that it can terminate its development agreement.

"Northwest remains ready, willing, and able to break ground by July 1, 2010," Ebby wrote.

Pulver also said in a statement released Wednesday that he would welcome an independent investigation into the project.

?I would welcome a truly independent investigation, which I am confident will determine that I acted in the best interest of the city and First Judicial District throughout the development process," Pulver said in the statement. "I believe that such an investigation will help reinforce the financial and logistical sensibility of allowing us to move forward as soon as possible.?

The family court project has been dealt a setback in the wake of The Philadelphia Inquirer's reporting that the attorney who was retained by the court system to search for building locations and as a tenant representative ended up on the other side of the project by striking a fee-sharing deal with Pulver. Pulver and the court's former tenant representative, Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, have said that court leaders were aware of Rotwitt's involvement in both sides of the deal, while Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, the liaison justice to the Philadelphia courts who has made building a new Philadelphia family court a top priority, said he did not know about the arrangement.

The Philadelphia Parking Authority has a contract with Pulver through which Pulver obtained development rights for the proposed courthouse site, which is owned by the parking authority, executive director Vincent J. Fenerty Jr. previously told The Legal.

The parking authority told Pulver in a letter last week that it believes Northwest 15th Street Associates is in default of its agreement because of its failure to come to a development agreement with the FJD and because "that no development agreement with the FJD is likely to be achieved, let alone during your 30-day cure period."

Fenerty said in the letter that the parking authority was terminating the development services agreement with Pulver. The FJD also terminated its development agreement with Pulver last week.

Pulver also appeared to question if the FJD could terminate the development agreement by described the court's action as a "purported notice of termination of the development agreement."

Under the project arrangement, the parking authority would get the rights to a subterranean parking garage as well as $3.5 million in a maintenance fund for the garage, while the state court system, through an agreement with Pulver, got the air rights above ground on which to build a courthouse, The Legal previously reported.

The court is reviewing the relationship between Rotwitt and Pulver, The Legal previously reported. Henry E. Hockeimer Jr., a partner at Ballard Spahr, has been asked to investigate the Pulver-Rotwitt relationship.

FJD Court Administrator Dave Lawrence said today that the family court issue is still under review by counsel. He wouldn't say whether the project will still see a ground-breaking July 1.

Rotwitt 's partnership was terminated by his former firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel last week. The firm's management committee said it did not know Rotwitt was involved as a developer of the proposed Philadelphia Family Court

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).