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    City Council advances $13 million Germantown Town Hall redevelopment plan

    By Rasheed Z. Ajamu

    | News

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    The front of the Germantown Town Hall. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)

    After nearly three decades of vacancy, Germantown Town Hall is one step closer to redevelopment. On May 7, the City Council approved the transfer bill of the building to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID).

    The move helps advance West Powelton Development Corporation developer Anthony Fullard’s $13 million plan to transform the building.

    Plans include space for the YouthBuild Philly charter school, offices, labs, and community gathering areas, with completion expected in fall 2028. 

    Eighth District City Councilmember Cindy Bass said the project was “long overdue” and noted that although the building had been vacant long before her tenure, it is now “on track.”

    Since 1998, when the city closed the Municipal Services building, Germantown Town Hall has sat largely empty, though it has seen occasional public use and repeated redevelopment efforts.

    Bass also framed the project as part of a broader push for Black economic empowerment, saying residents cannot be “economic bystanders” in their own communities. She called the project an example of breaking that cycle.

    “You can’t say Black Lives Matter and not include that Black livelihood matters, as well,” Bass said.

    The project faced pushback from Suzanne Ponsen of West Central Germantown Neighbors, who asked City Council for an amendment adding an automatic, enforceable reversion clause. 

    Ponsen said the clause would ensure the building is developed within a reasonable time or that the deed reverts to the city.

    “For far too long, city-owned properties in the Eighth District have sat undeveloped, sometimes in the hands of a chosen developer for years without being completed. They have become eyesores and, in one case, the scene of a horrific crime,” Ponsen said.

    Fullard also addressed the project and community concerns.

    “We are now ready to proceed with this development,” he said. “We are in support of the community, whatever their concerns are. We go before the community. We update them on a regular basis, but we support their pushback, their concerns.”

    Rasheed Z. Ajamu is a Germantown-born and raised Black journalist, reporting from a place-based lens to see how things affect life in Germantown. They strive to preserve the stories of Black natives in an ever-changing Philadelphia and Germantown social landscape.