Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Real Estate Law Blog

On Wednesday, a former contracts manager at the Philadelphia Housing Authority was sentenced to 50 months in prison for taking $25,000 in kickbacks. The woman reportedly handled small construction contracts worth less than $25,000.

At a recent meeting of the National Association of Realtors in Philadelphia, representatives from the housing industry expressed concern over what they called “over-tightening” of credit in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The result, they said, has been that too many creditworthy borrowers have become unable to qualify for mortgages. Another result has been that builders have become unable to finance even modest residential-construction efforts.

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, construction activity in the Philadelphia region increased in March, with nonresidential construction increasing by 96 percent from last March. In terms of dollars, $197.7 million in contracts were reported last year, compared to $387.1 this year. Residential building reportedly increased by 57 percent to $281.2 million, compared to last March’s $179 million. Substantial increases were seen in construction projects involving commercial, manufacturing, educational and religious properties, going from $163.9 million to $323.1 million.

A Census Bureau report released on Tuesday revealed that the national rate of homeownership has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, at 65.4 percent. An increase of renting accompanies the decrease, to the point where the apartment-vacancy rate was 8.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

Last week, ground was reportedly broken for a hotel at the new City Center. The completed project will be a 246-unit, all suites extended-stay hotel. The hotel, among other things, will include an indoor pool, a Wii room for video games, and 9,750 square feet of retail space at street level. In total, the project will cost around $60 million.

Our Philadelphia readers may have heard of modular home construction, otherwise known sectional prefabricated homes. These homes are constructed from multiple modules or sections built in a remote facility and delivered to the building site. Individual modules can be as much as 90 percent complete when they are shipped from factor to building sites, including walls flooring, ceilings, stairs and finishes.

A Chester County Muslim congregation seeking to build a retirement community for aging members of its community recently received a blow to its efforts when a Chester County Court judge ruled against it in an ongoing zoning dispute with the East Fallowfield Township Board of Supervisors.

On Monday night, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official began construction on the George C. Platt Memorial Bridge on Route 291. The $43 million rehabilitation project will reportedly restrict the bridge to one lane in each direction for the next two years, with pedestrian access remaining on the bridge during that time.

According to the Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry trade group, Philadelphia lost more construction jobs than any other metro area in the nation during 2011. The number of jobs reportedly decreased 4,800 between December 2010 and December 2011, making for a 7 percent loss. The data was taken from federal employment information, and was not seasonally adjusted.

A small number of investment groups are taking advantage of the high demand but low competition in the area of charter school development. One such group, a joint venture of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors LLC and former tennis champion Andre Agassi, has taken on projects in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, and is currently considering similar projects in other cities, including New York and Houston.