Text Size
  • A
  • A
  • A
Share

Q&A: Potential St. Laurentius Developer Comments on Theories Regarding His Plan for Historic Chrurch


St. Laurentius has been closed for more than two years now, but, at the moment, it still stands. What will eventually be made of the historic church and how long a vision for its future will take to come to fruition remains in question. But in recent months the church’s fate has come into clearer focus.

In February 2016, Leo Voloshin, the owner of the Kensington-based textile design company Printfresh Studio, entered a preliminary agreement to purchase St. Laurentius Church from the Holy Name of Jesus Parish. This agreement is supported by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (AOP). Voloshin plans on turning the interior of the church into apartments while keeping the exterior “entirely intact.”ft_st_laurentius_040616_3

In order for Voloshin’s plans to come to fruition, specific zoning protocols must first be met. The developer has already reached out to members of the community to help gain their support for a zoning variance, which would be required in order to switch the church’s current designation from single family use to multiple family use.

In an April article, Spirit News spoke with Matt Karp, Executive Vice Chair of the Fishtown Neighborhood Association’s Zoning Committee. Karp outlined some obstacles that would be necessary for Voloshin to overcome, in order bring the developer’s plan for adaptive resuse of the Historic Fishtown Church as apartments into a reality.

“There will be density concerns and, of course, community concerns for how the building is preserved,” Karp said. “Likely the density of units for any multi-family proposal will be the most scrutinized aspect by the community.”

While zoning decisions ultimately fall on the Zoning Board of Adjustments, community opinion stills play a role in whether or not the church obtains a variance and ultimately whether it continues to stand.

Since the public announcement of Voloshin’s interest and subsequent pursuit of the property, his plans have been questioned by some in the community, even as specifics regarding his proposal are yet to be confirmed.

With the absence of community trust in The Archdiocese and its plans for future of the church, people have placed the burden on one another to inject unsubstantiated conspiracy theories into the public debate. One theory casts Voloshin as a pawn of the AOP and holds that if the property is sold to him he will claim financial hardship to the Philadelphia Historical Commission (PHC). Last July, PHC designated the exterior of St. Laurentius as historic, protecting the structure from demolition. But even with the designation, if the Parish, AOP or developer claims financial hardship on a historic site, meaning that they don’t have enough money for necessary repairs, than demolition could still occur. This theory concludes if the developer were granted such a financial hardship, he would decide to demolish as much of the block as possible in order to build “a hotel.”

In the public interest of clearing up misunderstandings and unknowns surrounding the proposed adaptive reuse plan put forth by Voloshin, Spirit News has decided to give him a chance to respond to claims from those in the community with this Q& A formatted article:

VOLOSHIN: The reason why I am [buying St. Laurentius] is because I don’t want the building knocked down. Churches like St Laurentius are an integral part of the history of neighborhoods like Fishtown. While it’s unfortunate that the AOP couldn’t continue to use it as a church, it doesn’t mean it should be torn down due to some structural issues. There were several groups who looked at the church initially and my experience locally, as well as my partners’ experience regionally, helped us be the folks who get a shot to preserve the building.

SPIRIT NEWS: Right.

VOLOSHIN: I feel like the fact that the AOP is giving it to us for a dollar supports that. If there was a reasonable and fundable reuse of the building that other people could have come up with, I would imagine, it would not have gotten to our group.

SPIRIT NEWS: We wanted to tell you about one of the theories that some in the community have mentioned regarding your plan. This theory casts you as someone working with the AO. It holds that if the property is sold to you that you will claim financial hardship to the Philadelphia Historical Commission. From there, you or another developer might come in and demolish as much of the block as they can to build “a hotel.”

VOLOSHIN: (Jokingly) That is a great idea… but all joking aside, that’s definitely not what I want to do. Our plan has always been to make [the structure] into a mutli-family residential space. Initially we had looked at it having a commercial use but the church’s architecture really only lends itself to a either a single-occupant use or multi-unit commercial/residential. Based on our analysis the only development approach that could cover the necessary and costly structural repairs was an apartment conversion. There is no part of me that is interested in knocking the church down…. I’m actually okay with giving you the current status of where we are, if you are interested.

SPIRIT NEWS: Yes, that would be great.

VOLOSHIN: Our plan is basically still intact, but the hold up has been that… we have been waiting on the lot subdivision division. Because we can’t go to the zoning meeting until we have a zoning refusal, which comes after applying for a zoning change. And we could not apply for a zoning change without subdividing the property. So we had to wait for the AOP to hire the surveyor to survey the land. We are agreeing on the property lines and we are agreeing on the property lines to separate the church from the school. So that we have two separate plots and we just got that documentation this week. So hopefully next week (as of May 27th), we are going to get the plans registered with the city surveyor. Then after that is finished we are going to submit to zoning. Then once the zoning is submitted and then we get the refusal we are going to to have a full community meeting.

SPIRIT NEWS: What do you mean by ”the refusal?”

VOLOSHIN: We can’t go downtown (to the ZBA) and over the counter get this building rezoned to multi-family residential. So the whole process for getting that to happen is: You apply for the zoning and the city says, “no you can’t have it.” You have to have a community meeting. That’s just the typical process when you go through a significant… a high impact change of use.

SPIRIT NEWS: Right

VOLOSHIN: So we need the (zoning refusal) to schedule the meeting with the community zoning board of the Fishtown Neighbors Association, and then ultimately the Zoning Board of Adjustments. We are hoping to submit that documentation next week. I guess, at this point, it’s going to be at some point in July when we’ll have the full meeting to present our plan on the apartment conversion.

SPIRIT NEWS: Any idea where that will be held?

VOLOSHIN: It sounds like it was going to be at Holy Name (of Jesus Parish), which is ironic but appropriate. We had a preliminary meeting with the Fishtown zoning board. They said that was the only place that was big enough to hold the 300 people that they are expecting.

SPIRIT NEWS: That’s gonna be huge. How are you kind of getting ready and preparing for that? What are you expecting?

VOLOSHIN: I think the thing that really is the main point is we’re trying to be part of the solution, we’re not part of the problem. We believe we have found an approach that preserves the building. We’re also going to attempt to preserve as much of the existing interior architecture as possible and not removing any of the arches or any of that stuff. But we’re looking at it in the sense that the only reasonable use of the building is an apartment conversion. I wish someone came forward and said they would be an owner-occupant and they had gotten their stuff together, because that would’ve preserved it entirely. But nobody did that. As far as the meeting is concerned, I know there will be a lot of passionate people there and I hope they will support us in working to keep this beautiful building a part of the Fishtown skyline.

Spirit News will continue to update the ongoing situation regarding St. Laurentius with more feature reports in the coming weeks and months.

The Spirit | Hyperlocal done differently
Advertise Now

Related News